A recent French study has highlighted the fact that dangerous driving tendencies may in fact run in the family.
“A new French study has found, suggesting that the majority of motorists mirror their parents’ behaviour on everything from road rage to speeding and drink driving.
Not renowned for their careful driving, it now transpires that 65 per cent of younger motorists between the ages of 18 and 25 in France say they are influenced by the behind-the-wheel habits of their mother or father – both good and bad.”
The Power of Parental Influence
Parental influence weighs far more heavily than that of a driving instructor and young 
drivers are more likely to ape their father than a mother, according to the Ipsos study conducted for a foundation of the Vinci autoroute group, which runs French motorways.
After speaking to 993 motorists, the study found that 75 per cent of motorists who admitted to suffering from bouts of road rage said their parents also hurled insults at others from behind the wheel, compared to just 36 per cent whose parents kept their cool.
Dangerous Tendencies
Seventy-seven per cent of those who admitted to “driving too fast” said their parents did likewise, compared to 45 per cent of those who said their parents respected speed limits.
“For 18 years, the child then the adolescent sees how his parents drive from the back seat. In primary school, notably, he or she observes and compares what the law imposes and what adults really do,” Daniel Marcelli, a child psychologist, who co-ran a conference on “parenthood behind the wheel” on Monday during which the study was released.
Learning to Drive Safely
The findings increase the onus on parents to make sure they drive safely, said Bernadette Moreau, from the Vinci Autoroutes foundation. “We can help children become good drivers. Bad behaviour is passed on, but so is good (behaviour),” she told Le Parisien.
A disregard for pedestrians is also a family matter, the study suggested, with 72 per cent of drivers whose parents don’t stop for people trying to cross the road saying they did likewise. Only 28 per cent of motorists whose parents slowed down for pedestrians were less civil than their mother or father.
For more on this story, please check out the following link – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/07/dangerous-driving-runs-in-the-family-french-study-finds/
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