Drivers pass horses slower after mindfulness training, study finds

Could practising mindfulness help improve road safety? The British Horse Society (BHS) has shared new videos that will be offered to various places to help people improve their driving.

The four videos were produced by the BHS, Nottingham Trent University and Esitu Solutions, with funding from The Road Safety Trust.

The videos were informed by a study of more than 1,000 drivers, which asked what they felt, thought, and how they behaved around vulnerable road users.

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The research found that spotting horses in the road ahead was most likely to lead to feelings of surprise and happiness in the drivers, whereas the strongest emotions evoked by cyclists were reported to be frustration and anxiety.

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.

“We are presenting the evaluation of the videos at the National Road Safety GB conference,” BHS director of safety Alan Hiscox told H&H.

“The videos will then be offered to driving instructors, the police, road safety partnerships and local authority safety teams, to be used at road safety events and school programmes.”

He added that the team hope these videos “will serve as an important and engaging tool that will encourage greater harmony and respect amongst all road users”.

A total of 82% of drivers agreed that their knowledge of how to pass horses had improved having seen the videos, 84% said they will be in more control when overtaking them in future, and that they will use mindfulness techniques when they next encounter vulnerable road users. Similar results were also recorded regarding encountering and passing cyclists in future.

Professor David Crundall of Nottingham Trent University, said: “Our previous research with The Road Safety Trust has demonstrated that mindfulness training can change the way people drive for the better.

“This next step has required us to distil mindfulness concepts and techniques into a series of bite-sized road safety videos that we hope will have great benefits for the most vulnerable of road users.”

The videos include areas such as monitoring yourself for negative thoughts, emotion labelling, and mindfulness techniques.

Ruth Purdie, chief executive of The Road Safety Trust, said: “Close passing is a real and present danger for both horse riders and cyclists.

“Mindfulness training has the potential to help change that, with evaluation suggesting it has a positive effect on the attitudes and emotion of drivers towards cyclists, and that their intended future overtaking speeds have decreased.”

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