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Novice drivers are overrepresented in traffic collisions, especially in their first year of solo driving. It is widely accepted that some driving behaviours (such as speeding and thrill-seeking) increase risk in this group. Increasingly research is suggesting that attitudes and behavioural intentions held in the pre-driver and learning stage are important in determining later driver behaviour in solo driving. In this study we examine changes in several self-reported attitudes and behavioural intentions across the learning stage in a sample of learner drivers in Great Britain. A sample of 204 learner drivers completed a self-report questionnaire near the beginning of their learning, and then again shortly after they passed their practical driving test. Results showed that self-reported intentions regarding speed choice, perceptions regarding skill level, and intentions regarding thrill-seeking (through driving) became less safe over this time period, while self-reported intentions regarding following distance and overtaking tendency became safer. The results are discussed with reference to models of driver behaviour that focus on task difficulty; it is suggested that the manner in which behind-the-wheel experience relates to the risk measures of interest may be the key determining factor in how these change over the course of learning to drive., (Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In the light of effects of legal judgements upon implementation of its policies for reducing public transport fares, the Greater London Council became concerned that the higher fares it was obliged to introduce in 1982 would lead to a substantial increase in road casualties. When casualty figures began to bear out this fear, the Council commissioned an independent study at University College London in which various monthly data for the period January 1978-April 1983 were analysed in order to investigate relationships between numbers of casualties to various classes of road user and the levels of public transport fares in London. The specific objective of doing so was to estimate the size and statistical significance of such recent changes in numbers of road casualties in London as may have been associated with the large changes in London Transport fares which took place in October 1981 and March 1982. Log-linear regression models were fitted to casualty data for different classes of road user, and were used to estimate numbers of casualties that would have been expected, according to the fitted models, in the year May 1982-April 1983 if a near-doubling of fares that took place in March 1982 had not occurred, but instead the relatively low fares resulting from a reduction of about one-third in October 1981 had continued. The results indicated that several thousands fewer casualties would have been expected than actually occurred, most of the difference being among pedal cyclists and users of cars or taxis. A further fares reduction took place in May 1983, and data for the subsequent year are being used in a further study, which is also investigating various ways of improving and extending the models.