UAE’s own road safety warrior

Dr Britta Lang wanted to be a vet, but finds herself studying human behaviour behind the wheel these days. She says the country could benefit from a federal motorway code.

Britta Lang, who has lived in the UAE since 2011, is head of the Transport Research Laboratory in Abu Dhabi. Delores Johnson / The National

ABU DHABI // There is no turning back for Dr Britta Lang, who gave up her dream of caring for animals to carve out a career in traffic psychology, and understanding how human beings perceive, process and interact in traffic and what can be done to keep them safe.

“When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a vet,” she said.

After completing her schooling, she undertook voluntary service for a year. That led her to discover that she “was really interested in people and how we think and tick as humans”, she said.

Like many other students in Germany, she took a part-time job to finance her degree and became a research assistant at the department of traffic psychology and research methodology.

“My part-time job turned into a career in traffic psychology and road safety,” Dr Lang said. “I stayed in that department and carried on working before moving to the UK in 2004.”

She started working for the British consultancy Transport Research Laboratory. Then in 2009 the company needed an employee to conduct a consultation exercise on vehicle classification, driver training and testing in the UAE. “I was quick to volunteer and spent a couple of quite demanding weeks here in Abu Dhabi,” she said.

Two years later, an opportunity came up to work for the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport on secondment. “I jumped at it and have remained here ever since.”

Since moving to the capital in 2011, she has seen great improvements in road safety standards. “As a young nation, the UAE has witnessed incredible change over a very short period of time,” said Dr Lang, who now heads the Transport Research Laboratory UAE.

“Despite the rapid growth, we have seen year-on-year reductions in traffic fatalities per 100,000 residents, which is a tremendous achievement.”

The World Health Organisation’s Global status report on road safety 2015, which is based on data from 2013, shows there were 10.9 deaths per 100,000 motorists in the UAE.

“As a road safety expert, I would like to see things improve as quickly as possible, but sometimes, when things don’t move quite as fast as you would like to, it is important to remind yourself of what has already been achieved,” she said.

The UAE can do more to prevent deaths and injuries by bringing in laws to make roads safer, including a federal motorway code for road users that could be used for education and enforcement, she said.

“We need to put the stepping stones in place, upon which we can build robust road safety measures,” Dr Lang said. “There are a lot of great road safety initiatives that are developed in different emirates. It would be great if the best initiatives could be introduced on a federal level, so they can benefit all of the UAE.

“We need to have a safe road environment and good vehicles that comply with safety standards. But there’s also the human being, the human operator, and it’s important to understand what makes people tick when they get into the car.”

A better understanding of driver behaviour could help to improve safety.

“We just don’t drive. We are humans that typically drive with emotions, motivations.

“We are not robots, but we are influenced by motorists. We’re not just driving to get from A to B, we drive to express ourselves. Think about a young guy wanting to impress somebody sitting next to him – how is he going to drive?”