The Transition to Unsupervised Driving

1
The Transition to Unsupervised Driving
2
Background

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of
• death for teenagers in the United States
• In 2009, 3,466 teenagers (ages 13-19) were
• killed in motor vehicle crashes
• The economic cost of crashes involving young
• drivers is over 34B each year

3
Graduated Driver Licensing

• GDL laws vary widely, but all 50 states and DC
  have some form
• Optimal GDL laws feature a 3-tiered approach
• Supervised (learners permit)
• Restricted unsupervised (e.g., nighttime and
  passenger restrictions)
• Full license
• GDL laws allow teen drivers to gain experience
  behind the
• wheel while controlling exposure to risks such
  as
• Distracting passengers
• Nighttime driving
• Use of electronic devices
• Largely credited for 42 reduction in fatal
  crashes of
• 16-year-old drivers since 1996

4
The Problem

• Parents and other supervisors during the
  learners
• permit stage generally do a good job creating a
  
• safe in-car environment
• Crashes are rare during this first phase
• However, crash rates increase 12 times when
  teens
• first begin to drive unsupervised, and teens
  are 50
• percent more likely to crash in their first
  month of
• driving than they are after getting a year of
  experience
• The specific reasons behind this sharp increase
• in crash risk are not well understood

5
GDL Stage I The Permit

• Teens can only operate a motor vehicle with a
  fully-
• licensed driver in the front passenger seat
• Stage I was examined in previous AAA Foundation
• research (Goodwin et al., Oct. 2010) which
  found
• Parents created a safe in-car environment during
  this stage and incidents were rare
• Most of the driving experience teens got was
  under benign conditions and in routine situations
• Teens drove less during Stage I than previously
  assumed 1.60 hours/week, spread over 3.2 days
• Parental instruction was generally quite basic
  training in higher-order concepts was rare

6
GDL Stage II Key Questions

• How do the driving behaviors of newly-
• unsupervised teens change when they obtain a
• restricted (provisional) license?
• How do the nature of incidents and the driving
• environment (internal and external) change when
  
• teens begin to drive unsupervised?
• What insight can be gained into the 12-fold
  crash
• rate increase seen during the first months of
• unsupervised driving?
• How can parents better prepare their teens to be
  
• solo drivers?

7
The Study
Published October 2011 Prepared by Arthur
Goodwin Robert Foss Natalie OBrien UNC Highway
Safety Research Center
Available online at www.AAAFoundation.org
8
Method

• Recruited 50 families in North Carolina as
• teens applied for learners permit
• Following completion of October 2010 study
• on parental supervision during Stage I, 38
• families agreed to continue participating
• once teen obtained intermediate license

9
Method (continued)

• Installed cameras (triggered by change in
  g-forces)
• to capture video clips of the cabin and
  immediate
• surroundings in front of and behind vehicle
• Coded and analyzed nearly 6,000 clips capturing
  
• triggering events (e.g., hard braking,
  swerving,
• sudden acceleration)
• Compared these to 1,750 clips from the initial
  study
• (Stage I) that featured the 38 subjects who
  continued to
• participate
• Naturalistic no attempt made to alter behavior
  of the
• study participants
• Cameras installed for four months in Stage I,
  and
• six months in Stage II

10
Key Findings and Observations
Internal Driving Environment

• Parent or adult were in the car 3 of Stage II
  clips
• compared with 99 of clips during Stage
• Percentage of clips showing young passengers in
  car
• didnt change however
• Stage I passengers were mainly siblings
• Stage II passengers were often peers
• Driver belt usage remained high (99 of Stage I
  and 98
• of Stage II clips) front passenger belt use
  declined slightly
• Likelihood of loud music seven times higher in
  Stage II
• than Stage I
• One in six Stage II clips had music loud enough
• to be distracting or mask the sound of
  horns/sirens

11
Key Findings and Observations
External Driving Environment

• Regardless of license type, most clips were
  recorded
• in the afternoon however
• Night driving clips (9 pm 5 am) were more than
• twice as likely during Stage II than Stage I
• Stage I clips were most likely to be recorded on
  
• weekends in Stage II they were spread evenly
• throughout the week
• A greater percentage of Stage II clips occurred
  in
• darkness (21 vs. 17 in Stage I)
• Stage II clips 60 more likely to involve wet or
  
• rainy conditions compared to Stage I

12
Key Findings and Observations
Triggering Events/Incidents

• Stage I clips more likely to be triggered by
  hard
• acceleration with Stage II clips more often
  resulted from
• right turns
• Otherwise, triggering events generally similar
• Few, if any, differences in maximum g-forces
  were
• recorded during Stage I Stage II triggering
  events
• Judgment errors and deliberately risky maneuvers
  
• became more common once teens began driving
• unsupervised
• A relatively small number of teens accounted
• for many of the recorded incidents

13
Discussion Recommendations

• Driving conditions appear to change between
  Stages I II
• More clips recorded at night and in rainy
  conditions once
• teens began to drive unsupervised
• Teens may not be adequately prepared for this
  change
• Stage I study found that most supervised
  practice occurred
• during the day and in good weather more
  practice under
• varying conditions is therefore needed
• Most (65) of Stage II clips showed no
  passengers in the
• vehicle however
• Teens were more likely to be carrying friends
  during Stage II,
• and studies show higher crash rates under such
  circumstances
• Parents should enforce their states GDL
  passenger
• restrictions (or impose their own)

14
Discussion Recommendations

• Parents generally absent from Stage II clips (
  they were present in only 3!)
• Remember just because teens can drive solo with
  an intermediate license doesnt mean parents need
  to disappear or end the training and supervision
  process
• Parents can, and should, stay involved in their
  teens driving
• Significant jump in the likelihood of
  potentially-distracting music during Stage II
  suggests that teens should be made aware of the
  hazards associated with loud music
• Notably risky or worrisome incidents were
  relatively rare during both stages, and only a
  few differences in behavior were observed when
  teens began driving unsupervised

15
Next Steps
Subsequent report will examine certain key issues
in greater detail, such as the nature and
prevalence of teen distracted driving, and the
influences on teen driving that passengers are
observed to have.
16
For more information, go to AAAFoundation.org
17
Established by AAA in 1947, the AAA Foundation
for Traffic Safety is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit,
publicly-supported charitable educational and
research organization. Dedicated to saving lives
and reducing injuries on our roads, the
Foundations mission is to prevent crashes and
save lives through research and education about
traffic safety. The Foundation is supported by
donations from AAA/CAA Clubs, AAA/CAA members,
and other organizations associated with AAA/CAA.