On-road Assessment to Drive Safe

Teen drivers exit the learner permit period with difficulty executing a variety of driving behaviors. Knowing that the ability to identify these skill deficits during the learner permit phase would significantly advance teen driver research, Flaura K. Winston, MD, PhD and Dennis R. Durbin, MD, MSCE developed a safe, developmentally appropriate, and challenging on-road driving assessment of teen drivers during the learner permit phase to help them drive safe.

The On-Road Driving Assessment for Learner Teen Drivers (tODA) was validated with funding from State Farm Mutual Insurance Company to assess a wide range of specific driving tasks and to characterize the nature of safety-relevant errors (classified as “critical errors”) that inhibit the ability of teens to drive safe. Published data suggest that the tODA expands the repertoire of driving assessments by providing a means to safely and systematically assess drivers with varying levels of expertise in the context of practical evaluations of driver performance.

The tODA was used in the clinical trial of TeenDrivingPlan (TDP), an evidence-based interactive web-based program to help parents more effectively supervise their teens' practice driving, and other studies conducted by the CIRP Teen Driving Safety Research team. 

Publications Using the On-Road Driving Assessment

• TeenDrivingPlan Effectiveness: The Effect of Quantity and Diversity of Supervised Practice on Teen’s Driving Performance. Journal of Adolescent Health. June 2014.  
• Development of an On-road Driving Assessment for Learner Teen Drivers. Transportation Research Record. July 2014.
• Driving Errors of Learner Teens: Frequency, Nature and Their Association with Practice. Accident Analysis and Prevention. August 2014.
• Comparison of Teen and Adult Driver Crash Scenarios in a Nationally Representative Sample of Serious Crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention. November 2014.
• Effect of the Teen Driving Plan on the Driving Performance of Teenagers Before Licensure: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatrics. August 2014.
• Engagement with the TeenDrivingPlan and Diversity of Teens’ Supervised Practice Driving: Lessons for Internet-based Learner Driver Interventions. Injury Prevention. August 2015.