Individual conditions

Rules regarding alcohol in traffic

• If a person is being deemed as unreliable when it comes to drinking alcohol, that persons driving licence can be revoked. For instance if that person has been taken into care in accordance with the Care of Intoxicated Persons Act or if he or she has a background of for instance abusing narcotics or alcohol.
• When someone has a concentration of at least 1.0 per mille of alcohol in the blood then that is considered as aggravated drunk driving.
• If someone has a concentration of less than 1.0 per mille alcohol in the blood, that person can still be deemed of aggravated drunk driving. This could be due to that person having caused an accident or showing a high risk of causing an accident.
• For aggravated drunk driving (1.0 per mille or more) you can be imprisoned for up to two years. However, for 'normal' drunk driving (0.2 - 1.0 per mille) you can also be imprisoned, for up to 6 months.

General facts regarding alcohol

• Breathalyzers are devices that make it possible for you to measure the amount of alcohol in your blood. However, many of these are not accurate and thus not reliable.
• There is no way to accelarate the burning up (metabolism) of alcohol in your blood, the decisive factor in this process is time.
• Gender, body weight, state of health are all important factors when it comes to how intoxicated someone becomes after drinking alcohol.
• If it would be clear that you have willingly lend your car to someone you knew had been drinking alcohol, then you could also be punished.
• Your performance can still be impacted badly the next day after drinking a lot of alcohol, even if the concentration of alcohol in your bloodstream is gone entirely, therefore it’s better to not drive the day after drinking a lot of alcohol.
• 100 cl of light beer (3%) compared to only 50 cl of strong beer (6.5%) contains about the same (so not exactly the same) amount of alcohol.
• A can of medium beer (3.5%) is equal to about 4.5 cl of spirit (40%).
• A can of beer with 7% alcohol is equal to about 6.5 cl of spirit (40%).

Alcohol statistics

• The risk of a fatal accident of a driver who has an alcohol level of 0.2 - 0.4 per mille, as compared to a sober driver, is about 12 times higher.
• Every year about 70 people die due  to traffic accidents that are related to alcohol.
• In about 50% of all one-car accidents (or: single-vehicle accidents) it turns out that the driver had been drinking alcohol.

Vision and hearing

• About 80% among 60 year-olds have some kind of visual impairment. This means 8 of 10 60 year-olds.
• Only approximately 1-2% of what we see (image 1) consists of what is directly in front of us(indicated with green), the rest is made up of our peripheral vision (indicated by the blue arrows).

Image 1: What we actually see vs our peripheral vision

• Tunnel vision (image 2) is the phenomena that occurs when driving at higher speeds resulting in your vision becoming narrower so you focus less on that which is not on the road directly in front of you. The result is that your gaze is much more focused on that which is right in front of you (for instance the area indicated by the green circle in this picture) then on that which is going on around you. This occurs even if you aren't tired.

Image 2: Tunnel vision

• There are no regulations or requirements regarding eye examinations when you already have a B driving licence. It’s only recommend to let eyes be checked regularly. However, there is a requirement for an eye examination when you want to get your driving licence.
• There are no regulations or requirements when it comes to how good or bad your hearing capabilities, only for your visionthere is a requirement for an eye examination when you want to get your driving licence.

Reaction and focus

• Reaction formation describes when a person that normally shows reserved and calm behaviour, but in certain situations or certain contexts can show higher risk taking behaviour.
• When it comes to reaction time when driving, the age group that has the best results are those who are experienced drivers aged between the ages 45 - 54.
• Having a conversation on the phone while driving, or with a passenger in the car, generally speaking demands the same amount of attention from the driver. But the advantage of talking to a passenger could be that that person probably also is aware of the traffic and might stop talking in certain traffic situations that demand more attention from the driver.
• The eyes of inexperienced drivers will mainly be focused on things that are standing still and not on things that are moving. While the eyes of experienced drivers will mainly be focused on things that are moving, like other cars or cyclists.
• When talking on a phone while driving, whether it’s handsfree or not, is especially dangerous because you have to focus a big part of your attention to the conversation. That's why even talking to passengers while driving is not recommended.
• Your performance in driving is best if you’re slightly stressed, compared to being either relaxed or very stressed.
• Children's senses (compared to those of adults), and thus their skills for judging distances, have not been developed entirely. Therefore adults are better in, for instance, judging distances.
• A young driver does not necessarily have a broader field of observation than an older driver because age is not the only factor that is important when it comes to ones field of observation, experience is equally if not more important.
• An optical illusion occurs when your brain can not interpret the information it’s getting from the visual senses (the eyes) correctly, this can happen when it receives insufficient information.
• Speed blindness (also known as 'velocitization') happens for example when you drove fast for a while and then drive slow, resulting in you judging the current speed lower than it actually is. This occurs more likely on roads that are straight and wide.
• Perception means that you’re aware of your surroundings. However, there can be many things happening around you at the same time, so your brain then selects that which is relevant and which is not, this then is called 'selective perception'.
• It’s hard to say what the exact reaction time while driving in traffic is. But generally speaking someones reaction time is around 0.5 - 1 second, when that person is at least a bit focused.
• Generally speaking we perceive falling from a tall building as much more dangerous and having a bigger impact on us than being hit by a car that is driving for example 100 km/h. This means that we humans are not so good in judging what the possible impact would be of a car hitting us at high speed.
• The human brain gets so much information from various senses that it has to select that which is relevant, and ignore that which is irrelevant. Therefore, it filters out that which is not relevant.
• We get approximetaly 90% of all the information we need through our eyes. Thus we can without a doubt say that vision is the most important sense of all senses (smelling, hearing, etc.) we have.

Tiredness

• Microsleep means that you close your eyes shortly. This happens mostly when you’re tired and without you being aware of it. This can be very dangerous if it happens while driving.
• A perons does not neccessarily have to be more tired in the evening as compared to in the morning. If you woke up early and would have been awake all day then you can be very tired while driving late at night. If you however woke up very late and even took a nap during the day, then you might not be tired at all.
• An accident caused by tiredness is equally punishable as an accident caused by drunk driving.
• Driving on straight and long roads is generally a lot more boring than roads with many curves and stops, this boringness increases the risk of becoming tired.
• Coffee does have the ability to reduce your tiredness because it slightly increases your attentiveness. However, this effect may take some time to occur after drinking the coffee and this effect only stays for a short period of time. The best cure for tiredness is always proper sleeping.
• Tiredness and alcohol are the most common causes of one-vehicle accidents, especially late at night.
• Most accidents related to tiredness take place in the morning between 02:00 and 05:00.
• You can prevent tiredness while driving by taking a break once in a while and getting out of the car. Also avoid eating heavy meals or having a high temprature inside the car, to prevent tiredness.

Learning

• Learning by imitation simply means that you learn by 'copying' (= imitating) someone elses behaviour or way of doing something.
• Overlearning means that performing a task becomes automatic for you, and therefore does not require you to think about it. For example: after a certain time driving (steering, shifting gears, gassing, braking, etc.) will become automatic to you.
• Deep learning means that you understand the logic and reasoning behind that which you are learning. This enhances the chance that the learned material will stay with you for a longer time.
• Superficial learning happens most likely when your main purpose is to pass a test quickly, and not focusing on trying to understand the logic and reasoning behind that which you are learning.
• Probability learning means that  you can draw conclusions about what is happening, or make estimations about what is likely to happen, due to previous experiences. This can be positive if it makes you extra aware, but negative if it makes you less aware.

Personality and mentality in traffic

• Having a lack of self-knowledge can lead to overestimating your own skills. In traffic this can lead to dangerous situations.
• Group pressure (also known as peer pressure) means that you let your behaviour and actions being influenced by the group you’re in. This can be good if the group emphasises on you driving safer, but it can be bad if they challenge you to drive more dangerously.
• When it comes to taking decisions, a mature driver does not let other people take decisions for him or her. That person is independent from other people and can take his or her own decisions.
• Having a sense of pride generally is bad in traffic. If a person has a lot of pride (or a high sense of prestige) then that person might do dangerous things when he or she feels that his or her pride might be inflicted in certain situations.
• Both respect for rules and being mature are important characteristics in traffic. A mature driver does not let other people take decisions for him or her. That person is independent from other people and can take his or her own decisions. If that person also has great respect for rules, then we can say that that person has the most preferred combination of characteristics when it comes to driving attitude.
• Having a role model when it comes to driving does not neccessarily mean good or bad. If the role model for instance takes a lot of risks or neglects rules regularly then it’s safe to say that that person is a bad role model.
• Rationalizing in traffic means that instead of admitting your own mistakes and pointing out what you did wrong, you on the contrary make up excuses for why something went wrong or you simply blame other road users. This is bad because it eliminates posibilities for learning from your mistakes.
• Defensive driving is a set of skills that increases your awareness and prepardness for situations that can lead to accidents, so you have a much higher chance of preventing them. These are some examples of defensive driving: avoiding stress, planning your trip, being patient, not taking unnessary risks, driving cautiously, braking in good time, being aware of your surroundings, analysing what is going on and thinking ahead, being aware that unexpected things could happen, keeping enough distance to other cars, etc.

Other individual conditions

• An older driver who notices that his or her driving skills have deteriorated should best avoid certain roads and avoid driving at certain timings (for instance when it’s dark or when there is a lot of traffic).
• You’re not allowed to drive a vehicle when you’re not able to drive it in a safe manner. Not only drunk driving, being tired or being sick falls under this category, but also other reasons: for instance if you can't use your hand properly due to an operation, resulting in that you’re not able to drive safely.
• A disabily means that if in a certain situation there is something required from us, but we are not capable of doing that.
• The average walking speed of a pedestrian is about5 km/h, however, be aware that this refers to people who have no functional disability.
• Children can generally take care of themselves in traffic situations from the around the age of 9 to 12 years. And with traffic situations we mean that there is traffic near to there where the children are, for instance when they are playing on a street right next to a road.
• The seat belt gives the best protection when it’s placed over your chest and as near to your neck as possible (image 3).

Image 3: Best position for seat belt

• Men have more risk for causing an accident than women and in general younger drivers are more likely to cause accidents than older drivers.
• You’re not allowed to drive a vehicle if you cannot drive if safely. Whether this is due to alcohol, fatique, being sick, narcotics or being tired doesn't matter.
• The basic rule is that you’re not allowed to drive while being under the influence of narcotics, but there are exceptions. If the narcotic substance is prescribed by a doctor, and it’s deemed that you’re able to drive safely while using those, then it could be permitted to drive.