The Use of Intermediate Criteria for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Accident Countermeasures

Abstract

The nature of accidents—that they are the results of activities of road users, rather than the activities per se and that accidents are used inversely as indices of safety—requires that the focus of research interest be shifted to the activities that give rise to them, if one is ever to understand their occurrence. This in turn implies that any evaluation of accident countermeasures must be carried out in terms of these activities. The use and nature of such “intermediate” criteria is discussed in relation to an experimental evaluation of driver education. By taking this approach it is possible to learn more, not only about the effect of training on safety, but also about the nature of the relationship and, in fact, more about the nature of training. By increasing one's knowledge of the functioning of the criterion variables, one can see which criteria are relevant for assessing training and, thereby, be able to state more concerning the operation of training and the intervening variables.