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DriveDoctor

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DriveDoctor
Distracted driving NZ
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Good driving is not straightforward
 
Scientific evidence. With 30 years in scientific research and the psychology of human perception, motor control, and driving, we provide scientifically-proven techniques on the best way to drive more smoothly, more attentively, and more safely. Working with individuals, companies, and local councils (e.g., Hamilton and Waipa council) we focus on driver training for SAFETY - not for fun, adventure, bravado or coolness. However, skilled safe driving is more fun and more cool than risky driving!
 
Skill and control. Our research has involved examining and shaping the world's leading defensive and advanced driving courses. We offer you the best of this as attentive driving. We focus on the driver, your stability, and how stability provides a basis for better perception, hightened attention, and faster anticipation - the foundations of defensive and skilled driving ability. We also provide you an understanding of the huge challenge of driver inattention and distraction - and show what you need to do, now, before it is too late.
 
Attention training and mobile phones. We conducted the world's first study of the serious effects of mobile phones on the control of real driving (in real cars on a track, not a simulator). The issue of distraction and loss of attention ("inattentional blindness") has become an epidemic and is now a huge problem for society. Drivers need to understand what it means to be distracted - and how to improve attention and avoid accidents: drive to survive. Only through experiencing the phenomenon of distraction and inattentional blindness will drivers begin to limit mobile phone use while driving. Better policing is only part of the solution. Education leading to self-understanding is absolutely critical if this epidemic is to be curbed.

New article: Distracted driving in New Zealand

Attentive!Driving videos
 
 
 
Drink driving. Research now shows that speaking on a cellphone while driving impairs judgment and control as much as, if not more than, driving drunk. To see how alcohol affects your driving and how phones contribute, click here:
 
 

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Click for workshop details

DriveDoctor:
Attentive driving courses
 
- Advice to individuals, groups, and the driving industry on the psychological and physiological issues behind safer driving;
 
- Tuition on attentive, skilled driving, especially the fundamental role of driver stability as the foundation of safe driving and skilled control of a vehicle;
 
- Simple but effective techniques to highten awareness of the road environment while creating a more relaxed and attentive driving experience;
 
- How to actually experience, appreciate, and address the serious problem of distraction and inattention due to cell phones and how this is as dangerous as driving drunk;
 
Workshop: driving, attention & distraction:
download outline here
 
Beneficial training with immediate noticeable outcomes can be provided to:
 
1. Indivuduals, especially new and younger drivers, but also older more experienced drivers who wish to increase their chances of survival and their enjoyment of driving;
 
2. Groups or companies who require fleet staff to actually understand the hazards of talking on a mobile phone while driving and how to deal with potential distractions.
 
Tuition is provided as audio-visual presentation and in practical sessions. Practice is essential for developing the stability skills necessary for safe driving.
Classroom audio-visual presentations are ideal to demonstrate and actually experience the psychological effects of loss of attention (inattentional blindness) and how it occurs.
 
Press coverage of workshops: Waikato Times
 

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YouTube channel with talks and lectures
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Follow on Facebook - plus more photos.
 
 

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CLICK for photos

Photos
Click for selection of photos from recent defensive driving courses provided by the local council.

Video

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Click for VIDEO

Media Coverage
Our research brought the issue of inattention, mobile phones, and driving to the forefront of international efforts in road safety; it caught the public's imagination in 2001 and renewed world-wide interest in this potentially dangerous and deadly activity. Our research attracted extensive media coverage in newspapers, TV, radio, and internet - the world's first applied research to look at the effects of phones on actual driving - in cars, not simulators. This research now forms the basis of workshops on safety and attentive driving:
 

Our Research

Our driving research at Holden was party based on the insights

of Frank Gardner.

 

Read about our scientific research on driving at:

Holden Driving Centre

 

Publications:
Stability, Training, Attention, and Mobile Phones

 

Treffner, P. J., & Barrett, R. (2004). Hands-free mobile phone speech while driving degrades coordination and control. Transportation Research, Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 7, 229-246.
Research at Holden

Treffner, P. J., Barrett, R., & Petersen, A. J. (2002). Stability and skill in driving. Human Movement Science, 21, 749-784.

Treffner, P. J., Barrett, R. S., Petersen, A. J., & White, R. (2002). Active stabilisation and perceptual sensitivity in safe driving. In Developing Safer Drivers and Riders: Proceedings of Travelsafe-Australian College of Road Safety Conference (91-104), Mawson, ACT: ACRS;
Conference award “Best Peer-reviewed Paper”.

 
RESOURCES
 
WWW.DISTRACTION.GOV  - a wealth of information on the epidemic of distracted driving including free video of all sessions at their most recent conference, the Distracted Driving Summit, Sept, 2010.
 
Excellent and effective public safety videos:
Don't text while driving - world's most famous anti-texting advertisement; from the Wales police and professionally filmed and acted. A serious graphic advertisement that nobody should ignore.
Wear a seat belt - another excellent UK public safety advertisement.
 
Cellphones as bad/worse than drink driving:

 
Driver inattention is the leading cause of death on our roads (not speed):
 
 
 

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