A question for Livia Bühler
Why are people looking for the speed rush?
This is where the speeders end up: traffic psychologist Livia Bühler carries out character or cognitive assessments of driving fitness and provides information on the motives of her clients.
The search for a speed rush when driving can be related to sensation seeking: the need for varied, new and complex impressions and the willingness to accept physical and social risks as a result. Other theories assume that driving fast is a way to deal with personal conflicts, in other words driving away from yourself, so to speak.
It’s often men who are looking for this speed rush. You are also relatively anonymous in road traffic, and the probability of violations being detected is relatively low. So a (supposedly) good opportunity for all those who are looking for the thrill of speed and want to live it to the full.
But beware: Excessive speeds can be expensive and eventually lead to an accident – or to us.
About the person
Livia Bühler
is Head of Traffic Psychology in the Traffic Medicine, Psychiatry and Psychology office at the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Bern. She mainly carries out traffic psychology assessments in which a person’s character or cognitive ability to drive is assessed.
Magazine uniFOKUS
Subscribe free of charge now!
This article first appeared in uniFOKUS, the University of Bern print magazine. Four times a year, uniFOKUS focuses on one specialist area from different points of view.
Subscribe to the uniAKTUELL newsletter
Discover stories about the research at the University of Bern and the people behind it.