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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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      <title>Safety Impacts of Parent-Taught Driver Education</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2526796</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Driver education is essential for promoting safe driving practices, especially among teens, for whom motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death. This risk is often linked to developmental factors such as a tendency for risk-taking, peer influence, and limited driving experience. These characteristics necessitate driver education that not only imparts essential skills but also promotes safe driving behavior. This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness and safety impact of Iowa’s Parent-Taught Driver Education (PDE) program. Since 2021, this program has allowed parents to fulfill driver education requirements for minors as an alternative to traditional driver education (TDE). With approximately 20% of Iowa minors participating in PDE, evaluating its outcomes relative to TDE in terms of safety and driving performance is crucial. The research team will use socio-demographic data, licensing records, crash data, and citations, to identify potential safety differences between PDE and TDE participants. Additionally, a voluntary survey and focus groups targeting PDE participants will offer insights into the program’s perceived strengths, challenges, and participant experiences. Advanced statistical techniques, including causal inference, spatial analysis, and text mining, will be employed to address the study objectives. The findings will contribute to roadway safety efforts and inform policy recommendations aimed at enhancing program implementation and safety for all road users.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 22 Mar 2025 17:36:48 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2526796</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Optimizing Parent-Teen Supervised Drives to Reduce Teen Crash Risk</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2205313</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Teen drivers pose the greatest risk for motor vehicle crashes compared to any other age group. Motor vehicle crashes continue to be a leading cause of teen death, and crash risk for recently licensed teens is significantly higher than for other age groups. Reducing the risk of teen driver crashes requires many countermeasures, including better preparing teens for driving before licensure. Previous studies have demonstrated parents' positive influence on teen driving behavior, from a higher likelihood of wearing their seatbelts to a lower instance of driving distracted or under the influence. Studies have also shown that teens who receive experience driving in various conditions (i.e., different road types, varying weather, new routes, etc.) during the permitting phase are safer drivers when licensed and driving independently. More information is needed to demonstrate how to best prepare parents to optimize time spent behind the wheel with their teen drivers, and how best to ensure this time is completed. Some states require a signed driving log to be submitted with the license application, while others simply require the parent to sign an affidavit stating the driving hours were completed. For the purpose of this project, "parent" includes guardians and other caregivers. The objective of this research is to provide actionable information to help states optimize parent-teen supervised driving to ensure it creates safer teen drivers and reduces the crash risk for this vulnerable age group. The desired outcome will be to provide states (and ultimately, parents) with resources to help ensure that parent-teen supervised driving delivers on its intended goal.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 04 Jul 2023 13:07:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2205313</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Formative Research and Resources to Prevent Cannabis Impaired Driving Among Teens and Young Adults</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2205309</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Driving under the influence of cannabis is illegal in the United States and remains a significant public health problem, particularly for young drivers.

Young cannabis users may perceive cannabis as a safe alternative to drinking and driving. Among high school students, cannabis impaired driving may be more prevalent than alcohol impaired driving. Almost half of teen drivers who use cannabis reported driving after using cannabis (Li L, Hu G, Schwebel DC, Zhu M. Analysis of US Teen Driving After Using Marijuana, 2017. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 Dec 1;3(12):e2030473). A random survey of nighttime drivers in British Columbia, Canada found that while 4.6% of all drivers tested positive for cannabis, the rate was highest (6.4%) among drivers aged 16–24 (https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2019-04/CCSA-Cannabis-Driving-Implications-for-Youth-Summary-2015-en.pdf).

Despite the magnitude of this problem, there are still many gaps in our understanding of young adults’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs; the contexts in which they make the decision to drive while impaired; and what interventions are promising for promoting safer driving behaviors.

Research suggests that interventions focused on parental monitoring, knowledge, and support can help protect against risky behaviors, including driving or riding under the influence. Formative research that addresses adolescent and young adult social norms, attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions are needed to help prevent cannabis impaired driving. Similarly, it is also critical to examine the body of work describing interventions that involve parents of teens/young drivers, state highway safety offices (SHSOs), high schools, universities, employers, and others, along with the efficacy of them.

For the purpose of this project, (1) “cannabis-impaired driving” includes the use of impairing substances in conjunction with cannabis (poly-drug impairment), and (2) “parents of teens/young drivers” includes other caregivers.

The objectives of this research are to: (1) design and implement formative research to identify (a) social norms, attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions related to cannabis usage and driving for teens and young drivers (beyond teen years); and (b) evidence-based approaches and models to support parents of teens/young drivers, SHSOs, high schools, universities, employers, cannabis dispensaries, and others in talking with teens and young drivers about cannabis impaired driving and impaired driving laws; and (2) develop educational resources, interventions, and messaging that (a) support parents of teens/young drivers, SHSOs, high schools, universities, employers, cannabis dispensaries, and others in talking with teens and young drivers about cannabis impaired driving and impaired driving laws; and (b) provide information directly to teens and young drivers.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 04 Jul 2023 12:54:39 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2205309</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Implication of School Format on Women in STEM</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1740572</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) (examples of each of STEM include Marie Curie, Katherine Johnson, Ellen Ochoa, and Irmgard Flugge-Lotz ( (Shetterly, 2016), (Waisman & Tietjen, 2008))) have made and continue to make important contributions to their fields.  The ability of women to contribute to their fields without feeling that they have to give up on having a family relies on the presence of a support system or village typically made up of family, friends, childcare, and schools.  The coronavirus pandemic has brought to the forefront the importance of these support systems, particularly schools, in enabling women the time and resources to contribute in STEM fields.  Many K-12 schools are currently not offering full-time, traditional in-person learning.  More often, schools are offering only at-home, online options and many women must make difficult choices between their professional futures in STEM ( (Boorstin & Taylor, 2020), (Kramer, 2020), (Gewin, 2020)) and supporting online learning, “pandemic pods”, or transitioning to homeschooling their K-12 students.  This research seeks to document the importance of school format (e.g. online, hybrid, in-person, “pandemic pod”) on women in STEM.  The results are intended to provide input regarding how policies in the future can better support these important contributions, but potentially, for more immediate solutions to be realized.  This is different than many of the other on-going research initiatives that tend to focus on work-life balance and tenure (Rincon & Nguyen, 2020).]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2020 17:07:30 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1740572</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Child Passenger Safety Perceptions and Practices in Ride-sharing Vehicles</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1747534</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project will produce a report that addresses (1) how people secure their children when riding in ride-share vehicles, (2) how caregiver and driver perceptions of Child Restraint System (CRS) use in the ride-sharing context and potential autonomous vehicles compared to personal vehicles, and (3) how to improve CRS use in ride-share vehicles by providing practical ideas. To that end, the project involves a literature review of studies on CRS use in ride-share vehicles and other shared mobility situations; an observational study in one major urban area and one tourist destination; and focus groups with caregivers and ride-share drivers.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2020 09:23:51 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1747534</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Evaluation of the Impact of App-based Feedback and Monetary Incentives on Teen Driver Safety</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1706831</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Teen drivers are some of the most vulnerable of all road users. In this study, 40 teen drivers will participate in a one-month driving study that will yield comprehensive data on several driving performance measures. This data will provide the basis for driving feedback that will be provided to teens and their parents throughout the study. This feedback will be available on a website provided by the research team. Two versions of driving feedback for teens and their parents will be evaluated along several dimensions. The effectiveness of each type of driving feedback will be measured by examining teen driver safety (e.g., kinematic risky driving events, speeding, etc.). The usability and acceptability of this feedback will also be measured by analyzing the number of website logins and duration of time spent on the website. Parent and teen focus groups and/or interviews will also be conducted to obtain qualitative data on user preferences and acceptability.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2020 16:28:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1706831</guid>
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    <item>
      <title> 
Public vs Private Transportation Network Accessibility and Maternal-Infant Health Outcomes Across the Urban-Rural Boundary  in Kalamazoo County, Michigan  
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1483611</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project is twofold. The first part of the project deals specifically with the benefits of
multimodal transportation modeling to understand community structure of public health access in a community. Maternal risk and infant outcomes are examined in Kalamazoo County, MI with respect to transportation network accessibility by public transit and private vehicle across the urban-rural continuum. Infants born to mothers just outside the urban core had a higher rate of poor outcomes. Maternal risk factors, by contrast, were associated with the accessible rural areas – areas outside the city proper, but within 30 minutes by car to services. When as much variability as possible (departure time, routes, modes, time of day) was included in the model, very detailed community structure information emerged. This structural information is not specifically causal, but differences in behaviors and use of services, as well as differences in urban poverty and rural poverty were apparent. The second part of the project considered raster-based methods to provide insights into siting intervention locations at efficient and equitable locations for repeating cases of risk – in this case, repeating cases of sexually transmitted infections. The results provide metrics for decision makers to compare intervention locations by efficiency and equity across multimodal optimization. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 22 Sep 2017 14:03:46 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1483611</guid>
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