Development of an On-road Driving Assessment for Learner Teen Drivers

摘要

Background: Teen drivers exit the learner permit period with difficulty executing a variety ofdriving behaviors. The ability to identify these skill deficits during the learner permit phasewould significantly advance teen driver research.Objective: To develop a safe, developmentally appropriate, and challenging assessment of teendrivers during the learner permit phase, the On-road Driving Assessment for Learner TeenDrivers (tODA), that can assess a wide range of specific driving tasks and characterize the natureof safety-relevant errors (classified as “critical errors”).Methods: The tODA was developed and tested for feasibility of administration by professionaldriving evaluators. Two assessment routes were developed, an early and a late route, andadministered to 28 teen permit holders at approximately 12 and 24 weeks into their permitholding period. Forty licensed adult drivers, two separate samples of 20 drivers, drove the routesto begin to establish a criterion standard for route performance; adult participants were requiredto meet safety and performance standards to be included in the analyses.Results: The tODA was implemented with fidelity by professional evaluators with teens andadults. Three teen participants (10.7%) had the early tODA terminated for safety concerns; oneof these participants (3.5%) also had the late tODA terminated for safety concerns. In addition,two teen participants (7.1%) did not complete the highway module of the late tODA secondary toteen/parental request. No adults were terminated and none skipped the highway module.Conclusions: Preliminary data suggest that the tODA expands the repertoire of drivingassessments by providing a means to safely and systematically assess drivers with varying levelsof expertise in the context of practical evaluations of driver performance as well for researchpurposes.