By focusing on the worst of the worst

Making our streets safer

By Terry Jorden

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula after he observed that 20 per cent of his countrymen owned 80 per cent of the wealth. Since then his 80/20 rule has been used to describe everything from time management to sales figures.

But recently in Alberta, the 80/20 rule was used to describe traffic safety. It seems that 20 per cent of our motorists cause 80 per cent of our accidents.

The Edmonton Police Service took that idea and created a list of the city's worst drivers.

The worst driver had been arrested 10 times, had five cocaine convictions, 82 traffic violations, 42 speeding tickets and was currently in jail for murder.

Another motorist near the top of the list, a 23-year-old male, had caused one fatal collision that killed three people including himself, faced five breaking and entering charges, five thefts, 13 arrests, and 23 traffic violations.

Police say official routine traffic enforcement can often result in arrests and charges for more serious offences.

York University Psychology Professor David Wiesenthal suggests people are either determinists or fatalists. The determinist believes that every event has a cause and can be affected by human action. The fatalist believes that mishaps happen because of fate and there is nothing you can do to change that.

But most traffic safety experts point to poor drivers, and then move on to calls for increased police enforcement, new legislation, the licensing and training of new drivers, public education, roadway and vehicle design, insurance issues and weather conditions, rather than fate.

Cultural attitudes must also be considered when understanding traffic safety. Anyone trying to cross a street in Europe knows that the rights of pedestrians are not universally accepted. How does the mass media through movies such as Fast and Furious, or Gone in 60 Seconds, affect our behaviour behind the wheel?

Wiesenthal recalled that after an Ontario highway became a toll-highway, speeds increased dramatically. Said one driver: "I am paying for this, so I am going to go as fast as I like."

The issue of traffic safety has risen recently. This due in part to a series of high-profile fatal collisions earlier in the year, the unveiling of the Edmonton Approach, and Alberta Transportation's appointment of Don McDermid to head up an independent provincial review of traffic safety.