Novice Drivers Research Articles

Improving young drivers’ speed compliance through a single dose of feedback

Feedback is an important component in learning, including the development of safe driving for novice drivers. Research shows that feedback can reduce the number of speeding occurrences, and the likelihood of speeding-related incidents and accidents, but it is not clear how often feedback should be provided. The present study builds on a series of laboratory and field studies that showed providing feedback to novice drivers about their speeding performance, financial and safety implications on one occasion after a baseline drive, improved their speed compliance on a subsequent test drive. The benefit was evident six months post intervention. The aim of the current study was to investigate on-road whether this effect could be enhanced by more frequent feedback of the same type. Seventy young drivers (54% male) were randomly allocated to one of five groups in which frequency of feedback was varied: Feedback provided on one, two, three or four occasions each spaced one week apart or no feedback. The effect of frequency of feedback was tested at weekly intervals for 4 weeks (i.e., immediately, then at subsequent sessions that occurred one, two, and three weeks after the first), then six months post-intervention. The results revealed that feedback provided on only one or two occasions was the most effective in reducing young drivers’ average speed and percentage of time speeding for lower (50 km/h) and higher (80 km/h) speed zones. The benefits were not enhanced by multiple feedback occasions. The Control (no feedback) group showed the worst speed compliance, with mean speed and percentage of time speeding increasing from the baseline. These results have important implications for the development of new training approaches to improve young drivers’ speeding behaviour.

Remote operation system for novice tractor drivers for situations where automatic driving is difficult

AbstractThe development of automated tractors is anticipated to address the problem of a declining and aging agricultural labor force. However, there are numerous situations in which automatic driving is difficult in the field. We developed a remote operation system allowing novice tractor drivers to control a tractor remotely in situations where automatic driving is difficult and evaluated its performance on a real tractor in a field. Our challenge was to design a user interface (UI) that allows novices to comprehend the tractor's status and return the tractor situation where automatic operation is possible. The system's UI is inspired by popular video games. In experiments, even novice tractor drivers with little or no experience driving automobiles or playing video games could remotely control the tractor and till according to the goal line. In addition, the participants dealt with an invisible obstacle by viewing illustrations of the tractor sensor data. The designed UI's operation methods and operator attributes were analyzed. Through the experiment, the following facts were revealed. A method of operation that allows the analog stick to adhere to the mechanical guide results in smooth operation. In addition, the participant's preferred control method depends on his/her gaming experience. Thus, this study clarifies some of the specifications and design guidelines necessary for a novice‐friendly remote UI for the remote operation of a tractor.

Ролевые паттерны «Я-водитель» – «Я-пассажир» в структуре рискованного дорожного поведения водителей разных групп

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective.</strong> Analysis of the risky traffic behaviour of drivers of different groups; characteristics of patterns of role behaviour “I am a driver” – “I am a passenger”; correlations between the patterns of risky traffic behavior of drivers that have a tendency to drink alcohol.<br><strong>Background.</strong> The analysis of researches devoted to the study of the risky traffic behaviour of drivers in the conditions of the road environment shows the high relevance of research in the field of the causes of accidents on the roads. In this context, interdisciplinary researches which including both individual and socio-psychological variables begin special relevance.<br><strong>Study design.</strong> The patterns of risky road behavior of drivers of the different groups were studied. The features of the patterns of role behaviour (“I am a driver” – “I am a passenger”) were considered. Inter correlations between the patterns of drivers’ risky behaviour and the propensity to drink alcohol were characterized. <strong>Participants.</strong> The sample included 398 drivers of “risk groups”: 114 novice drivers aged 22 to 35 years old (M = 24,0; SD = 7,12), 52 (45,6%) of women and 62 (54,4%) of men; taxi drivers 80 people aged 29 to 43 (M = 36,1; SD = 7,15), 4 (5,0%) of women and 76 (95,0%) of men; drivers-carriers 204 people aged 26 to 40 years (M = 33,4; SD = 6,52), 18 (8,8%) of women and 186 (91,2%) of men.<br><strong>Measurements.</strong> The questionnaire created by G. Meinhard (2018) for evaluation traffic risky behaviour of drivers and the Russian-language version of the AUDIT scale.<br><strong>Results.</strong> Drivers’ risky traffic behaviour is characterized by the presence of various interconnected patterns.<br><strong>Conclusions.</strong> There are significant differences in the patterns of traffic risky behaviour among drivers of different groups: novice drivers, taxi drivers and company drivers.</p>

Beliefs and attitudes of Australian learner drivers toward driving and avoiding driving through floodwater

IntroductionDriving through floodwater is a significant cause of flood-related injury and mortality, and opportunities exist to embed safe driving messages regarding floodwaters to novice drivers in graduated driver licensing schemes. To inform future educational efforts, we investigated the beliefs and attitudes of Australian learner drivers about driving and avoiding driving through floodwaters. Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional correlational design with measures drawn from the theory of planned behaviour and administered within an online survey. Phase 1 (N = 44 learner drivers) aimed to identify the core beliefs associated with driving through floodwater. Phase 2 (N = 250 learner drivers) tested these beliefs predicting willingness to drive through floodwater as well as the social psychological factors that predict learner drivers’ willingness to drive and avoid driving through floodwater using a pre-tested scenario. Analyses comprised descriptive statistics, linear regression, and structural equation models. Results: Ten key beliefs were identified as predicting willingness to drive through floodwater. These included perceived advantages and disadvantages, perceived social approval from important others, and perceived facilitators and barriers regarding driving through floodwater in the presented scenario. Structural equation models of social cognition constructs of the theory of planned behaviour revealed attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control predicted both willingness to drive and avoid driving through floodwater. Past experience as a passenger also predicted these social cognition constructs, although this differed across models. Discussion: Results highlight the importance of modelling safe driving behaviour for young passengers. The strong association between subjective norm and willingness to drive through floodwater further highlights the importance of those supervising learner drivers to establish expectations around avoiding driving through the floodwater if it is encountered on a driving route. Conclusion: Social cognition factors from the theory of planned behaviour predict willingness to drive and avoid driving though floodwater. Theory-based targets should be considered for the development of intervention programs for novice drivers, such as those holding learner licenses.

Further down the road: The enduring effect of an online training course on novice drivers’ hazard perception skill

Hazard perception training has been proposed as a potential strategy for reducing crash risk in drivers. Although previous work has shown that hazard perception is a trainable skill, it also indicates that the effect of hazard perception training often decays over time, sometimes to the point of being negated. In the present study, we evaluate a hazard perception training course specifically designed to minimize the rate of forgetting through the use of evidence-based strategies such as incorporating distributed practice and taking advantage of the contextual interference effect. We report data on a sample of novice drivers, in which we evaluated the effect of the course on a validated measure of hazard perception skill (a verbal-response “hazard prediction test”) in both the short term (M = 9.24 days, or 1.32 weeks) and medium term (M = 9.87 weeks, or 2.27 months), using a randomized control design. At both retention points, trained participants scored significantly and substantially higher than an untrained control group, adjusting for baseline performance. Further, the hazard prediction scores of trained drivers did not significantly decrease between the short- and medium-term assessment points, indicating that there was no evidence of skill decay over this time frame. There was also no evidence that completing the course increased driver confidence at any time point, which is important given that increased confidence could potentially lead to unintended negative effects on crash risk. The results suggest that the training course improves a skill that has been associated with crash risk over a time period that is of practical value, especially as refresher training sessions could be used to further extend the effect into the longer term (i.e., beyond the duration examined in this study) if necessary.

A cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT) evaluation of a pre-driver education intervention using the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Road traffic injuries are the leading of cause of death of 5–29-year-olds worldwide (World Health Organisation, 2018) making young driver safety a global public health concern. Pre-driver road safety education programmes are popular and commonly delivered with the aim of improving safety amongst this at risk group but have rarely been found to be effective (Kinnear, Lloyd, Helman, Husband, Scoons, Jones et al., 2013). A pre-driver education intervention (DriveFit) was designed and evaluated with a cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT) using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991). The responses of 16–18-year-old students (n = 437) from 22 schools/colleges in Devon, UK were analysed and showed that the DriveFit intervention led to some small improvements in risk intentions, attitudes, and other measures, which differed by sub-group. Speed intentions improved immediately post- intervention (T2), whereas a composite measure of all intentions and mobile phone use intentions improved at 8–10 weeks post-intervention (T3). Apart from speed intentions, a trend towards intentions becoming safer at T3 was noted. Mobile phone use and speeding attitudes, a composite measure of attitudes, as well as attitudes to driving violations and perceptions of risk, improved at T2 and T3, with the size of the effect slightly reduced at T3. Participants expressed safe views at baseline (T1), which overall left minimal room for improvement. Whilst previous research has found that education interventions deliver small self-reported effects, that diminish over time (i.e., Poulter and McKenna, 2010), this study finds small, but lasting attitude effects (which diminish in magnitude over time) and a trend towards improving intentions, over and above the control group. The findings provide some guidance on future research to design and evaluate educational interventions for pre- and novice drivers.

Self-harm in adolescence and risk of crash: a 13-year cohort study of novice drivers in New South Wales, Australia

IntroductionSelf-harm and suicide are leading causes of morbidity and death for young people, worldwide. Previous research has identified self-harm is a risk factor for vehicle crashes, however, there is a...

The development and application of the drivers’ attitudes of right-of-way questionnaire (DARQ)

This study explored differences in the right-of-way attitudes of different drivers and the utility of right-of-way attitudes for predicting drivers’ driving behaviors through the development of the Drivers’ Attitudes of Right-of-way Questionnaire (DARQ). DARQ is a tool to judge the negative attitudes of drivers of the right-of-way and hence assist in the selection of excellent professional drivers. Moreover, the study defined drivers’ attitudes of the right-of-way and determines the psychological components of such attitudes. A total of 614 drivers participated in the study. After two tests, the DARQ was established, consisting of assessments of three dimensions: cognition, behavioral tendency, and emotion. We assessed Cronbach’s alpha, split-half reliability, and structural and criterion validity of the questionnaire; the DARQ had a sound theoretical construction and good reliability and validity. Results revealed that professional drivers and professional drivers without accidents had higher correctness of right-of-way attitudes. This shows that the questionnaire had good criterion validity and could be used to effectively screen professional drivers, especially those without accidents. The results also revealed differences in the correctness of drivers’ right-of-way attitudes according to gender, age, and driving experience (cognition and behavioral tendency). Male drivers, older drivers, and experienced drivers had more correct cognitions and behavioral tendencies than did female drivers, young drivers, and novice drivers. Finally, we conducted a third test with 214 drivers. The results revealed that the correctness of drivers’ right-of-way attitudes predicted prosocial and aggressive driving behavior. The higher the correctness of drivers’ right-of-way attitudes (cognition and behavioral tendency), the higher the level of prosocial driving behavior, and the lower the level of aggressive driving behavior. The more positive drivers’ emotions regarding right-of-way attitudes, the higher the level of prosocial driving behavior and the lower level of aggressive driving behavior. The study helps advance the measurement of right-of-way attitudes and automatic driving research. For example, this provides reference data and a model of human traffic participants’ right-of-way attitudes that could help inform research on automatic driving. Moreover, the results of this study could provide guidance for the screening and training of professional drivers, especially professional drivers without accidents, to reduce the rate of traffic accidents.

Young Novice Drivers' Cognitive Distraction Detection: Comparing Support Vector Machines and Random Forest Model of Vehicle Control Behavior.

The use of mobile phones has become one of the major threats to road safety, especially in young novice drivers. To avoid crashes induced by distraction, adaptive distraction mitigation systems have been developed that can determine how to detect a driver's distraction state. A driving simulator experiment was conducted in this paper to better explore the relationship between drivers' cognitive distractions and traffic safety, and to better analyze the mechanism of distracting effects on young drivers during the driving process. A total of 36 participants were recruited and asked to complete an n-back memory task while following the lead vehicle. Drivers' vehicle control behavior was collected, and an ANOVA was conducted on both lateral driving performance and longitudinal driving performance. Indicators from three aspects, i.e., lateral indicators only, longitudinal indicators only, and combined lateral and longitudinal indicators, were inputted into both SVM and random forest models, respectively. Results demonstrated that the SVM model with parameter optimization outperformed the random forest model in all aspects, among which the genetic algorithm had the best parameter optimization effect. For both lateral and longitudinal indicators, the identification effect of lateral indicators was better than that of longitudinal indicators, probably because drivers are more inclined to control the vehicle in lateral operation when they were cognitively distracted. Overall, the comprehensive model built in this paper can effectively identify the distracted state of drivers and provide theoretical support for control strategies of driving distraction.

PTSD symptoms, driving stress, and anxious driving behavior among novice drivers

The present study aimed to evaluate how PTSD symptomatology and general daily stress predict anxious driving behavior. A sample of 119 drivers in their first year since obtaining a driving license who were implicated in a minor or major car crash (caused by them or as a victim/witness) in the last year participated in this study (50.9% men, Mage = 23.78, SD = 5.47). The participants completed scales for measuring PTSD symptoms, driving stress dimensions (i.e., aggression, dislike of driving, hazard monitoring, proneness to fatigue, and thrill-seeking), and anxious driving behavior dimensions (i.e., performance deficits, exaggerated safety behavior, and hostile behavior). The results indicated that aggression positively predicted hostile behavior, while dislike of driving was a positive predictor for performance deficits and a negative predictor for hostile behavior. Thrill-seeking and proneness to fatigue positively predicted performance deficits. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Pre-braking behaviors analysis based on Hilbert–Huang transform

Previous studies have shown that about 90% of traffic accidents are due to human error, which means that human factors may affect a driver's braking behaviors and thus their driving safety, especially when the driver makes a braking motion. However, most studies have mounted sensors on the brake pad, ignoring to some extent an analysis of the driver's behavior before the brake pad is pressed (pre-braking). Therefore, to determine the effect of different human factors on drivers' pre-braking behaviors, this study focused on analyzing drivers' local joints (knee, ankle, and toe) by a motion capture device. A Hilbert–Huang Transform (HHT)-based local human body movement analysis method was used to decompose the realistic complex pre-braking actions into sub-actions such as intrinsic mode functions (IMF1, IMF2, etc.). Analysis of the results showed that IMF1 is a common and necessary action when pre-braking for all drivers, and IMF2 may be the safety assurance action that allows right-foot transverse movement at the beginning part of the pre-braking process. We also found that the experienced, male, and Phys.50 groups may have consistent characteristics in the HHT scheme, which could mean that such drivers would have better performance and efficiency during the pre-braking process. The results of this study will be useful in decomposing and discerning the specific actions that lead to accidents, providing insights into driver training for novice drivers, and guiding the construction of daily automated driver assistance or accident prevention systems (advanced driver assistance systems, ADASs).

Driving Performance Under Violations of Traffic Rules: Novice vs. Experienced Drivers

It is of great significance for safe driving to study drivers' eye movement and driving operation behavior when they encounter other road users violating traffic rules. The underlying reason is that most drivers are unable to process the unexpected visual stimulation, which is more likely to lead to driving accidents, especially in a hybrid situation. In this study, a driving simulator is used to design driving scenarios and study the driving performance of drivers with different driving experiences when other road users violate traffic rules. The experimental results show that some novice drivers ignore the position of their own vehicle when they encounter traffic violations which will lead to the collision with other road users. Moreover, some novice drivers can only perform one of the operations between steering and braking to avoid collision in these emergent situations. They cannot reasonably combine braking and steering to complete emergency driving operations like experienced drivers. Finally, when the driving difficulty increases, experienced drivers spend less time looking and more time scanning their surroundings to ensure that they can cope with the more complex driving environment while novice drivers do the opposite. This study reveals the difference between novices and experienced drivers, which paves a useful reference for the future advanced driving assistance system.

Driving distraction at night: The impact of cell phone use on driving behaviors among young drivers

Currently, young drivers are more likely than other drivers to use cell phones while driving at night, which has become a major cause of road crashes. However, limited attention has been given to distracted nighttime driving. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the interaction effect of cell phone use and time of day (daytime and nighttime) on young drivers’ car-following performance. Forty-three young drivers engaged in a driving simulator experiment with a within-subject design that included three distractions (no distraction, talking and texting on a cell phone) and two times of day. This paper applied non-parametrictests to analyze the data and obtained the following results: (1) the standard deviation of lane position (SDLP) did not significantly differ at either time of day under no distraction, but it was significantly higher at night on straight roads and large-radius curves after introducing distractions. In addition, participants drove faster and gave less headway on small-radius curves under both distractions at night; (2) texting significantly increased the SDLP, while there was less lateral variation during the talking tasks than under no distraction on simple road sections; and (3) compared with the experienced drivers, the novice drivers drove faster during the talking tasks on small-radius curves, but there was no significant difference between groups during the texting tasks. These findings provide both theoretical and practical implications for related policy makers to enhance traffic safety.

Exploring the sustained and divided attention of novice versus experienced drivers

Purpose of the researchDriving is a complex task that requires appropriate engagement in, and regulation of, sustained attention and divided attention. This study explored the sustained- and divided-attention function of novice young adult drivers and experienced adult drivers. MethodsFifteen novice young adult drivers (mean age = 20.07) and 18 experienced adult drivers (mean age = 41.33) participated in the study. The participants’ sustained and divided attention were assessed using a computerised fixed Sustained Attention-to-Response Task (SART) and a modified version with low cognitive-load and high cognitive-load conditions. Their attention was also assessed using the Color Trails Test (CTT) and Digit Span Test (DST). The participants’ cognitive resources that were available during the assessments were monitored using the Rating Scale Mental Effort (RSME). ResultsThe main results of this study showed that the experienced drivers had significantly higher performance in terms of accuracy in both sustained attention (p = 0.011) and divided attention (p = 0.008 and 0.006 in low and high cognitive-load conditions, respectively) components of the SART. No significant differences in the CTT and DST were found between the two groups. The results of the RSME also indicated that both groups had comparable cognitive resources available throughout the assessments. ConclusionsThis study suggests that experienced adult drivers have a higher developed ability to engage in and maintain sustained and divided attention appropriately. These results provide insight related to attention function, which might affect novice young adult drivers compared with experienced drivers.

An exploration of the role of driving experience on self-reported and real-world aberrant driving behaviors

A significant proportion of global road crashes are attributed to unsafe driving behaviors. The current study aimed to explore potential differences in driving behaviors across experienced and novice drivers using two separate approaches; a questionnaire study and an instrumented vehicle study (IVS). The analysis of 260 questionnaires and 1,372 traffic interactions within the IVS revelated that driving experience affects driving performance for different driving tasks. Factor analysis of the questionnaire data revealed the impact of driving errors, lapses, violations, and aggressive violations on the behavior of novice and experienced drivers. Behavioral models of novice and experienced drivers encountering other road users were determined using binary logistic regression. The results showed that novice drivers were more likely to engage in driving violations while experienced drivers were more likely to engage in aggressive violations. Unauthorized speeding, zigzag movements, using a mobile phone while driving, and unauthorized overtaking on roads were the most frequent driving violations by novice drivers. The most frequent aggressive violations by experienced drivers were tempting other drivers to create a race and chasing other drivers. These findings may be used as a framework to facilitate safer driving behaviors by reducing errors, lapses, violations and aggressive violations, and facilitating safety-promoting attitudes.

Keep It Brief and Targeted: Driving Performance Feedback Report Features to Use with Novice Drivers

Driving evaluations aim to ensure adequate skills; however, feedback beyond pass/fail is needed for improvement. Therefore, the goal of this study was to inform driving feedback report design to ensure ease of use and understandability while motivating improvements. Participants ages 18–25 years (n = 521) were recruited from CloudResearch Prime Panels to rate one of nine report design conditions with various combinations of five key features: performance summary presence, action plan (AP) length, AP order, AP grading system, and peer comparison presence; they then completed questionnaires. Participants were more motivated to improve when a summary was present (p = 0.02); they rated reports easier to use if they had a long AP (p = 0.01), a short AP paired with a summary (p = 0.007), or an AP with a number grade (p = 0.016); and they rated reports easier to understand if they had a short AP (p = 0.002) or an AP ordered by worst-to-best performance (p = 0.05). These results suggest that feedback reports designed with a performance summary and short, targeted action plan starting with the biggest area for improvement are likely to motivate action to improve driving skills while being easy to use and understand. Future research should evaluate the effect of such a redesigned report on driving outcomes among young drivers.

A Pilot Study on Impact of Mood State on Emergency Response Capacity for Young Novice Drivers

As young novice drivers are inclined to getting involved in traffic accidents due to their improper emergency response under sorts of gender affective state, namely, mood, widely generated in fast-paced urban life, it is of great necessary to study the impact of mood state on responsive capacity for young novice drivers. Fourteen college students were recruited to take part in complex reaction experiments for this pilot study. Each subject’s mood was collected through a simplified POMS scale, while their complex reaction time (CRT) and response error rate (RER) were acquired during the experiments. The study results showed that young novice drivers’ RER was significantly positively correlated (pc=0.323 ∗ ∗ , “pc” omitted next) with their score of total mood disturbance (TMD), and a logarithmic regression model was feasible to describe the correlations with a good fitting effect. Further, their RER was also significantly positively correlated with score of negative mood state components such as nervousness (0.290 ∗ ∗ ), anger (0.300 ∗ ∗ ), fatigue (0.278 ∗ ∗ ), depression (0.287 ∗ ∗ ), and fluster (0.261 ∗ ), and a quadratic or cubic regression model was suitable to describe the correlations. Additionally, the young novice drivers’ CRT was significantly positively correlated with score of nervousness (0.222 ∗ ∗ ), vigorousness (0.227 ∗ ), and fluster (0.273 ∗ ), and a quadratic or exponential regression model was suitable to describe the correlations. The results can provide theoretical support for developing targeted intervention to improve young novice drivers’ emergency response capacity for driving training or traffic management authorities.

Ecological validity of executive function tests in predicting driving performance

Almost all of our everyday activities depend on executive function (EF) skills. In line with the increasing attention to the ecological validation of neuropsychological assessment and intervention methods, this study aimed to explore the ecological validity of a relevant set of widely used EF tests, mostly from well-known paradigms of EF assessment, in predicting driving ability. Ninety-six healthy novice drivers (M age = 26.2 years, SD = 8.4; 48 female) completed four stages of our data collection including psychological, EF, and driving assessments. For the psychological assessment, validated measures of sensation-seeking, risk-taking, personality traits, ADHD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and stress were administered. For the EF assessment, selected tests from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS: Trail Making, Design Fluency, and Tower) and the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS: Key Search, Zoo Map, and Modified Six Elements) along with a computerized Stroop test were administered. For the driving assessment, we used a simulated driving test comprising of 14 key dimensions of driving skills. Several correlations and multiple regression analyses were conducted. Significant correlations were found between all the EF measures and driving performance. Moreover, the EF measures predicted the driving ability over and above the effects of previous driving experience and the psychological variables. These results provide supporting evidence for the ecological validity of the EF tests in predicting driving performance. The incorporation of assessment and intervention targeting multiple domains of EF into driving rehabilitation and education programs could be a focus of future research.

CTTE: Customized Travel Time Estimation via Mobile Crowdsensing

Estimating the origin-destination travel time is a fundamental problem in many location-based services for vehicles, e.g., ride-hailing, vehicle dispatching, and route planning. Recent work has made significant progress to accuracy, but they largely rely on GPS trajectories which are too coarse to model many personalized driving behaviors, e.g., differentiating novice and veteran drivers. In this paper, we propose Customized Travel Time Estimation (CTTE) that fuses GPS trajectories, smartphone inertial data, and road network within a deep recurrent neural network. It constructs a road link traffic database with topology representation, speed statistics, and query distribution. It also calibrates inertial readings, estimates the arbitrary phone’s pose in car, and detects multiple aggressive driving events (e.g., bump judders, sharp turns, sharp slopes, frequent lane shifts, overspeeds, and sudden brakes). Finally, we demonstrate our solution on two typical transportation problems, i.e., predicting traffic speed at holistic level and estimating customized travel time at personal level, within a multi-task learning structure. Experiments on two large-scale real-world traffic datasets from DiDi platform show our effectiveness compared with the state-of-the-art.

Effectiveness of implementing a Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) law among young Serbian drivers

Introduction: Young novice drivers have higher rates of engagement in road crashes worldwide, often owing to unfavorable attitudes toward road safety or lack of knowledge, experience, and risk consciousness. However, the implementation of graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems has proven effective in reducing the high incidence of young drivers involved in crashes. Method: The purpose of this study was to compare the change in driving outcomes (e.g., attitudes toward traffic safety, behavior patterns while driving, risk assessment in traffic, assessment of personal driving skills, and involvement in traffic crashes) of young drivers prior to and following the implementation of a GDL law. Respondents (n = 642) completed a battery of questions, including a driver attitudes questionnaire (Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale), a self-assessed driving ability questionnaire, and a risk perception questionnaire. Of the total sample size, 324 drivers passed the old system of training driver’s license candidates, and 318 drivers passed the new GDL system. Results: The results showed that drivers licensed with GDL reported safer attitudes toward traffic rule violations and speed, and higher levels of safety orientation with regard to their driving abilities. They also reported much higher levels of risk perception and lower exposure to risky situations (risky driving exposure). There were no differences between GDL drivers and non-GDL drivers in terms of self-reported crashes or transient or fixed violations. In addition, GDL was not related to the number of traffic crashes, the number of fatalities, or serious and slight injuries in crashes involving young drivers in crashes obtained from official records. Conclusions: The results suggest that GDL contributed to the improvement of drivers’ attitudes and understanding of risk but did not contribute to significant changes in the behavior of young drivers and traffic crashes. In addition, the GDL program in Serbia only ranks fair on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) scale. Strengthening the GDL program in Serbia with additional components in line with GDL programs rated as good by the IIHS scale could improve the safety of young and novice drivers in traffic.