Completed and Foundational Young Driver Safety Research
For more than a decade, the young driver safety research team at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has conducted research to help prevent teen crashes. This completed and foundational teen driving safety research has furthered the science and promoted public policy changes to keep everyone safe on the roads.
Many of the following young driver safety projects have led to new areas of research for the team at CIRP and collaborations with public health partners to share evidenced-informed educational resources.
Key Completed and Foundational Young Driver Safety Projects
- Distracted DrivingMore
CHOP researchers collaborated with the Penn Injury Science Center and the Annenberg Public Policy Center to develop behavior change interventions that include strategies to encourage focused attention driving. These studies tested different interventions aimed at reducing distracted driving, particularly in teen drivers, including a web-based educational intervention and behavioral economics strategies, as well as different ways to implement technological solutions, such as automated blocking of cell phone use while the vehicle is in motion.
- Driver's License And Crash PatternsMore
In a series of three research projects, Allison E. Curry, PhD, MPH and her team looked at driver's license and crash patterns in New Jersey for young drivers. Findings indicate that age and experience matter when it comes to young driver crash rates and support extending age requirements for the intermediate phase of Graduate Driver Licensing to 21 years.
- Evaluation of Community Outreach Programs For Teen Driver SafetyMore
CHOP researchers collaborated with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to develop tools to facilitate the evaluation and enhancement of community outreach programs for teen driver safety. The two-year project included stakeholder interviews in the community, review of existing programs both within the state and across the nation, and interactive workshops with traffic safety professionals.
- GDL Compliance And EnforcementMore
In this study, researchers reported the first population-level estimate of compliance with GDL among young drivers with an intermediate license. Using a novel application of the quasi-induced exposure technique, researchers determined rates of compliance with two GDL provisions -- passenger limits and nighttime driving.
- Improve Teen Driver BehaviorsMore
CHOP researchers conducted a number of studies to assess the driving skills of newly licensed teens, how various driving scenarios affect teen driver behavior and emotions, how mental health conditions affect teen driver behaviors, and patterns of risk-taking in young drivers.
- Miles to Go ReportsMore
Between 2011 and 2013, CIRP published this annual report series. Miles to Go monitored teen driving safety statistics and trends, providing a yearly snapshot of teen driving safety statistics for the nation.
- National Young Driver SurveyMore
In 2006, The National Young Driver Survey (NYDS) was created to help young driver safety researchers better understand how teens perceive and experience driving. Ten research papers were published in the scientific literature and insights learned from NYDS helped CIRP determine future lines of research that would contribute most – and have the greatest impact – on young driver safety.
- New Jersey GDL Decals and Vehicle IdentifiersMore
In 2010 New Jersey implemented a GDL provision requiring young novice drivers to display a decal on their vehicle indicating their license status. In these studies, researchers examined the effect of the provision on enforcement and crashes among young intermediate drivers.
- On-Road Assessment to Drive SafeMore
The teen On-Road Driving Assessment (tODA) was validated for use in the development of TeenDrivingPlan (TDP), an evidence-based interactive web-based program to help parents more effectively supervise their teens' practice driving.
- Prevalence of Teen Driver Errors Leading to Serious Motor Vehicle CrashesMore
In this study, CHOP researchers were able to pinpoint why teen drivers crash. Driver error was by far the most common reason for crashes, as opposed to vehicle or environmental factors.
- Ride Like a FriendMore
Developed at CIRP, Ride Like A Friend. Drive Like You Care was a peer-to-peer social marketing campaign teens used in schools to encourage safe driver and passenger behavior and was an excellent example of program theory in practice.
- Simulated Driving Assessment (SDA)More
CHOP researchers have developed and validated the Simulated Driving Assessment (SDA), a simulator-based driving assessment that can differentiate between skilled and non-skilled drivers. The development of the SDA followed more than a decade of foundational CHOP research regarding young driver crashes and over five years of research to create and validate it, offering the first safe way to assess novice teen drivers' skills in high-risk driving scenarios that commonly lead to crashes.
- TeenDrivingPlan (TDP)More
The development of TeenDrivingPlan (TDP), an interactive web-based program to help parents more effectively supervise driving practice, involved five years of formative research followed by a randomized, controlled trial of young drivers and their parent supervisors. Key TDP study results show that the intervention increases parent engagement as driving supervisors, practice variety, and parent support of teens.
