BRAKES that prevent a car from going into uncontrollable skids on wet and icy
roads are obviously desirable. It’s easy to see how an anti-lock braking system
(ABS) can prevent accidents and reduce road injuries. So it’s a shock to find
out that they don’t
(see “Collision course”).
This paradox seems to stem from the effect known as risk compensation. Just
as trapeze artists do riskier stunts with a safety net in place, so ABS makes
drivers feel more confident about driving faster and braking later. The effect
isn’t new. After Britain made seat belts compulsory for people in the front
seats of cars, belted-up drivers felt safer and started cutting corners. So
while deaths dropped for people in front seats, there were more deaths among
back-seat passengers and among pedestrians and cyclists.
The issue of how drivers respond to new safety technologies is crucial. Yet
there is a paucity of research in this area. We do not even know if risk
compensation is a fixed aspect of human psyche or if it can be
manipulated—or avoided. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find out. Fit
cars with black boxes that monitor behaviours such as speeding and hard braking,
and they’ll show what difference the latest safety gadget makes. Cars are
starting to be equipped with new safety devices, such as brake assist and
collision avoidance systems. Before these become major selling points for new
cars—as ABS has been—we must be sure that they work in practice, not
just in theory.
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