Road Safety Culture and Attitude in the USA
We are delighted to let our readers know that Forbes has published an interview with Eddie Wren, our Executive Director at Road Safety USA, regarding the comparisons between both attitude and road safety culture in the USA and Europe, and the impact these issues have on crash and casualty figures here in the States.
Among the topics covered which may be of interest to readers are:
Driver Training & Education Issues
- Gross inadequacy of state drivers’ manuals
- A total absence of high-quality driver training materials and standards
Highway Engineering Issues
- Inadequate materials used for pavement markings
- Thoroughly inadequate safety facilities for pedestrians
Legislation and Victim Issues
- Inadequate punishments for such as drunk-drivers
- Disastrous delays in introducing laws such as bans on using hand-held devices
- Victims’ families repeatedly being ignored or dismissed by politicians when better laws to save lives are requested
- Corporate influence has far too much effect on U.S. safety legislation
- BAC — .08 or .05?
Attitude, and Road Safety Culture
- ‘My’ rights to do, as opposed to ‘our’ right to be safe
- Profits are held to be more important than human lives
- Road rage, or the lack thereof
Government Attitudes
- Failure to respond to or even publicly acknowledge that the USA is a very long way behind many other nations in keeping its people safe on the roads
Remedies
- The need to cherry-pick best practices from all top countries
- One size does not fit all
Read the full Forbes article, by Tanya Mohn.
Brilliant article, thank you for your insight to an epidemic that is grossly ignored in the United States.
Thank you for your kind comments, Pam.