ADUK Archive

A friend elsewhere picked this up:

Anyone else think the DfT have missed a trick? Being on the wrong side of the road is never going to help your chances of avoiding an accident. Not sure what it's got to do with braking before a corner

I also saw this recently and thought it was rather good and makes a refreshing change.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding but isn't the point they are trying to encourage slower entry speeds into blind corners rather than what the car does which drifts wide?

... Ability to stop within the distance you can see? Being on the 'wrong' side of the road on a poor visibility bend is a prescription for tragedy surely?

I think this has to be the best campaign I've ever seen from Think!

Most of the previous ones were often suggesting rather useless ideas and things, but this is trying to educate people to drive to the limit of what you can see.

A large majority of drivers will have encountered the situation where they misjudged the entry speed into a corner, and drifted wide from their path when the corner tightens up, only to end up exiting the corner in the middle of the road.

This is merely suggesting that people should slow down before the corner so you don't end up having to brake and swerve whilst in the middle of the corner because you've encountered an unseen tractor.

I can see the aim, but I think you could do it better (meeting a bigger tractor that's over 1 lane wide - or having the oncomer making a mistake). The majority of drivers won't admit they could get it wrong (and the car seemed to be wide well before the corner).

martine wrote:I also saw this recently and thought it was rather good and makes a refreshing change.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding but isn't the point they are trying to encourage slower entry speeds into blind corners rather than what the car does which drifts wide?

+1

jont wrote:I can see the aim, but I think you could do it better (meeting a bigger tractor that's over 1 lane wide - or having the oncomer making a mistake). The majority of drivers won't admit they could get it wrong (and the car seemed to be wide well before the corner).

My plus 1. I think (ha ha) it would be more persuasive if there was an obstruction on the left of the road, and the car was unable to stop for it - and the message was 'slow before blind bends so you can stop on your own side of the road in the distance you can see'.

Well now, accepting that this is a forum where a fair amount of good quality thinking goes on, I feel the producers of this campaign have slipped up a bit if the message is open to misinterpretation; and it seems to be.

To offer good value in terms of helping drivers as a whole, the message needs to be simple and clear. Maybe this one could have been done better.

martine wrote:I also saw this recently and thought it was rather good and makes a refreshing change.

Seen 'Perfect Day'?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding but isn't the point they are trying to encourage slower entry speeds into blind corners

That message could be got across effectively and quickly, perhaps by a range of "let's see what you could have won" options, such as a tractor with one of those spikey bale-carrying contraptions.

Horse wrote:

martine wrote:I also saw this recently and thought it was rather good and makes a refreshing change.

Seen 'Perfect Day'?

Yep - another good one. There are also some great public road safety vids from Ireland, New Zealand and Auz...like this one...

Seen the TfL optical illusions series?

[Posting from a tablet, which makes adding links etc a pain]

I think they are all effective... they are encouraging the driver / rider to remember that you have to drive with awareness of others / and by making allowances - if they make you think then they might just work somewhere...

Alasdair

martine wrote:

Horse wrote:

martine wrote:I also saw this recently and thought it was rather good and makes a refreshing change.

Seen 'Perfect Day'?

Yep - another good one. There are also some great public road safety vids from Ireland, New Zealand and Auz...like this one...

I absolutely love the Australia and New Zealand adverts.

I think they're brilliantly constructed to deliver the most powerful message in just 30 seconds.

Makes the British adverts seem about as useful as a sausage in advancing road safety.

I'm with JonT. Driving head-on into a tractor on the other side of the road is plainly just your own fault, and I imagine most people watching the clip will think the same - "idiot!".