Reducing newly-qualified driver crash risk: Identifying behavioural targets
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Road traffic crashes pose a major public health challenge. During 2013 crashes claimed 1713 UK lives and seriously injured 21657. This is an unacceptable human tragedy and also cost the economy £14.7 billion. Novice drivers have higher crash risk than any other group of drivers. Crash rates are highest immediately after the licence is obtained and decreases quickly over the first few months of driving. When people hear these statistics they usually attribute this effect to "experience". This is correct; we can be confident that this safety improvement does result from driving experience. However, we do not know how driving behaviour changes as result of experience; we do not know what it is that more experienced drivers do differently from very new drivers. If we can work out what experienced drivers are doing differently then we can support new drivers to adopt the same behaviours from the start of their driving careers. This support might take the form of training, testing, in-vehicle technology and legislation.
In order to identify how behaviour changes over the early stages of driving, we will repeatedly interview a sample of new drivers over the first 3 months of their driving careers. We will focus on four situations in which new drivers are particularly vulnerable to crashes: (1) turning right across a traffic flow, (2) loss-of control on curves, (3) situations risking rear-end shunts and (4) driving at night. We will use these results to design a new questionnaire to measure the behaviours that change over the first few months of driving. We will then conduct a large scale study of new drivers to refine our questionnaire and test whether it measures the driving behaviours that underlie the road safety improvements during the early months of driving. Evidence that safer scores on our measure are more common in experienced drivers and predict lower crash involvement would be supportive of its effectiveness.
The results of this study can inform policy and practice aimed at reducing risky behaviour associated with elevated crash risk in novice drivers. The behaviours identified as underlying the safety improvement in the first few months of driving can be targeted in driver training to try to improve novice drivers' road safety from day one. Our measure may be used in evaluations of whether training packages are effective in this regard. Our work could also inform revisions to the driving test to facilitate only giving licencing drivers who have reached a certain level in the behaviours identified. More broadly, the project will contribute to understanding the behaviours that put novice drivers at increased crash risk. Our results will inform policy decisions regarding legislation to protect young drivers from crash. For example there is mounting pressure to introduce a Graduated Licensing Scheme in the UK to prohibit novice drivers from the riskiest driving behaviours during their first year of driving. Our work can inform this debate by indicating which behaviours are most important to prohibit. Our results can also inform the design of in-car driver support technologies to aid novice drivers in the most safety-relevant aspects of driving. In these ways we believe our project can support more effective public health interventions to reduce crash involvement among novice drivers in the future.
In order to identify how behaviour changes over the early stages of driving, we will repeatedly interview a sample of new drivers over the first 3 months of their driving careers. We will focus on four situations in which new drivers are particularly vulnerable to crashes: (1) turning right across a traffic flow, (2) loss-of control on curves, (3) situations risking rear-end shunts and (4) driving at night. We will use these results to design a new questionnaire to measure the behaviours that change over the first few months of driving. We will then conduct a large scale study of new drivers to refine our questionnaire and test whether it measures the driving behaviours that underlie the road safety improvements during the early months of driving. Evidence that safer scores on our measure are more common in experienced drivers and predict lower crash involvement would be supportive of its effectiveness.
The results of this study can inform policy and practice aimed at reducing risky behaviour associated with elevated crash risk in novice drivers. The behaviours identified as underlying the safety improvement in the first few months of driving can be targeted in driver training to try to improve novice drivers' road safety from day one. Our measure may be used in evaluations of whether training packages are effective in this regard. Our work could also inform revisions to the driving test to facilitate only giving licencing drivers who have reached a certain level in the behaviours identified. More broadly, the project will contribute to understanding the behaviours that put novice drivers at increased crash risk. Our results will inform policy decisions regarding legislation to protect young drivers from crash. For example there is mounting pressure to introduce a Graduated Licensing Scheme in the UK to prohibit novice drivers from the riskiest driving behaviours during their first year of driving. Our work can inform this debate by indicating which behaviours are most important to prohibit. Our results can also inform the design of in-car driver support technologies to aid novice drivers in the most safety-relevant aspects of driving. In these ways we believe our project can support more effective public health interventions to reduce crash involvement among novice drivers in the future.
Technical Summary
Novice drivers are the highest risk motorists on the road. Crash risk is highest immediately after passing the driving test and declines quickly over the first months. We know that this reflects safer driving behaviour resulting from experience but we do not know how experience makes behaviour safer. Counter intuitively the best documented behavioural predictors of crash involvement (risk-taking, anticipation of future hazards, self-reported errors) do not show a developmental pattern that matches the decrease in crash risk. This project aims to identify the behaviours that change as a result of experience to make driving safer.
We will conduct a longitudinal qualitative study to ascertain a subjective account of behavioural changes over the first three months of driving. We will focus on four scenarios where novice drivers are particularly vulnerable to crashing during the early months: (1) turning right across a traffic flow (2) loss-of control on curves (3) situations risking rear-end shunts and (4) driving at night. Using these data we will construct a new instrument, the Early Driving Development Questionnaire (EDD-Q) to measure the behaviours reported to change with experience over the early months of driving. We will conduct a large-scale quantitative study to refine the EDD-Q and objectively test whether the measured behaviours change over time and are related to crash involvement.
Project impacts include identifying behaviours for training to target in order to give new drivers the safer behaviours of experienced drivers. The EDD-Q may form the outcome for randomised controlled trials to test whether training is effective. The results could also inform revisions to the driving test and the design of in-car driver support technologies to aid novice drivers in the most safety-relevant aspects of driving. It can also inform policy decisions regarding legislation to protect young drivers from crashes, for example within a Graduated Licencing Framework.
We will conduct a longitudinal qualitative study to ascertain a subjective account of behavioural changes over the first three months of driving. We will focus on four scenarios where novice drivers are particularly vulnerable to crashing during the early months: (1) turning right across a traffic flow (2) loss-of control on curves (3) situations risking rear-end shunts and (4) driving at night. Using these data we will construct a new instrument, the Early Driving Development Questionnaire (EDD-Q) to measure the behaviours reported to change with experience over the early months of driving. We will conduct a large-scale quantitative study to refine the EDD-Q and objectively test whether the measured behaviours change over time and are related to crash involvement.
Project impacts include identifying behaviours for training to target in order to give new drivers the safer behaviours of experienced drivers. The EDD-Q may form the outcome for randomised controlled trials to test whether training is effective. The results could also inform revisions to the driving test and the design of in-car driver support technologies to aid novice drivers in the most safety-relevant aspects of driving. It can also inform policy decisions regarding legislation to protect young drivers from crashes, for example within a Graduated Licencing Framework.
Publications
Day MR
(2018)
Why do drivers become safer over the first three months of driving? A longitudinal qualitative study.
in Accident; analysis and prevention
Rowe R
(2022)
Why are newly qualified motorists at high crash risk? Modelling driving behaviours across the first six months of driving.
in Accident; analysis and prevention
Rowe R
(2023)
Safety belt use in the early months of driving
| Description | ESRC National Centre for Research Methods Placement Fellowship - phase 2 |
| Amount | £2,170 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2019 |
| End | 11/2021 |
| Description | ESRC National Centre for Research Methods Placement Fellowships |
| Amount | £8,950 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RIS: 18410/02 |
| Organisation | University of Southampton |
| Department | ESRC National Centre for Research Methods |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 06/2019 |
| Description | Conference presentation at the International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A presentation was given at the International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics to an international audience of academic researchers and automotive industry researchers. The talk covered research findings from both the Medical Research Council grant MR/N011198/1 titled "Reducing newly-qualified driver crash risk: Identifying behavioural targets", and the Economic and Social Research Council grant ES/K004565/1 titled "Modelling developmental trajectories of novice drivers with high and low crash liability". The talk was part of a seminar on Driver Skill, and generated questions on how to change novice driver behaviour. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.ahfe2019.org |
| Description | Driving Instructors Association Annual Conference 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Richard Rowe (PI) and Damian Poulter (coI) were invited to present the results of the project at this practitioner organisation conference following our seminar at the Transport Research Laboratory. We presented a lay summary of the results, discussed the potential implications for driving instructors and asked the audience for their views on what might be underlying the results that we observed and what they thought could be done in future to improve these aspects of young driver road safety. This led to a lively discussion with the audience which will help us with framing future projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited Seminar - University of Leeds |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 20 academics and postgraduate students attended an invited presentation at the Department of Psychology, University of Leeds, presented by Richard Rowe. The seminar presented the programme of research funded initially by ESRC and most recently by this MRC grant. Academics presented feedback and the potential for future work, including collaboration with the driving simulation team at Leeds was discussed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited talk at Young Driver Focus 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Young Driver Focus is an annual event organised by Road Safety GB working in partnership with FirstCar, and is aimed at an audience of public sector road safety professionals (e.g., road safety officers, fire & rescue, police etc.) and private sector road safety organisations/individuals. Held at the Royal Automobile Club, the event focuses on the issue of reducing crash involvement among novice and young drivers, with an audience of approximately 150 people from the road safety community. The PI and Co-! were invited to give a joint presentation that covered results from the original grant (ES/K004565/1), as well as results from a subsequent Medical Research Council grant (MR/N011198/1). The aim of the presentation was to disseminate research findings to the wider road safety community, including members of central and local government, emergency services, road safety organisations and charities, driving instructor associations and insurance companies. Speakers included Jesse Norman MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Roads, Local Transport and Devolution, Nicholas Worrell, Director, Office of Safety Advocacy, National Transportation Safety Board, USA, Lesley Young, Head of Policy and Chief Driving Examiner, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), as well as academics and practitioners with special interest in young driver road safety. The presentation is publicly available via the event website (http://youngdriverfocus.org.uk/youngdriverfocus/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Rowe-PoulterYDF18.pptx), as well as being disseminated by the Road Safety Knowledge Centre (http://www.roadsafetyknowledgecentre.org.uk/knowledge/1806.html). Informal discussion with public sector organisation representative and other researchers took place after the presentations, with the potential for future collaboration on key factors around the issue of novice and young driver crash risk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://youngdriverfocus.org.uk |
| Description | Invited talk at the 3rd NTU Traffic and Transport Psychology Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A Traffic and Transport Psychology Symposium organised by Nottingham Trent University which focussed on Young Drivers' Future Training Needs. A series of presentations were given by a diverse range of speakers (including from a government executive agency, a driver training organisation, and leading UK academics in the field) to an audience of road safety community members. There were networking and discussion opportunities throughout the day. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Novice and Young Driver Seminar (Transport Research Laboratory) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Following the successful model we used in our recent ESRC project, we organised a one-day seminar (10.30 to 15.40) to disseminate the key results of our project, and address the policy and practice implications arising from the outcomes. The seminar was hosted by Transport Research Laboratory and they used their extensive contacts to invite an audience representing various sectors of the road safety community. Attendees included representatives from central and local government, police, driving associations and charities, road safety organisations and insurance companies. the day was structured so that PI (Richard Rowe) and co-I (Damian Poulter) provided the background and findings of the study in the morning. In the afternoon there were presentations by invited external experts to discuss the implications of our work for changing road safety behaviour (Chris Armitage, University of Manchester, Professor of Health Psychology) and the policy implications Frank McKenna (Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Reading). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |