10th Anniversary of the International Conference in Driver Behaviour and Training

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the International Conference in Driver Behaviour and Training (ICDBT) hosted by Cranfield University – owner of DriverMetrics® – and chaired by Dr Lisa Dorn, Director of the Driving Research Group and DriverMetrics®. The ICDBT is under the auspices of the International Association of Applied Psychology, Traffic and Transportation Psychology and will be held at Helsinki University, Finland from 19-20^th August 2013.

Ten years ago, when Dr Dorn established the ICDBT, relatively little was known about how educational interventions might reduce crash risk. Some evaluations suggested there may even be a negative outcome on driver behaviour if the training was skills-based. The scope of the ICDBT was to encourage research in this field to investigate how to design and deliver training to influence driver behaviour in a positive direction – especially since the beneficial effects of education had been demonstrated amongst many other health-related behaviours using psychological principles. The event has grown from strength to strength since the first conference held in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2003, followed by the ICDBT2 in Edinburgh in 2005, the ICDBT3 in Dublin in 2007, the ICDBT4 in Amsterdam in 2009 and the ICDBT5 in Paris in 2012. In that time, the ICDBT has been accepted by the academic and practitioner community as a must-attend conference with participation from road safety researchers from almost a hundred countries. There has also been a massive upsurge of publications and research activity in driver behaviour and training around the world. At the same time there has also been a catastrophic failure of governments to use this evidence base in the implementation of policies and legislation to reduce the numbers of people being killed and injured.

As our knowledge increases, so does the global death rate from road traffic collisions, predicted to rise to 2.6 million people killed every year by 2030 if governments fail to take action. Keynote speakers at the Sixth International Conference in Driver Behaviour and Training are drawn from experts in the field. We are delighted to announce that Professor Summala will be leading the keynote addresses. Professor Summala is Chair of Traffic Psychology and head of the Traffic Psychology Unit at Helsinki University. His lecture will be followed by Professor Nils Petter Gregersen, Senior Research Director of the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute who has published seminal research in driver education.  World-renowned experts in visual search, Associate Professors Peter Chapman and David Crundall of Nottingham University,UK, will complete the keynote addresses and an exciting programme of papers from many high calibre academic institutions and road safety groups will follow.

The conference programme includes more than 80 high-quality presentations covering a range of topics on driver behaviour. The conference dinner will be held on board the MS Emma, while cruising through the picturesque Helsinki archipelago, on Monday 19th of August. The registration fee is £475 and includes the conference dinner, lunch, refreshments and a hardback copy of the proceedings published by Ashgate. In view of the number of people expected at the conference, you are advised to book as early as possible. The full conference programme will be available shortly.

You can register to attend and find out more about exhibiting at: www.icdbt.com