Police Commisioner Richard Chambers. Photo / Dean Purcell
A fortnight ago, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers owned up to getting a speeding ticket at the start of November.
The occasion of the confession was a graduation ceremony for new recruits.
When you consider how the last month or so have put the spotlight on the police hierarchy, you wonder how the rest of our 15,000 police officers might be feeling about their bosses.
What better way and occasion for the country’s top cop to say to new recruits: “People make mistakes. I got a speeding ticket last week and when you make mistakes, own it, learn from the mistake, be stronger for it and move on.”
Context is everything, and if you get the message right, in the right context, then the potential for cut-through with the message is greatly enhanced.
To me, the commissioner’s admission is a master class, a calming influence in the storm and one that might potentially help start reviving the trust that we must have in both the commitment and the integrity of our police force.
Context is often behind the reason we speed and that is what this column is all about – why do we speed?
For Chambers, he was “away with the fairies” in an unmarked police car when clocked doing 112km/h in a 100km/h zone. The fine of $80 is likely also to incur 20 demerit points as well.
When you consider everything Chambers has had to deal with over the last month, the fine and demerits are the least of his worries, but the context allowed him to deliver a brilliant message to new recruits.
So, what about the rest of us? Why do we speed? Because we instinctively know that eventually we will be caught.
A recently published study in Norway showed that we tend to overestimate the likelihood of being caught speeding as being 2.4 times higher than actual probability of being caught.
Our common perception about our likelihood of being caught speeding has this tendency to moderate our speed.
One commentator has identified five factors as our reason for speeding:
In relation to getting there faster, a study done by Monash University published last year found that we save two minutes each week by driving faster than the speed limit. So, what do we do with those two minutes?
Personally, I like to try to understand the context behind questions or comments or actions in order to get a bigger picture about why people will do things.
Recent commentary by American traffic safety advocate Me Ae Lipe struck a chord. She identified six contexts.
We drive the way we are as people. A person’s lifestyle, personality, attitudes and values influence how we make decisions, perceive risks, respond to social pressures and manage impulse controls. A-type personalities, who are extremely confident about their ability to control and shape the world, take bigger risks because of their optimism bias.
Social pressure plays a part. We speed because we see others doing it and if others are tailgating us, we feel pressured to match the flow of the traffic.
Our focus on mental health also figues. The increasing medication, drugs, alcohol and social media exposure impair our judgment, influence moods and lower our social inhibitions.
We have no idea of the danger we cause when we speed. We don’t realise that the faster we go, the harder it is to perceive a rapidly changing environment. We have never experienced anything bad happening to us and we simply don’t know what we don’t know.
Our streets invite us to speed. Wider lanes, straighter sight lines and delineated shared pathways alongside give us the impression we can safely go faster. Whereas narrower lanes, tree cover and the presence of vulnerable road users slow us down. Numerous studies have shown that humans routinely under-perceive risk and overestimate our ability to manage it.
Our vehicles aren’t helping. They are more powerful, heavier, higher, drive smoother and are quieter than previous generations’ vehicles. We can be 20km/h over the speed limit without realising it and we have a false sense of safety.
Speed is speed, and speed limits usually have science and consultation behind them. Getting a speeding ticket gives us a reason, a context and an opportunity to think about why we did that.