The psychological approach to the problem of road accidents / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
[1935?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychological approach to the problem of road accidents / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    relation to the human factor in their percipients. For example, it would be easy for him to overcome the dangers of defective colour-vision among road users by instituting differences in shape of the red and green traffic signals, and it appears to him worth while to investigate the problem whether the present system of unwarned changes from one colour signal to another is not deserving of improvement. In regard to the lights of roads and cars, the psychologist is not content with the desirability of merely increasing their intensity : his familiarity with the physiology of vision compels him also to take into expert consideration the dangers of contrast, shadows, glare and the like, and indi¬ vidual differences in speed of adaptation to sudden gross changes in illumination. The various traffic regulations—in respect of direction, speed and signals—are each, doubtless, individually justifiable, when based on scientific experimental evidence. The psychologist would, however, also investigate the combined, total effect of these various regulations on the driver. Is there no danger of their becoming so numerous as to impose excessive strain on his attention by increasing his distraction, and thus to enhance his liability to accident ? May they not also so seriously affect his peace of mind that, when he escapes from their zone into less crowded thorough¬ fares, he tends immediately, in his irritation, to reckless driving and again to enhanced liability to accident ? The psychologist fully recognises the value of incentives and deterrents—rewards and punish¬ ments—in promoting good behaviour, but experi¬ ment and experience have taught him much con¬ cerning the value of their various forms ; and it is becoming increasingly recognised that his help should be invoked to determine whether or not an offender deserves to be wholly or partly excused from punishment or to receive other forms of treatment. This help is rendered by the psycho¬ logist not merely by inquiries into the conscious and unconscious mental and bodily make-up of the offender ; he must also investigate the remote, as well as the direct, causes of the accident—the effects of predisposing previous strain, fatigue,