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71-652: The Road Safety Foundation is a United Kingdom charity which carries out and procures research into safe road design and road safety . The Foundation is responsible for the European Road Assessment Program ( EuroRAP ) in the UK and Ireland. The Foundation was created in 1986 as the AA Foundation for Road Safety Research by the AA , while it was still a member-owned institution. The charity became

142-845: A certificate that proves the vehicle is safe and roadworthy . Also, it needs to have a minimum of third party insurance . Drivers may be required to take lessons with an approved driving instructor (or are strongly encouraged to do so) and must pass a driving test before being granted a license. Almost all countries allow all adults with good vision and health to apply to take a driving test and, if successful, to drive on public roads. In many countries, even after passing one's driving test, new drivers are initially subject to special restrictions under graduated driver licensing rules. For example, in Australia, novice drivers are required to carry "P" ("provisional") plates, while in New Zealand it

213-535: A locomobile , to the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire in the United States to generate publicity for their automobile. The 7.6-mile (12.2 km) journey took over two hours (not counting time to add more water); the descent was accomplished by putting the engine in low gear and much braking. Driving in traffic is more than just knowing how to operate the mechanisms which control

284-451: A Safe System approach is to ensure that in the event of a crash, the impact energies remain below the threshold likely to produce either death or serious injury. This threshold will vary from crash scenario to crash scenario, depending upon the level of protection offered to the road users involved. For example, the chances of survival for an unprotected pedestrian hit by a vehicle diminish rapidly at speeds greater than 30 km/h, whereas for

355-488: A distinct advantage by introducing exclusive shortcuts by path connections through blocks and parks. Such a principle of organization is referred to as "Filtered Permeability" implying a preferential treatment of active modes of transport. These new patterns, which are recommended for laying out neighbourhoods, are based on analyses of collision data of large regional districts and over extended periods. They show that four-way intersections combined with cut-through traffic are

426-606: A driver's mental skills. Safety concerns in driving include poor road conditions, low visibility, texting while driving , speeding , impaired driving , sleep-deprived driving , and reckless driving . Laws regarding driving, driver licensing , and vehicle registration vary between jurisdictions. Most countries have laws against driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. Some countries impose annual renewals or point systems for driver's licenses to maintain road safety. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.35 million people are killed each year in road traffic; it

497-528: A gap in oncoming traffic. Countermeasures for this type of collision include: In the absence of these facilities as a driver about to turn: There is no presumption of negligence which arises from the bare fact of a collision at an intersection, and circumstances may dictate that a left turn is safer than to turn right. The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recommends in their publication Geometric Design of Highways and Streets that left or right turns are to be provided

568-644: A partnership between AACR , Cosevi, MOPT and iRAP has proposed the construction of 190 km of pedestrian footpaths and 170 pedestrian crossings which could save over 9000 fatal or serious injuries over 20 years. By 1947 the Pedestrians' Association was suggesting that many of the safety features being introduced ( speed limits , traffic calming , road signs and road markings , traffic lights , Belisha beacons , pedestrian crossings , cycle lanes , etc.) were potentially self-defeating because "every nonrestrictive safety measure, however admirable in itself,

639-414: A properly restrained motor vehicle occupant the critical impact speed is 50 km/h (for side impact crashes) and 70 km/h (for head-on crashes). As sustainable solutions for classes of road safety have not been identified, particularly low-traffic rural and remote roads, a hierarchy of control should be applied, similar to classifications used to improve occupational safety and health. At the highest level

710-443: A prototype automated roadway , to reduce driver fatigue and increase the carrying capacity of the roadway. Roadside units participating in future wireless vehicle safety communications networks have been studied. Motorways are far more expensive and space-consumptive to build than ordinary roads, so are only used as principal arterial routes. In developed nations, motorways bear a significant portion of motorized travel; for example,

781-448: A tool for road safety. Though not strictly a traffic calming measure, mini-traffic circles implanted in normal intersections of neighbourhood streets have been shown to reduce collisions at intersections dramatically (see picture). Shared space schemes, which rely on human instincts and interactions, such as eye contact , for their effectiveness, and are characterised by the removal of traditional traffic signals and signs , and even by

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852-586: A traumatic brain injury). Some jurisdictions implement road space rationing , where vehicles are banned from driving on certain days depending on a variety of criteria, most commonly the letters and digits in their vehicle registration plate . A few countries banned women driving in the past. In Oman , women were not allowed to drive until 1970. In Saudi Arabia , women were not issued driving licenses until 2018. Saudi women had periodically staged driving protests against these restrictions and in September 2017,

923-788: A wide range of road safety related subjects including the causes of accidents in young pedestrians, risk and safety in the older driver and a review of tyres and road surfaces. Since 2003 the work of the Foundation has focused on EuroRAP in the UK and in 2008 the Campaign for Safe Road Design . The Foundation is the Active Member and licence holder for the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP) in Britain and Ireland. The Foundation regularly issues

994-405: Is a high rate of injury and death caused by motor vehicle accidents that involve teenage drivers. There is evidence that the less teenagers drive, the risk of injury drops. There is a lack of evidence as to whether educational interventions to promote active transport and share information about the risks, cost, and stresses involved with driving are effective at reducing or delaying car driving in

1065-411: Is called restricted (R). Many U.S. states now issue graduated drivers' licenses to novice minors. While graduated driver licensing rules vary between jurisdictions, typical restrictions include newly licensed minors not being permitted to drive or operate a motorized vehicle at night or with a passenger other than family members, zero blood alcohol, and limited power-to-weight ratio of the vehicle. It

1136-565: Is difficult to measure. However, crash reconstruction techniques can estimate vehicle speeds before a crash. Therefore, the change in speed is used as a surrogate for acceleration. This enabled the Swedish Road Administration to identify the KSI risk curves using actual crash-reconstruction data which led to the human tolerances for serious injury and death referenced above. Interventions are generally much easier to identify in

1207-418: Is important to note that drivers' traffic behaviors are significantly influenced by their perceptions and attitudes. Traffic safety has been studied as a science for more than 75 years. Road traffic crashes have become one of the world's largest public-health and injury-prevention problems. The issue is all the more acute because the victims are overwhelmingly healthy before their crashes. According to

1278-481: Is necessary to alert drivers to changes in road patterns. Most roads are cambered (crowned), that is, made so that they have rounded surfaces, to reduce standing water and ice, primarily to prevent frost damage but also increasing traction in poor weather. Some sections of road are now surfaced with porous bitumen to enhance drainage; this is particularly done on bends. These are just a few elements of highway engineering . As well as that, there are often grooves cut into

1349-423: Is possible for a driver to be suspended or disqualified (banned) from driving, either for a short time or permanently. This is usually in response to a serious traffic offence (for example, causing death due to drink driving), repeated minor traffic offences (for example, accruing too many demerit points for speeding), or for a specific medical condition which prevents driving, pending a future assessment (for example,

1420-475: Is sustainable prevention of serious injury and death crashes, with sustainable requiring all key result areas to be considered. At the second level is real-time risk reduction, which involves providing users at severe risk with a specific warning to enable them to take mitigating action. The third level is about reducing the crash risk which involves applying the road-design standards and guidelines (such as from AASHTO ), improving driver behavior and enforcement. It

1491-467: Is the lead partner in the campaign. Following the success of the campaign, having influenced the UK Department for Transport to support the increase of EuroRAP risk rate mapping to the wider road network in the UK, EuroRAP has organized a European Campaign for Safe Road Design along the lines of the UK campaign. The European campaign features 28 partners across Europe and aims to influence

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1562-625: Is the leading cause of death for people age 5 to 29. The origin of the term driver , as recorded from the 15th century, refers to the occupation of driving working animals , especially pack horses or draft horses . The verb to drive in origin means "to force to move, to impel by physical force". It is first recorded of electric railway drivers in 1889 and of a motor-car driver in 1896. Early alternatives were motorneer , motor-man , motor-driver or motorist . French favors " conducteur " (the English equivalent, " conductor ", being used—from

1633-512: Is treated by the drivers as an opportunity for more speeding, so that the net amount of danger is increased and the latter state is worse than the first." During the 1990s a new approach, known as ' shared space ' was developed which removed many of these features in some places has attracted the attention of authorities around the world. The approach was developed by Hans Monderman who believed that "if you treat drivers like idiots, they act as idiots" and proposed that trusting drivers to behave

1704-438: Is used in asphalt concrete, the binder can 'bleed' or flush' to the surface, leaving a very smooth surface that provides little traction when wet. Certain kinds of stone aggregate become very smooth or polished under the constant wearing action of vehicle tyres, again leading to poor wet-weather traction. Either of these problems can increase wet-weather crashes by increasing braking distances or contributing to loss of control. If

1775-507: The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals standardises road signs, traffic lights and road markings to improve safety. The rules of the road, driver licensing and vehicle registration schemes vary considerably between jurisdictions, as do laws imposing criminal responsibility for negligent driving , vehicle safety inspections and compulsory insurance . Most countries also have differing laws against driving while under

1846-534: The World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1 million people are killed on the world's roads each year. A report published by the WHO in 2004 estimated that some 1.2 million people were killed and 50 million injured in traffic collisions on the roads around the world each year and that traffic accidents were the leading cause of death among children 10–19 years of age. The report also noted that

1917-472: The influence of alcohol or other drugs . Aggressive driving and road rage have become problems for drivers in some areas. Some countries require annual renewal of the driver's license. This may require getting through another driving test or vision screening test to get recertified. Also, some countries use a points system for the driver's license. Both techniques (annual renewal with tests, points system) may or may not improve road safety compared to when

1988-458: The number of inhabitants (a measure of national health risk), the number of vehicle kilometres driven (a measure of the transport risk) as well as the number of cars in a country, etc. For a reliable comparison the real volumes should be used (rather than recorded numbers with different recording rates) On neighborhood roads where many vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists can be found, traffic calming can be

2059-497: The rules of the road . Driving over a long distance is referred to as a road trip . In many countries, knowledge of the rules of the road, both practical and theoretical, is assessed with a driving test(s), and those who pass are issued with a driving license . A driver must have physical skills to be able to control direction, acceleration, and deceleration. For motor vehicles, the detailed tasks include: Avoiding or successfully handling an emergency driving situation can involve

2130-537: The same time gap . Some states have recognized this in statute, and a presumption of negligence is only raised because of the turn if and only if the turn was prohibited by an erected sign. Turns across traffic have been shown to be problematic for older drivers. Pedestrians and cyclists are among the most vulnerable road users and in some countries constitute over half of all road deaths. Interventions aimed at improving safety of non-motorised users: American passive traffic safety measures which were adopted in

2201-662: The 'shared space' approach leads to significantly reduced traffic speeds, the virtual elimination of road casualties, and a reduction in congestion. Living streets share some similarities with shared spaces. The woonerven also sought to reduce traffic speeds in community and housing zones by the use of lower speed limits enforced by the use of special signage and road markings, the introduction of traffic calming measures, and by giving pedestrians priority over motorists. Roads outside built-up areas, also known as rural roads not including motorways, are roads which are not classified as urban road and which are not classified as motorway. In

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2272-422: The 1830s—not of the driver but of the person in charge of passengers and collecting fares), while German influenced areas adopted Fahrer (used of coach-drivers in the 18th century, but shortened about 1900 from the compound Kraftwagenfahrer ), and the verbs führen , lenken , steuern —all with a meaning "steer, guide, navigate"—translating to conduire . The world's first long-distance road trip by automobile

2343-453: The 4.7 rate on urban streets and 6.6 rate on rural roads. Roadways originally carried all sorts of traffic indiscriminately - beasts of burden as well as pedestrians. Road behavior and rules have developed to prioritize certain types of traffic. Important people traversing crowded streets and alleys in ancient Rome (famous for its Roman roads ) deployed minions to clear the way for their litters or (if allowed) carts and chariots. Even

2414-674: The EC to use Safe Road Infrastructure Initiatives to cut casualties by 50,000 a year for the next decade, which is the equivalent of €50 billion over the decade or 0.5% of GDP. The Road Safety Foundation is the campaign's partner in the UK. Road safety Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians , cyclists , motorists , vehicle passengers, and passengers of on-road public transport (mainly buses and trams ). Best practices in modern road safety strategy: The basic strategy of

2485-778: The European Union, this is the kind of road with the most people killed (54.3%) in 2015, more than inside urban areas (36.8%). However, such numbers might change country by country. Fatalities on the rural roads come from the many collisions due to the dangers that exist on such roads, and the important energy involved in those collisions due to the practiced speeds. In contrast, risks of collision are less numerous on motorways, and speeds are lower on rural roads. Major highways including motorways , freeways , Autobahnen , autostrade and interstates are designed for safer high-speed operation and generally have lower levels of injury per vehicle km than other roads; for example, in 2013,

2556-598: The Foundation, Lord Dubs, previously a Labour Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Northern Ireland Office , is an active member of the House of Lords . In January 2008 Lord Dubs spoke of his interest in Road Safety and the Foundation in a debate on road safety. The Foundation has a legacy of research going back to its inception in the mid-1980s. Research covers

2627-530: The German autobahn fatality rate of 1.9 deaths per billion-travel-kilometers compared favorably with the 4.7 rate on urban streets and 6.6 rate on rural roads. Safety features include: The ends of some guard in rails on high-speed highways in the United States are protected with impact attenuators, designed to gradually absorb the kinetic energy of a vehicle and slow it more gently before it can strike

2698-690: The Ireland network no longer featured any roads in the highest risk banding (Black: High Risk). In the Republic of Ireland, the N53 was identified as a priority for action to improve road safety, while in Northern Ireland the A2 was prioritised. The 2008 Ireland report also published the results of the first Star Rating Assessment of Ireland's roads which showed a clear split in terms of safety design between

2769-672: The Road Safety Foundation following the sale of the AA by Centrica to CVC and Permira . Today the Foundation's aims are: The Foundation is governed by a Council of Management led by Lord Alf Dubs and includes representation from the Freight Transport Association , FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society, and International Road Assessment Programme ( IRAP ). In addition to his role in

2840-508: The United Kingdom's 3533 km of motorways represented less than 1.5% of the United Kingdom's roadways in 2003, but carry 23% of road traffic. Driving The term "driver" originated in the 15th century, referring to the occupation of driving working animals such as pack or draft horses . It later applied to electric railway drivers in 1889 and motor-car drivers in 1896. The world's first long-distance road trip by automobile

2911-567: The behavior of drivers while giving automobiles maximum convenience. Recent complete street policies seek to create design-oriented traffic safety improvements which actively slow drivers down by narrowing roadways while better accommodating pedestrians and cyclists. Pedestrians' advocates question the equitability of schemes if they impose extra time and effort on the pedestrian to remain safe from vehicles, for example overbridges with long slopes or steps up and down, underpasses with steps and addition possible risk of crime and at-grade crossings off

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2982-486: The desired crossing line. Make Roads Safe was criticised in 2007 for proposing such features. Successful pedestrian schemes tend to avoid over-bridges and underpasses and instead use at-grade crossings (such as pedestrian crossings) close to the intended route. Successful cycling schemes by contrast avoid frequent stops even if some additional distance is involved, because cyclists expend more energy when starting off. In Costa Rica 57% of road deaths are pedestrians. However,

3053-487: The driver (such as driver error, illness, or fatigue), the vehicle (brake, steering, or throttle failures), or the road itself (lack of sight distance, poor roadside clear- zones, etc.). Interventions may seek to reduce or compensate for these factors, or to reduce the severity of crashes. A comprehensive outline of interventions areas can be seen in management systems for road safety . Study conducted in Finland revealed that

3124-521: The driver is not continuously or annually evaluated. Car ownership does not require a driver's license at all. As such, even with a withdrawn driver's license , former drivers are still legally allowed to possess a car and thus have access to it. In the USA, between 1993 and 1997 13.8% of all drivers involved in fatal crashes had no driver's license. In some countries (such as the UK), the car itself needs have

3195-422: The driver's eyes. Turning across traffic (i.e., turning left in right-hand drive countries, turning right in left-hand drive countries) poses several risks. The more serious risk is a collision with oncoming traffic. Since this is nearly a head-on collision, injuries are common. It is the most common cause of fatalities in a built-up area. Another major risk is involvement in a rear-end collision while waiting for

3266-477: The edge of the hard shoulder from the main carriageway. The objective of the marking is to achieve improved visual delineation of the carriageway edge in wet conditions at night. It also provides an audible/vibratory warning to vehicle drivers, should they stray from the carriageway, and run onto the marking. Better motorways are banked on curves to reduce the need for tire-traction and increase stability for vehicles with high centers of gravity. The US has developed

3337-479: The edges of the legal roadway, so that drowsing drivers are awakened by a loud hum as they release the steering and drift off the edge of the road. Tone bands are also referred to as " rumble strips ", owing to the sound they create. An alternative method is the use of "Raised Rib" markings, which consists of a continuous line marking with ribs across the line at regular intervals. They were first specially authorised for use on motorways as an edge line marking to separate

3408-410: The end of the guard rail head on, which would be devastating at high speed. Several mechanisms are used to dissipate kinetic energy. Fitch Barriers , a system of sand-filled barrels, uses momentum transfer from the vehicle to the sand. Many other systems are tear or deform steel members to absorb energy and gradually stop the vehicle. In some countries major roads have "tone bands" impressed or cut into

3479-433: The fatality risk is increased most when a collision type is either pedestrian or meeting of the vehicles. In addition to management systems, which apply predominantly to networks in built-up areas, another class of interventions relates to the design of roadway networks for new districts. Such interventions explore the configurations of a network that will inherently reduce the probability of collisions. Interventions for

3550-540: The following skills: Distractions can compromise a driver's mental skills, as can any altered state of consciousness . One study on the subject of mobile phones and driving safety concluded that, after controlling for driving difficulty and time on task, drivers talking on a phone exhibited greater impairment than drivers who were suffering from alcohol intoxication. In the US "During daylight hours, approximately 481,000 drivers are using cell phones while driving according to

3621-502: The historic non-designed single carriageway roads with poor safety provision, and the newer motorways and dual carriageways which achieved a very high safety rating. The Campaign for Safe Road Design is a partnership between 13 major road safety stakeholders in the United Kingdom that is calling for the UK Government to invest in a safe road infrastructure which could cut deaths on British roads by 33%. The Road Safety Foundation

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3692-503: The human tolerances for avoiding serious injury and death is a key goal of modern road-design, because impact speed affects the severity of injury both to vehicle occupants and to pedestrians. For occupants, Joksch (1993) found the probability of death for drivers in multi-vehicle collisions increased as the fourth power of impact speed (often referred to by the mathematical term δv ("delta V"), meaning change in velocity). Injuries are caused by sudden, severe acceleration (or deceleration); this

3763-474: The list of safest and most dangerous roads in Britain and Ireland. In 2008 the Foundation released its latest results for Britain, naming the A537 Macclesfield to Buxton road as the most dangerous road in Britain. The results also featured in an edition of television programme Police Camera Action! . In May 2008 the Foundation released the latest Risk Rating results for Ireland, reporting that

3834-403: The mid-20th century created roadways which were forgiving to motorists traveling at high speeds but which de-prioritized cycling and pedestrian facilities. Passive traffic safety policies led to excessively wide streets, clear zones adjacent to roadways, wide turn radii and a focus on protecting drivers from the consequences of high speeds. Passive traffic safety measures sought to avoid influencing

3905-413: The mighty preferred not to trample the bystanders. In the 19th century the advent of powered vehicles inspired British road-safety law to impose speed limits and to require a person on foot carrying a red flag warning of the arrival of a frightening noisy mechanical contrivance. Subsequently, motoring lobby-groups pressed for the priority of motorized traffic, and safety laws drove playing children off

3976-455: The modern road-safety paradigm, which focusses on the human tolerances for serious injury and death. For example, the elimination of head-on KSI crashes simply required the installation of an appropriate median crash-barrier . Also, roundabouts, often with speed-reducing approaches, feature very few KSI crashes. The old road-safety paradigm of purely crash risk is a far more complex matter. Contributing factors to highway crashes may be related to

4047-523: The most significant contributors to increased collisions. Modern safety barriers are designed to absorb impact energy and minimize the risk to the occupants of cars and bystanders. For example, most side rails are now anchored to the ground, so that they cannot skewer a passenger compartment. Most light poles are designed to break at the base rather than violently stop a car that hits them. Some road fixtures such as signs and fire hydrants are designed to collapse on impact. authorities have removed trees in

4118-426: The pavement is insufficiently sloped or poorly drained, standing water on the surface can also lead to wet-weather crashes due to hydroplaning . Lane markers in some countries and states are marked with cat's eyes , Botts' dots or reflective raised pavement markers that do not fade like paint. Botts dots are not used where it is icy in the winter, because frost and snowplows can break the glue that holds them to

4189-742: The prevention of road traffic injuries are often evaluated; the Cochrane Library has published a wide variety of reviews of interventions for the prevention of road-traffic injuries. For the purposes of road-traffic safety it can be helpful to classify roads into three usages: Most injuries occur on urban streets but most fatalities on rural roads, while motorways are the safest in relation to distance traveled. For example, in 2013, German autobahns carried 31% of motorized road traffic (in travel-kilometres) while accounting for 13% of Germany's traffic deaths. The autobahn fatality-rate of 1.9 deaths per billion-travel-kilometres compared favorably with

4260-463: The problem was most severe in developing countries and that simple prevention-measures could halve the number of deaths. The standard measures used in assessing road safety interventions are fatalities and killed-or-seriously-injured (KSI) rates, usually expressed per billion (10 ) passenger kilometres. Countries using older road-safety paradigms replace KSI rates with crash rates – for example, crashes per million vehicle-miles. Vehicle speed within

4331-595: The publication on the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. Another survey indicated that music could adversely affect a driver's concentration." Seizure disorders and Alzheimer's disease are among the leading medical causes of mental impairment among drivers in the United States and Europe. Whether or not physicians should be allowed, or even required, to report such conditions to state authorities, remains highly controversial. Safety issues in driving include: There

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4402-524: The removal of the distinction between carriageway (roadway) and footway (sidewalk), are also becoming increasingly popular. Both approaches can be shown to be effective. For planned neighbourhoods, studies recommend new network configurations, such as the Fused Grid or 3-Way Offset. These layout models organize a neighbourhood area as a zone of no cut-through traffic by means of loops or dead-end streets. They also ensure that pedestrians and bicycles have

4473-529: The road, although they can be embedded in short, shallow trenches carved in the roadway, as is done in the mountainous regions of California. Road hazards and intersections in some areas are now usually marked several times, roughly five, twenty, and sixty seconds in advance so that drivers are less likely to attempt violent manoeuvres. Most road signs and pavement marking materials are retro-reflective , incorporating small glass spheres or prisms to more efficiently reflect light from vehicle headlights back to

4544-482: The streets and ghettoized the likes of walkers, bicycles, wheel-chairs and scooters to the margins. Concepts like shared space , living streets and woonerven developed to counter this paradigm. According to the WHO/IRTAD: Traffic accident data are often compared between countries and between regions. These comparisons are done in numbers of casualties, but also in relation to

4615-500: The surface of cement highways to channel water away, and rumble strips at the edges of highways to rouse inattentive drivers with the loud noise they make when driven over. In some cases, there are raised markers between lanes to reinforce the lane boundaries; these are often reflective. In pedestrian areas, speed bumps are often placed to slow cars, preventing them from going too fast near pedestrians. Poor road surfaces can lead to safety problems. If too much asphalt or bituminous binder

4686-517: The teenage years. Driveability of a vehicle means the smooth delivery of power, as demanded by the driver. Typical causes of driveability degradation are rough idling , misfiring , surging , hesitation , or insufficient power. Drivers are subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which they are driving. Some jurisdictions submit to some or all of the requirements of the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic of 1949. Additionally,

4757-422: The vehicle; it requires knowing how to apply the rules of the road (which ensure safe and efficient sharing with other users). An effective driver also has an intuitive understanding of the basics of vehicle handling and can drive responsibly. Although direct operation of a bicycle and a mounted animal are commonly referred to as riding , such operators are legally considered drivers and are required to obey

4828-424: The vicinity of roads; while the idea of "dangerous trees" has attracted a certain amount of skepticism, unforgiving objects such as trees can cause severe damage and injury to errant road users. Safety barriers can provide some combination of physical protection and visual protection depending on their environment. Physical protection is important for protecting sensitive building and pedestrian areas. Visual protection

4899-687: Was in 1888, when Bertha Benz drove a Benz Patent-Motorwagen from Mannheim to Pforzheim , Germany. Driving requires both physical and mental skills, as well as an understanding of the rules of the road. In many countries, drivers must pass practical and theoretical driving tests to obtain a driving license. Physical skills required for driving include proper hand placement, gear shifting, pedal operation, steering , braking , and operation of ancillary devices. Mental skills involve hazard awareness, decision-making, evasive maneuvering, and understanding vehicle dynamics . Distractions , altered states of consciousness , and certain medical conditions can impair

4970-712: Was in August 1888, when Bertha Benz , wife of Benz Patent-Motorwagen inventor Karl Benz , drove 66 mi (106 km) from Mannheim to Pforzheim , Germany , and returned, in the third experimental Benz motor car, which had a maximum speed of 10 mph (16 km/h), with her two teenage sons Richard and Eugen but without the consent and knowledge of her husband. She had said she wanted to visit her mother, but also intended to generate publicity for her husband's invention, which had only been taken on short test drives before. In 1899, F. O. Stanley and his wife Flora drove their Stanley Steamer automobile, sometimes called

5041-450: Was more successful than forcing them to behave. Professor John Adams , an expert on risk compensation , suggested that traditional traffic engineering measures assumed that motorists were "selfish, stupid, obedient automatons who had to be protected from their own stupidity" and non-motorists were treated as "vulnerable, stupid, obedient automatons who had to be protected from cars – and their own stupidity". Reported results indicate that

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