Globe Drive

I was driving alongside another vehicle on the 401 when I noticed the vehicle wandering within its lane and changing speed frequently.

Unfortunately, there is nothing unique about that. But as I pulled alongside, I noticed the driver struggling with a map spread over the steering wheel.

Fast forward a few days and I was on the autobahn between Frankfurt and Stuttgart with traffic flowing smoothly in the range of 155-200 km/h, depending on traffic and which lane you were in.

In Europe, almost every driver had both hands on the wheel and was monitoring the mirrors, changing lanes to allow faster traffic to pass. Quite a contrast to North America, where most times drivers have one hand on the wheel, if that, and do their best to block vehicles travelling more quickly, if they notice them at all.

I felt much safer at 200 km/h there than at 100 km/h here in equally dense traffic.

The difference is attitude.

For too many drivers, driving is merely a way to get somewhere, an inconvenience shared with others equally uninterested in the task. This disinterest often evolves into inattention and dangerous behaviour.

Driving is all too often a secondary activity to carrying on a conversation, making notes or applying makeup.

The man reading the map while going between 100 and 120 on the 401 was a perfect example of the type of behaviour that has become so common - it never crossed his mind to signal, pull over in a safe spot and take the minute or so necessary to determine his location or destination.

No, he did that while in the middle of three lanes of heavy traffic flowing at more than 100 km/h, endangering the lives of fellow motorists on either side as well as ahead of and behind him. This same scene could have been played out on any road in North America.

Hopefully he will live long enough to benefit from some of the map-supported, driver-assistance systems coming down the pike, including speed alert, curve warning, adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning system.

We already have some of these today, but the next generation may be integrated with GPS-fed navigation systems.

According to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, navigation systems will move from convenience applications to doubling as vehicle safety systems.

The market for map-based driver assistance systems will grow dramatically in the next five years "triggered primarily by a growing demand for safety," the company says in a recently released study, Strategic Analysis of Integration of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems).

"Maps can enhance the environmental sensing capabilities of existing active safety systems," analyst Aswin Kumar says.

"Digital map-enabled ADAS systems can reduce traffic jams, improve road safety and, ultimately, lower social costs related to road safety."

The company cautions that tapping into such possibilities will depend on increased levels of map information and accuracy.

Like computers, electronic navigation systems are only as good as the information they contain.

In Europe, where roads have been in existence for centuries and buildings are kept, rather than torn down and replaced, mapping can be, and is, much more accurate and detailed.

In North America where land is plentiful, old towns abandoned, buildings replaced on a whim and new subdivisions crop up every few months, mapping is less dependable and continual updating a must.

But at least it is more accurate and safe than to spread a piece of paper over the steering wheel.

Halifax-based Richard Russell runs a driving school.

globedrive@globeandmail.com