Matt Martin
In 2008, in Ashford, UK, an unprecedented pilot scheme was introduced wherein pedestrians were encouraged to step out in front of moving vehicles. What madness, you exclaim? It would be a good way to get a lawyer called out for a case. Well perhaps, but there is some method in the madness. Based on a Dutch concept known as “shared space”, the principal idea is that creating uncertainty on the roads fosters caution from both the driver and the pedestrian – thereby making roads safer. The purest form of “shared space” road safety philosophy removes traffic lights as unnecessary and in fact as a potential a cause of collisions.
The topic of potential causes of collisions has come up again recently from Europe, this time with a more general application. The European Court of Justice has decided that gender pricing on insurance is sexist, and so banned the insurance companies operating within the EU from making the distinction. And with insurance premiums for young men dropping as a consequence, one might think that this ruling is doing less to promote prudent driving among young Irish men than we’d like.
Boy racers, the most dangerous drivers?
It is statistically the case that women claim less on their insurance than men, and this is because they are less likely to be involved in accidents. Not only that, but they also have the fewest and the least expensive claims when they do. As a consequence of this commonly accepted fact, insurance companies have thus charged women lower premiums. But that, says the Court, is sexist. The flipside of this coin is that men, and especially young men, are the most prolific insurance claimers on the market. Male drivers under 21 are twice as likely to have an accident than their female counterparts, according to the British Insurance Brokers’ Association. However, this doesn’t speak for all males.
The move won’t necessarily mean lower premiums for men, but it might. But if these male drivers decided to go to something like a california traffic school, this could potentially reduce their premiums. So these young drivers could get the discount they are looking for if they received additional training. The evidently over-confident average young male driver is unlikely to experience much of an increase in premiums in the wake of this new ruling. So his car will be less expensive and. in some ways, more expendable. What impact will this have on his approach to road safety? It won’t do much to curb his enthusiasm for his newly found mobility, in any case.
In fairness, a decrease in premiums is hardly likely to correlate with an increase in claims by young male drivers. As of 2009, road deaths per million in Ireland had decreased by 50 percent since 2001, earning us a road safety award in 2010. High among the reasons for this level of success were listed the introduction of mandatory alcohol tests for drivers, and a hard-hitting media campaign underlining the dangers and changing attitudes towards drink-driving.
In fact, the statistics are showing that younger women are catching up with men, claiming slightly more than they used to. It is thought that these new gender discrimination laws will in fact tailor out the stereotyping influence it holds over sensible male drivers and reckless female drivers alike. Instead of gender-based predictions, individuals will be more subjectively scrutinised for factors other than their gender. This is much fairer for drivers. Drivers, young and old, shouldn’t be stereotyped for their driving skills. However, no matter the gender of the driver, if they are in a car accident and do need to claim on their insurance, it’s important that they do so. It doesn’t matter about the statistics, if an individual needs to claim, they should feel comfortable doing that. If you’ve been in an accident, you can do your car accident claims at Vin’s Automotive if you are local to that company. If not, you can locate your local insurance company and go from there. It’s important that car insurance companies are there for those people who have been unfortunate enough to be in a car accident.
Hopefully, this new ruling will propagate justice among drivers, as well as mutual respect, and greater prudence on the roads in Ireland. Hopefully, there will be fewer claims, accidents and fatalities, and more general awareness of the fact that shared space is not just a wacky concept from the Netherlands, but a fact that can make itself very apparent, very quickly.
