Does Everybody Know Why Speed Kills?
It is not clear that the effects of higher driving speeds have been fully studied or thought out, and it may be that novice drivers have an imperfect grasp of why, and how drastically, speed affects their risks. As novices gain some confidence in basic vehicle handling, they can drive well over the average speed of traffic (which they can observe is often well over the posted limit) for quite some time without any apparent problem. They may even be reinforced in this behavior by thinking that it is their skill or luck that lets them do what they have been told is so dangerous with such apparent ease and impunity. This is one of many areas where we need to establish beliefs, motives, and habits that are counter to the apparent reality and natural reenforcers in the novice driver’s world. These are tall orders for DE, requiring strong and clear understanding of the psychology, physics, and road engineering implications of different speed choices and “speeding.” The physics of speed and s
