The Department for Transport has commissioned TRL Limited to conduct a major study of learner and novice drivers. The study will contact a total of 112,000 drivers at the time they take their practical driving test and information collected will include how candidates prepared for their test, the types of roads and driving conditions they experienced and how long they spent in the learning process. A cohort of 8000 candidates is being contacted every three months from November 2001 to May 2005. The project will follow those who pass that test for up to three years. They will be sent questionnaires at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after the test pass date. During this period information about attitudes, driver experience, accidents and driving offences will be collected. The intention is to identify learning strategies, to monitor the effects of changes to the training and testing regime, and to identify changes in attitudes and self reported behaviour in the early driving period. The project also offers the opportunity to obtain accident information at regular intervals. This paper describes the background to the project, the organisation and management and the areas which are being explored. Some early results are presented. For the covering abstract see ITRD E119888. This paper may also be accessed by Internet users at: http://www.rospa.com/CMS/viewarticle.asp?article=3850&scheme=7
Samenvatting