Green Car Congress: TfL Launches Campaign to Increase Driver Awareness of Walkers and Cyclers; Do the Test

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TfL Launches Campaign to Increase Driver Awareness of Walkers and Cyclers; Do the Test

19 March 2008

Transport for London (TfL) has launched a new campaign designed to increase driver awareness of pedestrians and cyclists—an important factor in any case, but especially in London, given the increasing emphasis TfL is putting on altering the transportation modal mix in an attempt to reduce GHG emissions.

One of the first elements of the campaign is a video test. You can see it embedded below, or watch and download it at www.dothetest.co.uk.

The goal of TFL’s Cycle safety campaign is to reduce the number of cyclists that are hurt on London’s roads.

A passer-by asks you for directions. As you talk to him, two workmen walk between you carrying a door. In a flash the passer-by switches places with one of the workmen, and you are left giving directions to a different person. Do you think you would notice?

Researchers at Harvard University played this trick on some unsuspecting people and over 50 per cent failed to spot the change.

This phenomenon is known as “change blindness”—only a tiny fraction of all the information going into your brain enters your consciousness. People often fail to see a change in their surroundings because their attention is elsewhere.

Even stranger, if you are concentrating on something, you can become blind to other events that you would normally notice. This “inattention blindness” is possibly the reason why motorists collide with cyclists.

—TfL

March 19, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)