Better drivers?

"cpw" wrote:

I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death in the past. I am
wondering if there are any statistics on whether pilots are safer
(automobile) drivers than the general public. It has seemed to me that
my pilot training has improved my driving skills in several ways:
situational awareness, planning ahead, general safe driving practices,
etc. Anybody have any opinions (HAH!) in the group?

The scariest driver I know is a commercial pilot and CFI. He speeds, cuts
in and out of traffic and regards red lights as advisory only; I will not
ride with him. He may have "improved driving skills," but he's a menace.

Besides him, the pilots I know seem pretty average as drivers.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

I am glad you asked this question.
I used to consider myself a good driver, but after learning to fly, my
driving ability has deteriorated.
When you get used to talking on the radio, tracking maps, scanning gauges,
pulling out approach plates, and tracking navigational aids, you get very
good at multitasking. When you get back in the car, you think you can read a
map, talk on the phone, and adjust the radio in heavy traffic, and it
doesn't work so well.

In the plane, you have to multitask, but you can vary your coarse a few
miles either way and +- 100 feet. In the car you need to single task and can
only vary your coarse by a few feet.

I am interested to see if anyone else feels the same.

"cpw" wrote in message
oups.com...
I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death in the past. I am
wondering if there are any statistics on whether pilots are safer
(automobile) drivers than the general public. It has seemed to me that
my pilot training has improved my driving skills in several ways:
situational awareness, planning ahead, general safe driving practices,
etc. Anybody have any opinions (HAH!) in the group?

I don't believe studies have been done, and even if they had, as Pete says,
they may be error prone - so we're all guessing in the dark really.

For my part, I'll bet beginning and low-time pilots probably do make better
drivers, for two reasons : 1)Respect for rules and 2)Weather observation.
Some here feel weather is more of a "nuisance" in driving than anything else,
but it remains one of the most often cited contributing causes in accidents.
Pilots are simply less likly to be surprised by weather, or to launch blithley
into degrading conditions. They also ahve at their fingertips a whole palette
of tools to allow them to quickly and accurately assess weather situations.

As for respect for rules - well, that's why I said beginning and low-time
pilots. Too often, after a few hundred, or better yet a few thousand hours,
pilots begin to feel that all those pesky, meticulous rules are just for
smaller fry, and this attitude probably carries over into their driving as
well.

GF

"soxinbox" wrote in message
...
When you get used to talking on the radio, tracking maps, scanning gauges,
pulling out approach plates, and tracking navigational aids, you get very
good at multitasking. When you get back in the car, you think you can read
a map, talk on the phone, and adjust the radio in heavy traffic, and it
doesn't work so well.

One of the most important skills when flying is maintaining situational
awareness. Keeping track of whether you're in a car or else a plane (and the
implications as to what tasks you can safely perform) is a pretty basic
element of situational awareness.

--Gary

On 9 Jun 2006 14:49:47 -0700, "cpw" wrote:

I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death in the past. I am
wondering if there are any statistics on whether pilots are safer
(automobile) drivers than the general public. It has seemed to me that
my pilot training has improved my driving skills in several ways:
situational awareness, planning ahead, general safe driving practices,
etc. Anybody have any opinions (HAH!) in the group?

This article presents results from a study that indicates that pilots
are less likely to have an accident than most other occupations.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...car/P63952.asp

"Nathan Young" wrote in message
...
This article presents results from a study that indicates that pilots
are less likely to have an accident than most other occupations.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...car/P63952.asp

Interesting data point, but it's addressing a different question. It's
looking at the accident rate per elapsed time (per year), rather than per
time spent driving. So it could be that the ones with lower accident rates
simply do less driving, rather than that they're safer when they drive.

--Gary

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
. ..
Interesting data point, but it's addressing a different question. It's
looking at the accident rate per elapsed time (per year), rather than per
time spent driving. So it could be that the ones with lower accident rates
simply do less driving, rather than that they're safer when they drive.

Indeed, and it only looks at professional pilots (possibly even only airline
pilots, given the all-too-common bias against other professional pilots
among people outside the aviation industry). If it's only airline pilots,
there's a clear bias there, given that the daily routine of an airline pilot
is often VERY different from that of most of professionals, with a lot of
time spent actually in an airplane or at an airport, at least when on duty.

Of course, the article also doesn't tell us what the sample size of each
population (professional) group is. It's not hard to imagine the
possibility that they didn't even have 1000 pilots in the study, making the
statistical error of that group (and similarly under-represented groups)
much higher than for other groups.

Note also that the study was done by starting with a database of 1 million
accidents, and then cross-referencing that with a database of insurance
policy owners. This is exactly the kind of statistical analysis that others
have complained about in this thread. Personally, I think it's useful to
the extent that one recognizes its limitations, but it's not going to
"prove" anything, especially to someone insistent on ignoring the data.

Beyond that, I think it's telling that while there appear to be genuine
statistical differences, even if one assumes that they are due entirely to
individual behavior rather than circumstantial conditions, there's really
not that much difference across the various professions, especially for the
"accident" category. For an insurance company, I suppose the difference
between 80 accidents in a year for 1000 people and 100 accidents in a year
could be useful information (insurance companies live and die on aggregating
huge numbers of experiences in order to get predictable outcomes), but what
that really says is that there's a lot of overlap in individual performance.

Even if one assumes that study is completely applicable, if anything what it
suggests is that *most* pilots are probably about the same sort of driver as
*most* other individuals, at least when it comes to having accidents.

Pete

I think it's telling that while there appear to be genuine
statistical differences, even if one assumes that they are due entirely to
individual behavior rather than circumstantial conditions, there's really
not that much difference across the various professions, especially for the
"accident" category. [...]
Even if one assumes that study is completely applicable, if anything what it
suggests is that *most* pilots are probably about the same sort of driver as
*most* other individuals, at least when it comes to having accidents.

I'll buy that. In fact, that's probably the most significant finding
that we, as pilots, should take away from this.

Jose
--
The price of freedom is... well... freedom.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Nathan Young wrote:
On 9 Jun 2006 14:49:47 -0700, "cpw" wrote:


I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death in the past. I am
wondering if there are any statistics on whether pilots are safer
(automobile) drivers than the general public. It has seemed to me that
my pilot training has improved my driving skills in several ways:
situational awareness, planning ahead, general safe driving practices,
etc. Anybody have any opinions (HAH!) in the group?


This article presents results from a study that indicates that pilots
are less likely to have an accident than most other occupations.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...car/P63952.asp



Interesting. I'm an engineer and a pilot, but not a pilot
professionally. I wonder what that means? :-)


Matt

My sister says she'd rather ride with me in an airplane than a car.
Don't know what that means.
--
Gene Seibel
Tales of Flight - http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.



cpw wrote:
I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death in the past. I am
wondering if there are any statistics on whether pilots are safer
(automobile) drivers than the general public. It has seemed to me that
my pilot training has improved my driving skills in several ways:
situational awareness, planning ahead, general safe driving practices,
etc. Anybody have any opinions (HAH!) in the group?