Humans have no built-in fear of speeds, unlike, for example, heights. That’s what traffic researcher Henriette Wallén Warner says in an interview with Car Whiz team.
Driving too fast is common – both on 30-mile stretches in city traffic and on major motorways. Surveys have shown that a large proportion of motorists do not follow the speed limits, and this also applies to professional traffic.
– When it comes to speed, there are two motives that are usually opposed to each other. One is to drive safely and obey the speed limits. The second motive is to get where you are going quickly. If you are in a hurry, you may drive a little faster than usual. But if the road conditions are bad, you hopefully drive a little slower than usual, says Henriette Wallén Warner, senior researcher in traffic psychology at VTI (State Road and Transport Research Institute).
Although it may not feel like it, the person who drives too fast runs a higher accident risk.
– Although traffic accidents are relatively uncommon, there is a strong connection between breaking the rules and accident involvement. Those who break various traffic rules thus run a greater risk of being involved in traffic accidents.
“Those who break various traffic rules therefore run a greater risk of being involved in traffic accidents,” says traffic researcher Henriette Wallén Warner. Photo: VTI & Samuele Errico Piccarini/Unsplash
Difficult to judge the speed
Another factor is that people generally do not experience how fast it really is, especially not on the motorway – not until we turn off and perhaps have a bit too much speed on the exit.
– It is probably purely evolutionary. We are not built or developed to travel as fast as we do today. We have no built-in fear of speeds, but you sit in the car and feel that you are taking it easy. People even fall asleep at the wheel – then you obviously experience no fear of speed. Compare that to heights: most people wouldn’t walk on a bridge without railings with a big drop below and suddenly fall asleep.
Henriette Wallén Warner says that if the speed is reduced, it is not only possible to put up a new sign, but to make other adjustments.
– You want the rules to be in line with what the vast majority do, and for it to feel natural to do so. If you introduce a rule that many break, it can have the opposite effect. It undermines confidence in the rules and laws that are set.
