Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon

Mayhew, Dan; Vanlaar, Ward; Lonero, Larry; Robertson, Robyn; Marcoux, Kyla; Wood, Katherine; Clinton, Kathryn; Simpson, Herb

doi:10.3390/safety3010009

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon

by

Dan Mayhew

^1,*,

Ward Vanlaar

¹,

Larry Lonero

²,

Robyn Robertson

¹,

Kyla Marcoux

¹,

Katherine Wood

¹,

Kathryn Clinton

² and

Herb Simpson

¹

Traffic Injury Research Foundation, Suite 200, 171 Nepean Street, Ottawa, ON K2P 0B4, Canada

²

Northport Associates, 182 Bagot Street, Cobourg, ON K9A 3G2, Canada

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Safety 2017, 3(1), 9; https://doi.org/10.3390/safety3010009

Submission received: 31 August 2016 / Revised: 5 January 2017 / Accepted: 10 February 2017 / Published: 21 February 2017

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Driver/Rider Training)

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Abstract

Although driver education (DE) is widely accepted as an effective teen driver safety measure and widely available in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, evaluations have generally failed to show that such formal programs actually produce safer drivers. To address the issue of safety effects as part of a larger investigation, two studies were conducted to examine whether the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)-approved DE program was associated with reductions in collisions and convictions. In the first study, DE status among a relatively small sample of teens who completed an online survey was not found to have a significant effect on collisions and convictions. In the second study, of a much larger population of teen drivers, DE status was associated with a lower incidence of collisions and convictions. On balance, this suggests that the safety effects of DE are either neutral, based on the results of the first Oregon study, or cautiously optimistic based on the results of the second study. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of making improvements in DE that are evidence-based, and the need for further evaluation to establish that improved and new programs meet their safety objectives.

Keywords: driver education (DE); beginner drivers; teen drivers; evaluation; safety effects; crashes; road safety

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MDPI and ACS Style

Mayhew, D.; Vanlaar, W.; Lonero, L.; Robertson, R.; Marcoux, K.; Wood, K.; Clinton, K.; Simpson, H. Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon. Safety 2017, 3, 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/safety3010009

AMA Style

Mayhew D, Vanlaar W, Lonero L, Robertson R, Marcoux K, Wood K, Clinton K, Simpson H. Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon. Safety. 2017; 3(1):9. https://doi.org/10.3390/safety3010009

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mayhew, Dan, Ward Vanlaar, Larry Lonero, Robyn Robertson, Kyla Marcoux, Katherine Wood, Kathryn Clinton, and Herb Simpson. 2017. "Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon" Safety 3, no. 1: 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/safety3010009

APA Style

Mayhew, D., Vanlaar, W., Lonero, L., Robertson, R., Marcoux, K., Wood, K., Clinton, K., & Simpson, H. (2017). Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon. Safety, 3(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/safety3010009

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon

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