NOVICE LEARNER DRIVER PERCEPTIONS OF THE EFFICIENCY OF DRIVING SIMULATOR-BASED TRAINING IN A NATURAL SETTING IN QUEBEC

摘要

Novice, adolescent driver overrepresentation in road crashes is a well-documented, robustphenomenon. Driver education and training are popular but controversial interventions that haverarely demonstrated safety benefits. Flight simulators have proven effective in pilot training andthe decreasing costs and increasing quality of simulation technology make driving simulatorbasedtraining (DSBT) more feasible. In 2010, a long-term, naturalistic, transfer-of-training (ToT)study began to examine the effectiveness of substituting DSBT for part of the on-road training.Within the ToT study, one driving simulator hour can replace one on-road hour for up to 50% ofthe 15 hours of mandatory on-road lessons. The final results of the ToT study, due in 2015, willaddress two main questions. One, how does DSBT compare with on-road instruction in terms ofperformance on the government road exam? Two, does DSBT affect adolescent driver safety?This article presents questionnaire data from the first cohort of graduate learner drivers whosubstituted at least one hour of on-road training with one driving simulator hour. Thequestionnaires address learners’ general perceptions of learning to drive and their specificperceptions of DBST and its comparative efficiency to on-road training as well as drivingteachers’ perceptions of their learners’ driving competence. Results indicate that DSBT comparedfavorably with on-road lessons and is perceived to be either more efficient than or equally efficient to on-road lessons for 13 of 15 specific driving skills. In addition, driving teachers gavetheir learners high competency ratings.