About the Project
SKILLDRIVER is a project aimed at helping to reduce road casualties with new driver skills.
By exploring the 'thinking skills' of driving, it works on how drivers make their decisions and handle risk.
It explains how to achieve far more control over the dangers we face on the road, and also why the
'eyes-and-brain' skills are even more critical to safety than the 'hands-and-feet' skills.
As often happens, the project emerged slowly in the early stages, evolving in response to feedback more than through any grand design:
| 1996-97 | - an interest in novice driver crash risk was sparked when our children started to drive |
| 1997-98 | - early ideas and prototypes of the Risk Model and Driving Process |
| 1999-2004 | - research and an initial set of structured 'thinking skills' |
| 2004May-Oct | - review meetings with about 40 experts in driver training and road safety |
| Oct | - initial Sense of Danger article published |
| Oct | - full day workshop held to 'road-test' some core ideas with advanced drivers |
| Oct | - decision to write up the new approach as a formal 'book' | 2005Jan-Mar | - online book loaded as pages on this website - high volume of hits and feedback |
| Apr | - initial publisher interest | Aug | - publisher signed for printed book |
| 2006May | - Mind Driving book published - available from publisher |
| Sep | - public launch of Mind Driving |
| 2006-07 | - driving instructor feedback says Mind Driving also applies at Learner level |
| 2007May | - Mind Driving workshop available for trainers and transport managers |
| Sep | - Essential Thinking Skills outline proposal to Driving Standards Agency |
| 2008Jan | - Essential Thinking Skills trials with driving instructors |
| Apr | - article: YoungDrivers - Adult Responsibility |
| May | - 2-hour, half-day and full-day seminars available for trainer/advanced groups |
| 2009Jan | - article: Learning to Drive - the Stubborn Truth |
| Jul | - Young Drivers module added to workshops and seminars |
| 2010May | - four day Mind Driving training event for instructors in Scotland |
| Nov | - article: Peer Pressure - Driving Under the Influence |
| 2011-2012 | - wider range of workshops and seminars available for: ADIs, trainers, advanced groups, company drivers and H&S managers |
| 2012Aug | - article: Young Drivers and Deadly Passengers |
| 2013Jul | - article: Teaching Young Men to Drive |
| 2014Dec | - Teaching Young Men to Drive became the most popular download, narrowly passing Peer Pressure - Driving Under the Influence |
2015>>> | - ongoing support for trainers, organisations and drivers |