Safe Speed Forums

I know, but it cannot be said often enough....... and so my friends have to listen to another rant...... again...... and again....

This is taking up so much of my thought process it's got to be getting unhealthy.

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

Road safety based on false assumptions is far more unhealthy. It's a matter of conscience for me these days.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Sorry, tongue was in cheek again. I cannot help myself....

The only thing that's unhealthy is the use of speed cameras......IMO

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

No, you're alright.



Exactly.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Hi

Just reading this topic. The relationship you indicate is very much what I feel. Plus it explains very well what one feels instinctively.

I first read about this in human factor courses for airline pilot students. However this kind of curve is everywhere where human factors are studied...
except in road safety, strangely... probably for the reasons you mention....

In my books, as I remember it, two factors were studied, both of which are linked and follow a similar curve: stress and workload.

Now you've talked about stress, but I've not seen any mention of "workload". Maybe this notion would make things clearer?

To sum up things:
- no stimulation, no workload at all => falling asleep
- low workload => boredom, tendency to do other things, poor concentration
- "average workload" => sentiment of well-being, good mental performance
- high workload => feeling of saturation, tiredness begins to develop quickly: this serves as a warning for the next phase:
- too high workload => task saturation, breakdown of performance, fast exhaustion.

As fas as your curve is concerned, I wouldn't mention "risk taking" & excitement since it is ambiguous. Over-excitement (clouding the judgement and leading to risk-taking) is something else, I believe. On the other hand, once task saturation has been reached, one is forced to act with precipitation and may make a dangerous action - or get to the point where one fails to act at all.

Hope all of this helps, the subject is complex so it's hard getting around it in one post. If you want more precise information about my readings, don't hesitate to ask, I'll see what I can do.
Regards.

I've used "work rate" and you have used "work load". Other than that, I believe we are in complete agreement. Thanks for your input. I'm quite sure this is important and I'm hawking around looking for a publication to make the observations into news.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Perhaps the whole idea warrants some research in a driving simulator. Have three groups of people, two groups are told to drive at whatever the limit is set at but have one group drive at a lower speed than the other group. A third group would be told to drive at a 'comfortable speed' without the presence of speed limit signs. Present them with the same set of accident scenarios as well as checking for signs of sleepiness. If the slower group are more sleepy and have more accidents then there is a serious matter for road safety. If the slower group are more sleepy but still avoid the accidents because they were going more slowly then you might unfortunately prove that slowing people down can be a good thing but you would also have to quantify the risk of them falling asleep at the wheel and killing themselves or causing a motorway pile up. If the 'comfortable speed' group show the most alertness and fewest accidents of the three groups then you have got the evidence for your safespeed hypothesis.

You could be onto something here. I would love to see this sort of test done and would be happy to accept the output as a true indication of the effects.

To be accurate (for Australia) the test would have to be run over a fairly long period, say 2-4 hours, as anything less would not be enough, IMO, to show the real effects. In the UK I have no idea of what would be considered a fair duration, but in AU it is fairly common to drive 2 or more hours. I am heading up to Shepparton ths weekend and will be driving for around 3 hours to get there. I usually spend a large amount of the time exceeding the limit because anything like the limit is sleep inducing.

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

While searching for something else, I found this paper:

http://www.enhanced-performance.com/nid ... neAndF.pdf

Which describes "flow states" and "getting into the zone". Fascinating.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Hahahahahahahahha

Fine Motor Skills aren't Advanced Driving Skills:

It's things like threading a needle!

Must remember not to do that when speeding!

Sewing Kills!

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http://www.itsyourduty.org.uk