Youth, Speed & Media

Road safety, youth education and cultural research experts are gathering today to discuss what cultural influences affect the way young people drive.

NRMA Motoring & Services (NRMA) and the University of Western Sydneys (UWS) Centre for Cultural Research forum, Youth, Speed and Media is being held as part of their three year Transforming Drivers research partnership.

NRMA Acting CEO, Mr Peter Steele, said the forum would look at the role of advertising and media in shaping the behaviours of young people.

With 17-20 year old drivers three times more likely to be involved in a serious crash than drivers over 21, we need to gain a better understanding of why young people drive the way they do, Mr Steele said.

Last year, 2186 17-20 year old drivers were killed or injured on NSW roads alone.

Focus groups with drivers aged between 20 and 21 have already revealed some young drivers ignoring the risk of wearing seatbelts and speeding and seeing the risk as a bit of fun, Mr Steele said.

This is particularly disturbing when not wearing a seatbelt accounts for around 25 per cent of road fatalities involving young drivers aged between 17 20 years.

This forum presents the first type of research that actually looks at cultural influences on young driver behaviour.

Understanding how media influences young people will assist us in developing appropriate road safety messages in the future, Mr Steele said.

The University's Transforming Drivers Principal Researcher, Dr Sarah Redshaw, said the Centre for Cultural Research is excited to lead this new research-driven approach to road safety.

Young drivers often don't have the chance to think and talk about road safety advertisements or car ads, and some of the main themes emerging from the preliminary focus group discussions have been the influence of advertising imagery. Young people are very media-savvy, Dr Redshaw said.

They are also avid consumers of other media which celebrate speed and skill, such as computer games and films. Movies such as The Fast and the Furious and Gone in 60 Seconds were very popular amongst young drivers.

These young drivers appear to be judging media images according to their own social reality, and for many, cars are an important part of their lives.

Self-regulation in car advertising has seen many of the traditional images disappear, such as speeding down an open road, only to be replaced with more subtle imagery such as blurred backgrounds or shots of speedometers. The cultural themes of speed, freedom and independence are also used extensively in advertisements. It's implied that owning the advertised car will bring freedom and a successful life.

Our initial analysis has found that there needs to be a more sophisticated understanding of culture and cultural meaning in advertising, in order to promote safer drivers.

Many young drivers have also told us that they tend to drive cars according to the way they look. If the car has a lot of modifications and a great paint job, driving at the speed limit just isn't cool.

Dr Redshaw said that Mr Glen Fuller - a self-confessed former hoon and one of the University's PhD students will also address the forum on his unique perspective of the car cultures, and why some young people are so attracted to risky driving practices.

Mr Steele said that the Transforming Drivers project would contribute to the knowledge about a key risk group in road safety that has proven difficult to influence worldwide.

The partnership with UWS will aid the NRMA in designing new programs that mean something to young people and can influence their behaviour.