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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Improving Teen Driver Safety, Evaluating Educational Interventions to Reduce Overreliance on Advanced Driver Assistance Systems</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2640187</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) can provide important safety benefits, but they may also encourage drivers to respond more slowly when the system turns control back to the driver. Teen drivers, who are still developing driving skills and awareness, may be more likely to misunderstand system limits or become inattentive when ADAS features are active. This project investigates whether targeted educational programs can reduce this type of overreliance and improve driver performance when automation disengages. The study will compare a traditional classroom style training module with an interactive simulator based program to determine how each affects driver attention and reaction time.

A group of licensed teen drivers from Connecticut and Massachusetts will complete simulator sessions that include planned ADAS disengagements under both distracted and non distracted conditions. The simulators will collect data on braking, steering, lane position, reaction time, and gaze behavior. The results will show how training influences driver behavior during sudden transitions from automated to manual control. The findings will inform improvements to teen driver education materials and provide guidance for programs that teach responsible and informed use of ADAS technologies.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Dec 2025 13:41:43 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2640187</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SAFE Schools For Safer Future
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2628212</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Seatbelts Are For Everyone (SAFE) is a Kansas state initiative program launched in 2008 by DCCCA Inc. (Developing Caring Communities Committed to Action) to increase teen restraint compliance through education, positive reinforcement, and enforcement. This teen-led, peer-to-peer program aims to reduce the number of teen motor vehicle injuries and fatalities. The SAFE program has been a component of the Kansas Traffic Safety Resource Office (KTSRO) for over a decade. The program was expanded to Oklahoma and Missouri in 2014 and 2016 respectively, and Iowa adopted the program in 2021. 
The goal of the current research project is to understand the efficacy of the SAFE program through a multifaceted approach. This project will be conducted in two parts; the first part includes surveying high school students on the topics of seatbelt, traffic laws and other safe driving behaviors covered by the SAFE program that can help in understanding their attitudes, perceptions, knowledge and experience regarding road safety and how it differs between students participating SAFE and non-SAFE schools. In addition, this part will also include socioeconomic analysis to determine the influence of equity factors on the driving behaviors and perception of Kansas teen drivers. The second part of the study will include conducting literature review, examining Kansas fatal and serious injury crashes involving teens over a 13-year period, from 2010 to 2023, and their potential contributing factors, identifying various safety programs, best practices and initiatives across the nation focused on improving teen safety and emphasizing the importance of educating and training young drivers during their early driving phases. It is critical to instill safe driving behavior for young people from an early age to foster a safety culture and better mobility in the future.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 14:27:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2628212</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Driver’s Education Accessibility and Instructor Certification Challenges – Disparities in the State</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2617578</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Young drivers are routinely overrepresented in traffic fatality data. For example, in 2023, young drivers made up 5.1 percent of all licensed drivers but accounted for 8.9 percent of drivers in fatal traffic crashes (USDOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2025). In recognizing this challenge and in an effort to reach Vision Zero, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) has a goal to reduce young driver fatalities by “attain[ing] a five-year average rate of young driver involved fatality crashes of 29.5 by December 31, 2026” (Montana Department of Transportation, n.d.).
As an action item to help meet this goal, the MDT Highway Traffic Safety Section has been working with the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) to improve access for Tribal teens to driver’s education. However, in doing so, it was identified that not only do most Tribal communities not have driver’s education or certified instructors, but there are disparities across the entire statewide system. This is due to individual school districts determining how to implement driver’s education in their community, which impacts teens access to this training.
Therefore, this project is needed to identify the state of practice of driver’s education for each school district across the state and to identify needs (e.g., access for at-risk youth) and barriers (e.g., recruitment of driver’s education instructors). This will allow MDT and OPI to create a process for prioritizing which school districts to assist in any given year. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2025 15:52:47 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2617578</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Strategies to Reduce Crashes for Young Drivers Not Covered by Graduated Driver Licensing Restrictions






</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2570613</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Some states have observed a growing percentage of young people delaying driver licensure until age 18 or older, along with a declining percentage of teens ages 16–17 obtaining driver licenses. Delay may be due, in part, to their desire to avoid the restrictions, requirements, and costs associated with graduated driver licensing (GDL), which generally applies only to new drivers under the age of 18. 

There are some indications that 18- and 19-year-old drivers who are not covered by GDL restrictions have the highest rate of injury and fatal crash involvement among all young drivers within their first year of licensure. The delay in licensure may be a contributing factor. 

To help address this safety concern, policy proposals have been submitted that focus on increasing the age of driver training requirements and/or GDL restrictions to novice drivers age 18 and older. Research is needed to develop a better understanding of (1) the safety implications associated with delaying driver licensure beyond ages covered by state GDL laws and (2) potential strategies to reduce crash rates for 18- and 19-year-old drivers within their first year of licensure who are not covered by GDL restrictions.

The objective of this research is to develop a guide that identifies potential strategies for consideration by state driver licensing agencies and state highway safety offices (SHSOs) to reduce crash rates for young drivers currently not covered by GDL restrictions. 

 

]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2025 13:54:43 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2570613</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Older Novice Driver Naturalistic Driving Study</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2444669</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Graduated Driver Licencing (GDL) laws are the most effective behavioral countermeasure for young drivers. However, while an increasing proportion of young people are delaying licensure, few States apply the full GDL program to novices 18 and older. Licensure delays are more likely among Hispanic, Black, and lower socioeconomic status (SES) young people, raising the possibility of inequities in which novices receive the benefits of GDL. However, because little is known about the safety and driving habits of novices ages 18 to 20, questions remain about whether and how to extend GDL. This project involves collecting naturalistic driving data from younger (15.5 - 16.5) and older (18 - 20) novice drivers in their first 12 months of licensure. While all participants will have naturalistic driving data collected using a smartphone app, a subset of participants will also have data collected from equipment installed in their personal vehicles. The contractor will use these data to answer research questions related both to older novice drivers—about which little is known—and predictors of the ‘trajectories’ of safe or risky driving that novices follow as they gain experience. The results will inform potential countermeasures for older novice drivers and driver education.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2024 14:44:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2444669</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Driver training for Shared Autonomy Systems using Mixed-reality</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2440018</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This is a continuation of a Year-1 deployment project which engages with different vulnerable driver communities - teens who are learning to drive and seniors who are experiencing loss of cognitive capabilities. 

The research team is developing a virtual reality Driver Training system with augmented reality pass through where a 16 year-olds and patients with compromised cognitive capabilities can sit in a stationary real vehicle and use mixed-reality to learn driving skills and get exposed to increasingly challenging driving scenarios. Sensors are strapped onto the steering and brake/gas pedals of their car and capture driver movements, that are fed back into the simulation. The windshield and windows are overlaid with a VR generated driving simulator scenario. As a result, the driver is sitting in a real vehicle with AR passthrough showing the steering wheel and the driver’s hands hands, but the risky driving scenarios are simulated. The goal of this system is to develop a simulator that can be retrofitted in any car so novice drivers can train at home in a safe way and experience risky scenarios that cannot be demonstrated in real-life. 

Mixed-reality or XR means VR with AR passthrough. So some visual elements are VR and others are camera passthroughs of reality.

The Problem: The high costs of elder care, both to the individual and the government, combined with the demographic shift towards an increasing number of older adults as a percentage of the overall US population is creating a major healthcare crisis. The number of senior citizens in the US in 2030 will be twice that of 2000, leading to a shortage of working-age caregivers and putting increased pressure on labor costs. Equally important is maintaining, or preferably ameliorating, the quality of life of a growing elderly population. Maintaining elders’ autonomy is correlated with increasing quality of life and autonomy enhancement is correlated with improving functionality. Driving is typically a symbol of autonomy. The revocation of driving privileges is often the first step taken by families worried about cognitive decline and emerging dementia of the older adult. Dementia including Alzheimer's disease is a chronic, progressive syndrome that is characterized by a reduction in the ability to perform daily activities, e.g. a cognitive decline with increasing unpredictability and psychological symptoms. Dementia affects about 5 million people in the USA and 35 million worldwide. Coincidentally, Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are a game-changing AI and robotic solution that can enable older people to maintain independence. For this technology to be effectively deployed, Safety and Trust are however key. Older people, but also caregivers and clinicians need to view the technology as safe and trustworthy. To realize this potential, a robust shared autonomy strategy is needed.  The term shared autonomy is an oxymoron, but it embodies the tension observed as caregivers, clinicians, and patients negotiate the need to trust the autonomous system and the desire to stay in control. This research project aims to address the question on how to mediate autonomy between participating actors to allow the human control of the system up to their level of performance and autotune the degree of intervention by the machine to maintain safety.

Approach: To these ends, the team proposes the development of an interactive imitation learning system for safe human autonomous systems. The system is trained by an expert for multiple levels of performance following a curriculum. When the system is deployed with a human non-expert user (e.g. an older driver), the safe by construction neural network controller ensures safety at any level of performance (see figure on the left). This enables the system to personalize its capabilities to suit the human partner while ensuring safety from any mismatches in the expectations of the controller and that of the human user. The AVs will therefore learn how the user desires to share autonomy and ensure the system does not reach an unsafe state under all operating conditions and inputs from the human.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 13 Oct 2024 08:32:02 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2440018</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Increase accessibility of driver training through scholarships and technological Intervention</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2440015</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Despite the proven benefits of driver education in skill acquisition and safe driving outcomes, few studies have investigated interventions that can increase access to driver training (DT), particularly for lower income teens and teens of color. While the team has coined the term Driving Training Deserts (DTDs) and the team is working towards understanding how residing in a DTD leads to lower propensity to complete DT (see other projects), what is missing is an understanding of how to address this issue. As disparities in access to driver training and obtaining license before 18 years old could compound disparities in income and education, it is critical to understand how interventions can address this problem. 

The research team hypothesizes that residing in a DTD reduces teens’ likelihood to enroll in and complete DT; the challenge of physically transporting oneself to DT center as well as the cost is likely prohibitive. Preliminary analyses support the hypothesis on the associations between financial and physical access and completion of driver training: 21% of residents under 25 in DTD completed driver training and secured licensure before 18 years old, compared to 43% of young residents in non-DTDs. As disparities in accessibility to DT are disparities in health outcomes and mobility, the research will uncover an actionable way forward for addressing health and mobility equity. The team will do so in the following Aims: (Aim 1) Investigate the role of Scholarships in encouraging DT completion. Megan S. Ryerson is a Senior Fellow at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and CHOP’s partner, Ohio’s Governor DeWine, announced the new program that awarded grants to nonprofits to identify teens needing financial assistance. This has the potential to be groundbreaking in increasing accessibility to DT for teens, especially low-income teens and teens of color. The team will co-create a survey for the teens who were offered scholarships, and use the survey results to develop actionable recommendations and policies toward future scholarships for DT. The team will then design algorithms to target DT scholarships to those needing them most and who will most benefit from these scholarships. (Aim 2) Assessments to improve the knowledge of how teens need to train.  Wide-spread, easily accessible DT would benefit teens in terms of imparting safe driving skills; yet, many barriers to supply and accessibility exist. Thus, a mechanism to assess teen driving and offer targeted suggestions for improvement would be beneficial; teens could receive a “prescription” for driver training to do with a parent or teacher. A low cost, easily accessible way to assess a teen’s driving skills is by using a mobile Virtual Driving Assessment (VDA) tool, developed by their partner team at CHOP. The idea here is that even if teens lack access to DT, a mobile VDA at their school, local library, or community center could help them understand the specific skills they lack. While the VDA cannot help train a driver, it can help offer specific feedback on what a young driver must study and learn. Using the implementation of the VDA in CHOP offices across Philadelphia, which has already been completed, the team will use already collected interview data from teens who engage with the VDA at Philadelphia centers and evaluate the ability of the VDA to provide actionable information. The team will then determine how best to deploy the VDA as a low-cost assessment intervention that could be set up in schools, pediatric offices, libraries and other community-based locations to help assess teens’ safe driving skill deficits.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 13 Oct 2024 08:19:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2440015</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Effect of Drivers Education on Traffic Safety
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2437699</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Much of the research on the relationship between young driver training and crash risks has been correlational. What remains unclear is whether driver training has a direct positive impact on reducing crashes among teen drivers. Answering this question will allow planners and policymakers who aspire to enhance teen driving safety to better understand the effectiveness of driver training on safe driving.
In the proposed study, the research team predicts post-licensure traffic crashes among young drivers under 19 years old in Ohio based on whether they received formal driver training before obtaining a driver’s license. The analysis is part of a larger research initiative to study teen driver safety, in collaboration with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the State of Ohio. Data came from a licensing record database maintained by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV). The database contains detailed driver demographics, including date of birth, sex, and home address, as well as information on each driver’s interactions with the BMV, including licensing transaction dates and a driver training completion date. In accordance with data privacy agreements between Ohio and CHOP, a data operations team at CHOP will prepare a de-identified dataset that links young driver’s training records and demographics with their crash records and socioeconomic status variables that are associated with their home Census tracts such as median household income. This study is exempt from institutional review board oversight by CHOP owing to use of de-identified data.
Young drivers’ crash risks and whether they choose to take driver training are likely both affected by their safety awareness. Due to the difficulties in measuring safety awareness of young drivers, conventional statistical models such as logistic regression are unable to capture the effect of safety awareness. This shortcoming, known as endogeneity, will lead to inaccurate estimates of the relationship between young driver crash risks and their driver training status. To overcome this issue, the team proposes a two-stage logistic regression modeling framework. In the first stage, the team predicts young drivers’ likelihood of taking driver training using the travel time to the nearest driving school from the drivers’ home Census tracts and the median household income of their home Census tracts. Previous studies from the research team have found that both travel time and home Census tract’s median household income are significant contributors to teens’ likelihood of taking driver training (Dong, Wu, Jensen, et al., 2023; Dong, Wu, Walshe, et al., 2023). In the second stage, the team uses the young driver’s predicted probabilities of taking driver training from the first stage to estimate whether they have been involved in traffic crashes post-licensure. The team hypothesizes that young drivers who took driver training have lower crash risks than those who delayed licensure until 18 years old and forwent driver training.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Oct 2024 15:39:19 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2437699</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Strategies to Improve Access to Driver Education and Training for Novice Drivers





</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2394426</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Being able to drive is important, and in some cases necessary, to access education, employment, recreation, and other activities. Driver education and training helps prepare novice drivers for challenges and risks associated with driving. Barriers to accessing driver education and training present a significant challenge. The inability to access driver training contributes to varying levels of driving skill and knowledge among novice drivers, potentially leading to increased risks on the road.

Research is needed to identify barriers and potential solutions to achieving greater access to driver education and training. Findings could be used by state highway safety offices (SHSOs), driver licensing agencies, and departments of education to develop targeted strategies to address these challenges.  

The objective of this research is to develop a guide that identifies current efforts, innovative strategies, and promising approaches for SHSOs, state driver licensing agencies, and departments of education to make driver education and training more accessible to novice drivers. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2024 16:51:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2394426</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Safety through Agility: Using Mixed Reality to tune shared autonomy systems</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2292656</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The research team is developing an virtual reality Driver Training system with augmented reality pass through where a 16 year-olds or patients with compromised cognitive capabilities can sit in a stationary real vehicle and use mixed-reality to learn driving skills and get exposed to increasingly challenging driving scenarios. Sensors are strapped onto the steering and brake/gas pedals of their car and capture driver movements, that are fed back into the simulation. The windshield and windows are overlaid with a VR generated driving simulator scenario. As a result, the driver is sitting in a real vehicle with AR passthrough showing the steering wheel and the driver’s hands hands, but the risky driving scenarios are simulated. The goal of this system is to develop a simulator that can be retrofitted in any car so novice drivers can train at home in a safe way and experience risky scenarios that cannot be demonstrated in real-life.   Mixed-reality or XR means VR with AR passthrough. So some visual elements are VR and others are camera passthroughs of reality.  The Problem: The high costs of elder care, both to the individual and the government, combined with the demographic shift towards an increasing number of older adults as a percentage of the overall US population is creating a major healthcare crisis. The number of senior citizens in the US in 2030 will be twice that of 2000, leading to a shortage of working-age caregivers and putting increased pressure on labor costs. Equally important is maintaining, or preferably ameliorating, the quality of life of a growing elderly population. Maintaining elders’ autonomy is correlated with increasing quality of life and autonomy enhancement is correlated with improving functionality. Driving is typically a symbol of autonomy. The revocation of driving privileges is often the first step taken by families worried about cognitive decline and emerging dementia of the older adult. Dementia including Alzheimer's disease is a chronic, progressive syndrome that is characterized by a reduction in the ability to perform daily activities, e.g. a cognitive decline with increasing unpredictability and psychological symptoms. Dementia affects about 5 million people in the USA and 35 million worldwide. Coincidentally, Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are a game-changing AI and robotic solution that can enable older people to maintain independence. For this technology to be effectively deployed, Safety and Trust are however key. Older people, but also caregivers and clinicians need to view the technology as safe and trustworthy. To realize this potential, a robust shared autonomy strategy is needed.  The term shared autonomy is an oxymoron, but it embodies the tension observed as caregivers, clinicians, and patients negotiate the need to trust the autonomous system and the desire to stay in control. This research project aims to address the question on how to mediate autonomy between participating actors to allow the human control of the system up to their level of performance and autotune the degree of intervention by the machine to maintain safety.  Approach: To these ends, the team proposes the development of an interactive imitation learning system for safe human autonomous systems. The system is trained by an expert for multiple levels of performance following a curriculum. When the system is deployed with a human non-expert user (e.g. an older driver), the safe by construction neural network controller ensures safety at any level of performance (see figure on the left). This enables the system to personalize its capabilities to suit the human partner while ensuring safety from any mismatches in the expectations of the controller and that of the human user. The AVs will therefore learn how the user desires to share autonomy and ensure the system does not reach an unsafe state under all operating conditions and inputs from the human.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 21 Nov 2023 20:34:14 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2292656</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Disparities in Access to Driver Education for Teens as a Health and Mobility Equity Issue</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2292667</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Teens who complete behind-the-wheel (BTW) driver education (DE) are able to secure early licensure and are less likely to crash in their early years as a motorist. Disparities in accessibility to BTW DE are therefore disparities in health outcomes (crashes) and mobility (i.e., ability to secure early licensure). The following research grant is to support a stream of research focused on disparities in access to BTW DE, and therefore, safe driving skills and early licensure, for teens. Using inferential statistics and non-parametric statistical techniques, the team will identify economic, racial, and spatial disparities in accessibility to BTW DE by correlating individual data with propensity to engage in DE (Aim 1). The research team will further investigate the disparities in the acquisition of specific safe driving skills by linking individual data with VDA results (Aim 2). As disparities in accessibility to BTW DE are disparities in health outcomes and mobility, the team's research will uncover an actionable way forward to directly address healthy and mobility equity. The research team has assembled a completely novel database of over 18,000 Ohio teens, which includes the following individual-level data: state licensing data, crash data, and DE completion data; household-level data matched with transportation urban planning-related open data; and results from the Virtual Driving Assessment (VDA), a virtual driving skills measurement test the researchers' broader team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia administers to learner drivers. Advanced spatial modeling techniques allow us to collect Socio-economic status data related to home address, and calculate impedance to the nearest DE center.  The research team's project will investigate the following:   Aim 1: Identify individual factors that are most strongly correlated with a teen engaging in BTW DE and early licensure. The research team's early findings at the census tract level tell us that average income is most correlated with a teen pursuing BTW training and early licensure; variables such as activity density and travel distance to BTW DE are also correlated, but more slightly. By matching home address with home value data, the research team assembles the data set that allows us to test the hypothesis directly that income is the strongest predictor of a teen engaging in BTW DE and pursuing early licensure. Moreover, the research team hypothesizes that an individual’s race, as well as details related to the density of their neighborhood (i.e., the collocation of activities), is related to their propensity to engage in BTW DE/early licensure, with BTW DE completion being lower among minority teens. If the research team's hypotheses are correct, it will showcase the deep disparities in who is most like to avoid a crash outcome and the mobility that comes with early licensure.   Aim 2: Identify individual factors that are most strongly correlated with specific acquisition of safe driving skills. The research team has proved the direct correlation between BTW training completion and reduced crash rates in teens; they aim now to correlate the acquisition of specific safe driving skills with the completion of BTW training. The research team's hypothesis is that teens who have completed BTW DE are both overall less risky drivers and have a stronger ability to scan for and respond to hazards/other road users. If the research team's hypotheses are correct, it will showcase the criticality of training drivers from a public health perspective, for individual well-being and to reduce threats to all road users.   This project is a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania Department of City and Regional Planning, the Children Hospital of Philadelphia, and the State of Ohio Department of Public Safety.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 21 Nov 2023 18:07:37 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2292667</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Evaluation of the Impact of App-based Feedback and Monetary Incentives on Teen Driver Safety (extension)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2244370</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Teen drivers will participate in a six-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. The study will consist of 4 experimental phases: Pre-feedback baseline (1 month), website feedback only (2 months), website feedback + monetary incentives (2 months), and post feedback baseline (1 month). Driving feedback will be available on a website that is accessible via mobile device. In addition to the provision of app-based feedback, participants will receive monetary incentives based on safe driving performance. The effectiveness of both the feedback app, and monetary incentives 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. Participant intake and exit questionnaires will also be conducted to obtain qualitative data on user preferences and acceptability. Focus groups with both parents and teens regarding the feedback and monetary incentives will be conducted and the data analyzed. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Sep 2023 13:24:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2244370</guid>
    </item>
    <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>
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      <title>Teen Driving Performance Associated with Distraction, ADHD, and Other Risk Factors



</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1996244</link>
      <description><![CDATA[BTSCRP Research Report 15: provides insights into traffic safety risks for teen drivers with different levels of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) screen scores. The report uses naturalistic driving data to assess the incidence of eyes off road (EOR) and crash risk for teen drivers with and without ADHD. The report concludes that teen drivers with ADHD tend to look away from the road more frequently and may be at an elevated risk for missed hazards. This report will be of interest to state highway safety offices (SHSOs) and other stakeholders concerned with young-driver safety.

Young drivers with neurodevelopmental disabilities may be at more risk for motor vehicle crashes due to behavior characteristics commonly associated with these conditions. In recent years, a growing body of research has examined driving risks for teens with autism and those with ADHD. Research has identified concerns about the driving skills of teenagers with ADHD, as well as their increased tendencies to become distracted while driving and to drive at higher speeds. Determining the role of distracted driving in crashes is difficult and inexact for many reasons, including a general lack of evidence. 

Under BTSCRP Project BTS-28, “Teen Driving Performance Associated with Distraction, ADHD, and Other Risk Factors,” Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was asked to (1) gauge the association between confirmed instances of distracting behaviors and inattention to the driving task by teen drivers with crash and near-crash (CNC) involvement, in relation to their incidence during baseline events; (2) determine whether these instances contribute to CNCs, and if and how these relationships change with increasing driving experience; and (3) compare exposure-based CNC involvement rates, and self-reported risky driving behaviors, for teen drivers with different levels of ADHD screen scores, taking into account the potential influence of other behavioral and demographic factors captured in naturalistic driving study (NDS) data. 

]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 Jul 2022 12:47:38 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1996244</guid>
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