Driver education has been very prominent as a teen driver safety measure in the United States over the past decade at state and national levels. This is in marked contrast to previous decades when these programs were widely adopted but received little support or attention, particularly at a national level. This was largely due to early evaluations of traditional programs that suggested these programs failed to reduce teen driver crashes. While some recent evaluations have reported more positive results on the safety value of driver education, as was the case with most previous studies, they suffered from design limitations, principle of which was the lack of random assignment of teen subjects to take or not take driver education which resulted in self-selection bias. Although efforts were taken to statistically control for such biases, it is still possible that this accounted for some, and possibly all, of the positive effects that have been attributed to driver education. The recent rejuvenation of interest in driver education has largely emerged from efforts by the leadership of national driver education associations and road safety agencies with the support of the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA). Work was undertaken to develop national, voluntary standards for state driver education programs and to establish the Association of National Stakeholders for Traffic Safety Education to review, update and promote these standards. Despite these recent efforts, most driver education programs have remained relatively unchanged since their inception (i.e., 30 hours of in-class education and six to eight hours behind-the-wheel training). While, some modest improvements in driver education programs have been achieved, reductions in teen driver crashes have been less substantial. As such, this issue continues to be a significant road safety and public health concern. New, non-traditional, teaching technologies and approaches are also emerging but their evidence base from independent, well-designed studies is lacking or inconclusive. More robust and comprehensive evaluations are needed to determine whether non-traditional training techniques, as well as improved driver education programs, have a positive influence on teen driving performance. In this regard, a review of the current context of driver education and teen driver safety programs can provide important insight into opportunities for advancements, and help build on existing strengths or activities to gain momentum. The objective of this work is to increase understanding of the context of government decision making about driver education and teen driver safety programs, and to gain insight into real-world factors that influence such processes. Experiences and lessons learned from states that have different regulatory authority for driver education, variable driver license requirements, and that have pursued a range of improvements to their respective programs can provide important insight to stimulate action in more jurisdictions This report is designed to explore key factors that influence state decisions regarding teen driver safety programs, generally, and driver education programs specifically, to provide guidance for jurisdictions that are seeking strategies to improve teen driver safety. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting