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Click below for complete text (1.1 MB pdf) of the 1938 paper
Gibson, J.J. and Crooks, L.E. "A theoretical field-analysis of automobile driving," Am J Psych 1938; 5l: 453-7l.
This paper was submitted to the American Journal of Psychology on 1 August 1937 and printed less than a year later (did things happen faster before computers?)
The paper has references to even earlier work attempting to apply scientific thinking to better understand driving and safety.
It contains the following :
"Accident statistics are now widely publicized" (footnote on p. 453)
"..more efficient brakes on an automobile will not in themselves make driving the automobile any safer. Better brakes will reduce the absolute size of the minimum stopping zone, it is true, but the driver soon learns this new zone and, since it is his field-zone ratio which remains constant, he allows only the same relative margin between field and zone as before" (footnote on p. 458)
