The British Horse Society (BHS)
De-escalating road rage when passing vulnerable road users (VRU)
Amount awarded
£30,000
Completed
2024
Making roads safer for…
All road users
Project summary
A video resource has been produced to facilitate the safe overtaking of horses and cyclists with mindfulness techniques.
The videos, produced by The British Horse Society, Nottingham Trent University and Esitu Solutions, thanks to funding from The Road Safety Trust, show that mindfulness has many potential benefits for drivers including the removal of distractions, increased focus, and emotional regulation.
They cover several topics:
The STOP technique – Stop, Take a breath, Observe why you are feeling this, and put negative thoughts aside and Proceed.
Monitoring yourself for negative thoughts.
An explanation of in-groups, out-groups and stereotypes, culminating in the Three Little Things technique.
Emotion labelling – the act of verbalising your current emotion to bring it under control.
The videos have been turned into a four-week training intervention and available to access/use via YouTube.
Evaluation from more than 300 drivers found attitudes towards cyclists improved after seeing the mindfulness videos, as well as a reduction in intended speeds for passing both cyclists and horse riders.
In a series of self-reflection questions, participating drivers agreed that their knowledge of how to pass cyclists/horses had improved (81% and 82%, respectively), that they will be in more control when overtaking them in the future (82% and 84%), and that they will use the mindfulness techniques when they next encounter these vulnerable road users on the road.