Bogged down in the four-wheel drive debate?
Useful sites
How four-wheel drive works (How Stuff Works, USA)
Uses diagrams to help explain the basics of a four-wheel drive system. Includes definitions.
Royal Automobile Club Victoria, Australia
Vehicle compatibility
Explains that vehicle compatibility occurs when a vehicle protects not only its occupants, but anyone else involved in the collision.
Bull bars: Think before fitting
Covers the effect of bull-bars on airbag operation, the risks to vulnerable road users and some advantages and disadvantages of bull-bars.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (transcripts)
Wheels fall from 4WD safety myths (Great Moments in Science, 18 February 2009)
Explains that four- wheel-drive cars are not necessarily safer than conventional cars.
The cars that ate cities (Background Briefing, 15 June 2003)
Looks at the growing use of four-wheel drives and the resulting safety and environmental implications.
4 wheel drives in the city (Earthbeat, 2 June 2001)
Looks at why four-wheel drives are popular in spite of their high fuel consumption.
Monash University Accident Research Centre, Australia
Are crashworthiness and fuel economy necessarily conflicting outcomes?
Paper from a presentation given at a 2001 workshop.
Vehicle crashworthiness and aggressivity ratings and crashworthiness by year of vehicle manufacture: Victoria and NSW crashes during 1987-2000, Queensland and Western Australia crashes during 1991-2000
A summary of the report. The full report (143 pages) is available in pdf format.
Vehicle occupant protection: Four-wheel drives, utilities and vans
A 1996 report looks at the extent and patterns of injuries to occupants when crashed vehicles were 'written-off'.
Clean vehicles – building a better SUV (Union of concerned Scientists, USA)
Looks at how existing technologies can be used to offer consumers a four-wheel drive that is safer, cleaner and more cost effective.
Vehicle compatibility: Analysis of fatal crashes (Australian Transport Safety Bureau)
A study which looks at the relative risk of injury and death of occupants in passenger vehicles of different sizes.
Road safety and 4WDs (Parliamentary Library, Australia)
Summarises some 4WD road-safety issues, driver attitudes and the national road safety policy.
Vehicle properties determining aggressivity (2001 Road Safety Conference, Australia)
Describes a study that used multiple regression analysis to determine which physical features of a vehicle are most likely to contribute to vehicle aggressivity.
Page updated March 2009.