Novice Driver Training Research Articles

Evaluation of the Effect of a Novice Driver Training Program on Citations and Crashes

Novice driver training programs have been shown to change behaviors known to be linked to increases in crash risks, behaviors such as long glances inside the vehicle and failures to glance towards latent hazards. However, until recently no program had been shown to change the actual frequency of citations and crashes. The one program that has been shown to reduce crashes was delivered once, at the time of licensure, took only 17 minutes in length to complete, and addressed only hazard anticipation. We asked whether a training program that addressed both hazard anticipation and attention maintenance skills, Distractology 101, was roughly twice as long in length, and was delivered once in person and once over the internet would prove at least as effective, not only with drivers who had just received their license, but also drivers who had up to 36 months of experience. The results showed that this training program reduced citations and crashes significantly and similarly across drivers with different driving experience.

An approach to novice driver training

IntroductionBased upon neuroscience findings relevant to emerging adults, this paper considers 12 cognitive and behavioural features of young drivers’ performance and possible ameliorative strategies to address them. Literature findingsEvidence is explored on the extent to which each has been identified and evaluated in respect of young driver training and education in driving performance. The paper considers the extent to which each of these contributions to young driver safety is feasible and has been adopted, identifying those for which further development and implementation is required. DiscussionBased upon neuroscience findings as well as the evidence summarised in this paper, it concludes with an outline of an –“ideal”– training program for young novice drivers.

Role of Expectancy, Motion and Overhead Lighting on Nighttime Visibility

More than half of the pedestrian fatalities occur at night. It is important to understand the factors that lead to pedestrian detection for designing and implementing effective countermeasures in order to reduce pedes-trian fatalities. Research has shown that expectancy, motion and overhead lighting affect pedestrian visibil-ity. This goal of this study is to understand the combined effect of these three factors on nighttime visibil-ity. Twenty four participants were recruited to drive on a test track under different conditions of expectancy and overhead lighting. The participants were asked to identify static and moving objects. The results showed that as the level of expectancy increases the detection distances also increase. Moving objects were detected from farther than static objects and presence of overhead lighting also increased the detection dis-tances. Motion tends to draw more attention than expectancy when detecting new objects. These results have implications in the areas of pedestrian safety, novice driver training and work zone safety. They also reiterate the safety benefits of providing overhead lighting at high pedestrian-vehicle conflict areas.

Using Crash Data to Develop Simulator Scenarios for Assessing Novice Driver Performance

Teenage drivers are at their highest crash risk in their first 6 months or first 1,000 mi of driving. Driver training, adult-supervised practice driving, and other interventions are aimed at improving driving performance in novice drivers. Previous driver training programs have enumerated thousands of scenarios, with each scenario requiring one or more skills. Although there is general agreement about the broad set of skills needed to become a competent driver, there is no consensus set of scenarios and skills to assess whether novice drivers are likely to crash or to assess the effects of novice driver training programs on the likelihood of a crash. The authors propose that a much narrower, common set of scenarios can be used to focus on the high-risk crashes of young drivers. Until recently, it was not possible to identify the detailed set of scenarios that were specific to high-risk crashes. However, an integration of police crash reports from previous research, a number of critical simulator studies, and a nationally representative database of serious teen crashes (the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey) now make identification of these scenarios possible. In this paper, the authors propose this novel approach and discuss how to create a common set of simulated scenarios and skills to assess novice driver performance and the effects of training and interventions as they relate to high-risk crashes.

Simulator Fidelity and Validity in a Transfer-of-Training Context

The question of simulation fidelity and validity is of concern in many driving applications. This paper reviews the general issues associated with fidelity and validity. For training applications, fidelity and validity relate to training effectiveness. Training effectiveness is typically measured according to real-world driver behavior and performance. This paper describes a novice driver training experiment that used simulators with three levels of fidelity. Driver simulator performance was measured for complex driving scenarios containing repeated exposures to hazardous situations. The driving records of the participants were also analyzed for a period of 40 months after they were trained. Inferences about simulator fidelity and validity are drawn on the basis of the participants' simulator performance and real-world driving records. Confounding effects in the database due to several uncontrolled variables are also discussed. These confounding effects are relevant to the design of future transfer-of-training studies.

Training Effectiveness: How Does Driving Simulator Fidelity Influence Driver Performance?

Driver performance effects were compared between two configuration types: 1) a low-cost, three-monitor, 135 degree field-of-view (FOV), PC desktop with PC gaming steering wheel controls and 2) a medium-cost, fixed-based, projected image, 135 degree FOV, instrumented vehicle cab. The experiment was part of a larger novice driver training experiment with teenage drivers who had yet to receive their license to drive (Allen, Park, et al. 2003). Participants drove a minimum of six training trial runs on either the three-monitor configuration (N = 180) or the vehicle cab configuration (N = 143). A 2 times 6 (configuration type x training trial runs) analysis of variance was performed for a variety of performance measures as well as a one-way analysis of variance to assess the graduation rates between the two configurations. Significant differences were found for certain performance measures suggesting that handling behaviors (i.e. braking and steering) were largely affected by the difference in controls while lane position, vehicle speed, time-to-collision, and simulator sickness ratings were largely affected by the difference in graphical display. However, non-significant differences in certain performance measures (e.g. total accidents and graduation rates) suggested that the three-monitor configuration may be as useful of a tool for driver training, assessment, and research as a higher fidelity vehicle cab.

Simulator Sickness Results Obtainted During a Novice Driver Training Study

Simulator sickness results have been obtained in a novice driver training experiment with approximately 500 young drivers who have yet to receive their license to drive. Different participant groups were trained on three different PC based driving simulator configurations: 1) a single-monitor desktop unit, 2) a wide field-of-view three-monitor desktop unit, and 3) a wide field-of-view projected image with an instrumented cab. Simulation sickness ratings scores were obtained using a four-point rating scale provided to participants after each training trial. Between-subject effects were broken down according to the three simulator configuration types and gender across six training trial runs. Analysis for average vehicle velocity was also reported as it may have been related to simulator sickness. While the incidence of simulator sickness was quite small, participants using the single-monitor configuration unexpectedly reported the highest incidence of symptoms. Some gender differences were also found according to training trials. Possible explanations for the results are provided along with experience with high school driver education programs.