scholarly journals Exploring the Dimensions of Driving Instruction through Naturalistic Observation of Formal Practical Lessons with Learner Drivers

Author(s):  
Natalie Watson-Brown ◽  
Bridie Scott-Parker ◽  
Bruce Simons-Morton ◽  
Teresa Senserrick

Higher-order driving skills (HO-DS) are deficient in young drivers who are over-represented in road crash fatalities and serious injuries. Teaching HO-DS has strong theoretical support in reducing crash risk. This study contributes to the dearth of literature regarding on-road driver training that can develop these skills. Higher-order driving instruction (HO-DI) is explored in formal on-road driving lessons (in Queensland, Australia) via naturalistic observation. Fifteen instructors and 96 learner drivers aged 16–19 years were recruited, with 110 lessons observed. An HO-DI coding taxonomy informed by the Goals for Driver Education ( 24) was used for content analysis using an a priori approach, comprising eight HO-DI codes: driving plan (formerly driving route), vehicle control and maneuvering, mastery of traffic situations, surveillance, situational risk (formerly environmental variables), personal risk (formerly knowledge of risk), car function (formerly car knowledge), and distraction. Thirty-nine sub-themes were identified within the codes allowing a deeper understanding of instruction, including missed (unseen) and untaken (seen but not actioned) HO-DI opportunities. The findings inform recommendations for the development of best practice HO-DI. This study has implications for the driver training industry with potential for reducing the crash risk of young novice drivers.

Author(s):  
Fangda Zhang ◽  
Shashank Mehrotra ◽  
Shannon C. Roberts

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15 to 20-year olds. Young/novice drivers have long been thought to be vulnerable to the impact of peer passengers, and thus have a higher crash risk. It has been proven that perceived risky behavior of close friends was the best psychosocial predictor of risk. Additionally, young drivers (18-20 years) have the highest involvement in distraction-related crashes. The goal of this study was to examine the effect of social influence and driver distraction on young drivers’ behavior. Twenty-four pairs of participants took part in the study. Participants drove in pairs and by themselves while completing four distraction tasks. Results showed that the presence of a passenger did not show statistical significance related to drivers’ behavior. However, other social influence factors did significantly impact drivers’ behavior, including stimulating companionship, type of friendship, and their interactions.


Author(s):  
Lawrence P. Lonero ◽  
Kathryn M. Clinton ◽  
Douglas M. Black

The purpose of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety outline project was to initiate program development which could lead to “reinventing” a more intensive, comprehensive, and effective driver education system, which could lead to crash reduction in novice drivers. The project reviewed knowledge in a number of areas — driver education effectiveness, novice drivers' needs, and methods of instruction and behavioral influence. The traditional education model used for driver education is inadequate, and fundamental changes in content, methods, and organization are needed. New developments and synergies among education methods, training technologies, organizational change, and demand for quality promise a new and more effective role for driver education in the 21st Century.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1340
Author(s):  
Damir Vrančić ◽  
Mikuláš Huba

The paper presents a tuning method for PID controllers with higher-order derivatives and higher-order controller filters (HO-PID), where the controller and filter orders can be arbitrarily chosen by the user. The controller and filter parameters are tuned according to the magnitude optimum criteria and the specified noise gain of the controller. The advantages of the proposed approach are twofold. First, all parameters can be obtained from the process transfer function or from the measured input and output time responses of the process as the steady-state changes. Second, the a priori defined controller noise gain limits the amount of HO-PID output noise. Therefore, the method can be successfully applied in practice. The work shows that the HO-PID controllers can significantly improve the control performance of various process models compared to the standard PID controllers. Of course, the increased efficiency is limited by the selected noise gain. The proposed tuning method is illustrated on several process models and compared with two other tuning methods for higher-order controllers.


Author(s):  
Melissa R. Freire ◽  
Cassandra Gauld ◽  
Angus McKerral ◽  
Kristen Pammer

Sharing the road with trucks is associated with increased risk of serious injury and death for passenger vehicle drivers. However, the onus for minimising risk lies not just with truck drivers; other drivers must understand the unique performance limitations of trucks associated with stopping distances, blind spots, and turning manoeuverability, so they can suitably act and react around trucks. Given the paucity of research aimed at understanding the specific crash risk vulnerability of young drivers around trucks, the authors employ a narrative review methodology that brings together evidence from both truck and young driver road safety research domains, as well as data regarding known crash risks for each driving cohort, to gain a comprehensive understanding of what young drivers are likely to know about heavy vehicle performance limitations, where there may be gaps in their understanding, and how this could potentially increase crash risk. We then review literature regarding the human factors affecting young drivers to understand how perceptual immaturity and engagement in risky driving behaviours are likely to compound risk regarding both the frequency and severity of collision between trucks and young drivers. Finally, we review current targeted educational initiatives and suggest that simply raising awareness of truck limitations is insufficient. We propose that further research is needed to ensure initiatives aimed at increasing young driver awareness of trucks and truck safety are evidence-based, undergo rigorous evaluation, and are delivered in a way that aims to (i) increase young driver risk perception skills, and (ii) reduce risky driving behaviour around trucks.


SIMULATION ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (8) ◽  
pp. 641-653
Author(s):  
Jonathan Larson ◽  
Paul Isihara ◽  
Gabriel Flores ◽  
Edwin Townsend ◽  
Danilo R. Diedrichs ◽  
...  

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has asserted that risks in deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) within disaster response must be reduced by careful development of best-practice standards before implementing such systems. With recent humanitarian field tests of cargo UAVs as indication that implementation may soon become reality, a priori assessment of a smart-navigated (autonomous) UAV disaster cargo fleet via simulation modeling and analysis is vital to the best-practice development process. Logistical problems with ground transport of relief supplies in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria (2017) pose a compelling use scenario for UAV disaster cargo delivery. In this context, we introduce a General Purpose Assessment Model (GPAM) that can estimate the potential effectiveness of a cargo UAV fleet for any given response region. We evaluate this model using the following standards: (i) realistic specifications; (ii) stable output for various realistic specifications; and (iii) support of humanitarian goals. To this end, we discuss data from humanitarian cargo delivery field tests and feedback from practitioners, perform sensitivity analyses, and demonstrate the advantage of using humanitarian rather than geographic distance in making fleet delivery assignments. We conclude with several major challenges faced by those who wish to implement smart-navigated UAV cargo fleets in disaster response, and the need for further GPAM development. This paper proposes the GPAM as a useful simulation tool to encourage and guide steps toward humanitarian use of UAVs for cargo delivery. The model’s flexibility can allow organizations to quickly and effectively determine how best to respond to disasters.


2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 423-452
Author(s):  
Marcelo Montenegro

The higher order quasilinear elliptic equation−Δ(Δp(Δu))=f(x,u)subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions may have unique and regular positive solution. If the domain is a ball, we obtain a priori estimate to the radial solutions via blowup. Extensions to systems and general domains are also presented. The basic ingredients are the maximum principle, Moser iterative scheme, an eigenvalue problem, a priori estimates by rescalings, sub/supersolutions, and Krasnosel'skiĭ fixed point theorem.


Author(s):  
Donald L. Fisher ◽  
Robert Glaser ◽  
Nancy E. Laurie ◽  
Alexander Pollatsek ◽  
John F. Brock

Younger adults are overinvolved in accidents. Model high school driver education programs were developed in the 1970s in an attempt to reduce this overinvolvement. An evaluation of these programs suggested that they were largely ineffective. Recently, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has developed the first PC-based driver education program (Zero Errors Driving or Driver ZED) using real footage of risky scenarios. The hope is that younger drivers seeing these scenarios will learn to recognize risky situations in the real world before they develop. In an attempt to evaluate the Driver ZED program, the performance of 20 younger drivers is being tested on the University of Massachusetts' driving simulator. Ten of these drivers have been trained with ZED (the trained group) and ten have not seen the program (the untrained group). All 20 drivers must navigate a total of 24 scenarios that have been programmed on the driving simulator. Measures of driving performance were developed which can be used to discriminate between risky and nonrisky drivers. A preliminary evaluation of the performance of the trained and untrained subjects indicates that the trained subjects are performing more cautiously than the untrained subjects in some, but not all, scenarios (e.g., the trained subjects brake sooner when approaching a pedestrian crossing).


Author(s):  
James Unverricht ◽  
Yusuke Yamani ◽  
Jing Chen ◽  
William J. Horrey

Objective The present study examines the effect of an existing driver training program, FOrward Concentration and Attention Learning (FOCAL) on young drivers’ calibration, drivers’ ability to estimate the length of their in-vehicle glances while driving, using two different measures, normalized difference scores and Brier Scores. Background Young drivers are poor at maintaining attention to the forward roadway while driving a vehicle. Additionally, drivers may overestimate their attention maintenance abilities. Driver training programs such as FOCAL may train target skills such as attention maintenance but also might serve as a promising way to reduce errors in drivers’ calibration of their self-perceived attention maintenance behaviors in comparison to their actual performance. Method Thirty-six participants completed either FOCAL or a Placebo training program, immediately followed by driving simulator evaluations of their attention maintenance performance. In the evaluation drive, participants navigated four driving simulator scenarios during which their eyes were tracked. In each scenario, participants performed a map task on a tablet simulating an in-vehicle infotainment system. Results FOCAL-trained drivers maintained their attention to the forward roadway more and reported better calibration using the normalized difference measure than Placebo-trained drivers. However, the Brier scores did not distinguish the two groups on their calibration. Conclusion The study implies that FOCAL has the potential to improve not only attention maintenance skills but also calibration of the skills for young drivers. Application Driver training programs may be designed to train not only targeted higher cognitive skills but also driver calibration—both critical for driving safety in young drivers.


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