Improving Young Drivers’ Speed Estimation and Management Skills through Concurrent Feedback: A Simulator Study

Young drivers, intentionally or not, are less likely to obey speed limits and are less likely to adjust their driving behavior according to local road conditions. Such speed estimation and management skills can be improved by providing specific feedback regarding an individual’s actions. This study operationalizes Tongji’s high fidelity driving simulator to test the effect of two types of feedback regarding travelling speed – concurrent and retrospective feedback – upon young driver travelling speed. Forty-five young drivers aged 19 to 21 years (n=30 males) were grouped according to three risk levels (n=15 in each level) through questionnaire-based personality and driving skill assessment including sensation seeking, anxiety, driving anger, driving attitudes, situation awareness, and reaction speed. After a baseline drive in which all drivers had the opportunity to travel in three speed zones, 30 drivers received concurrent feedback during a second simulator drive while 15 drivers received retrospective feedback – based on their baseline drive – before the second drive. Assessment of speed profiles and self-estimated speed indicated that concurrent feedback is generally more effective in improving immediate speed management. Through comparison across the three risk groupings of young drivers, concurrent feedback was found to be more effective for high risk young drivers. Given the great crash risks experienced by young drivers in the earliest stages of their independent driving lifetimes, training and education efforts should focus on providing real-time feedback regarding current travelling speeds, while technology may be optimized by provision of feedback regarding real-time risky driving speeds.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB30 Standing Committee on Operator Education and Regulation.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Chai, Chen
  • Zhou, Ziyao
  • Wang, Xuesong
  • Scott-Parker, Bridie
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
• Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 4p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Driver education; Driving; High risk drivers; Risk taking; Speeding; Teenage drivers
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01697702
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 19-01473
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM