Outcomes of Variability in Teen Driving Experience and Exposure: Evidence from the Naturalistic Driving Study

Teen novice drivers are well known to have higher crash rates than other age cohorts. A major safety question that lacks clarity and definitive scientific evidence is whether teen drivers who are exposed to greater diversity of traffic and road environments early in their driving careers have lower crash involvement than those who are exposed to less diversity. Ideally, this question would be addressed by analyzing how driving exposure, both the amount of driving (i.e., exposure) and driving conditions (i.e., road environment and geometry), changes when teens make the transition from supervised to unsupervised driving. Existing data collected for the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS) offer the opportunity to investigate this research question. While supervised driving data are not available in the SHRP2 NDS, it is possible to compare the diversity of experience in the early months of unsupervised driving with later months. This would allow for empirical examination of the association of exposure to greater diversity with crashes and near-crashes. The objective of this research is to use the SHRP2 NDS data, and other potential naturalistic driving data sources, to evaluate how exposure to driving in more diverse traffic and road environments is associated with teen driver behavior, performance indicators that lead to crashes, and safety surrogate measures (e.g., near-crashes, speeding, observed distracted driving). The analysis will consider changes in driver behavior and subsequent crash risk. Based on the results of the analysis, the study will develop recommendations/strategies for improving teen driver safety. The period of early exposure during unsupervised driving is the focus of the research.   

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5189

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $400000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project BTS-23

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Governors Highway Safety Association

  444 N. Capitol Street, NW, Suite 722
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Retting, Richard

• Performing Organizations:

  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

  208 Patton Hall
  Blacksburg, VA  United States  24061
• Principal Investigators:

  Klauer, Charlie

• Start Date: 20220912
• Expected Completion Date: 20241211
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic data collection systems; Driver experience; Driving behavior; Teenage drivers; Traffic safety; Vehicle mix
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Education and Training; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01775929
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project BTS-23
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jul 5 2021 5:39PM