Passing a driving test is no longer required for adolescents to obtain a driver's license in a number of US states, including Georgia, Wisconsin, and Texas, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. ...Adolescents in these states who have held a learner permit and completed the hours of supervised practice driving required by Graduated Driver Licensing laws are eligible to obtain a license to drive independently with the consent of their parent or guardian. Licensing agencies appear to have taken this extraordinary step to minimize the risks of COVID-19 transmission. In doing so, they have traded one public health threat for another. Rather than stop testing, states could take effective precautions to minimize transmission of COVID-19 and simultaneously reduce the risks posed to adolescents from motor vehicle crashes. Here, Ehsani discusses the need to resume adolescent driver testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
...communities of color experience higher crash death rates than those in predominantly White areas, and lowincome neighborhoods have fatality rates that are three to four times higher than those in ...wealthier areas.2 Vision Zero or Safe System interventions can address these disparities. ...Vision Zero policies are scalable and sustainable.6 Most interventions included in the program involve changes to the infrastructure and roadway environment that are "self-enforcing" rather than requiring continual policing for effectiveness.7 Third, because they used Medicaid data, the authors were able to quantify the cost savings resulting from Vision Zero policies, which is one of the first times that health benefits have been quantified in the US context. Communities that have previously suffered from underinvestment will necessarily require more resources to reach zero traffic deaths than communities where safety improvements have already been made. Because Safe Systems cannot be implemented everywhere at once, areas most in need can be prioritized.7 The Safe System approach demands a careful analysis of safety issues and identification of root causes.
Distracted driving resulting from secondary task engagement is a major contributing factor to teenage drivers’ crash risk. This study aims to determine the extent to which visual inattention while ...engaging in distracting secondary tasks contributes to teenage drivers’ crash risk.
Real-world driving data were collected from a cohort of 82 newly licensed teenagers (average age 16.48 years, SD=0.33) recruited in Virginia. Participants’ private vehicles were equipped with data acquisition systems that documented driving kinematics and miles driven, and made video recordings of the driver and driving environment. Data were collected from 2010 to 2014 and analyzed in 2017. The analysis of secondary task engagement was based on 6-second video segments from both crash and random samples of normal driving.
Of a wide range of secondary tasks, only manual cellphone use (OR=2.7, 95% CI=1.1, 6.8) and reaching/handling objects while driving (OR=6.9, 95% CI=2.6, 18.6) were associated with increased crash risk. Drivers’ duration of eyes off the road accounted for 41% of the crash risk associated with manual cellphone use and 10% of the risk associated with reaching/handling objects while driving.
Secondary tasks vary in the risk they introduce to the teenage driver. Manual cellphone use and reaching for objects were found to be associated with increased crash risk. These findings objectively quantify the effect of visual inattention resulting from distracting secondary tasks on teenage drivers’ crash risk. Teenage drivers may benefit from technologic and behavioral interventions that will keep their eyes on the road at all times and discourage engagement in distracting secondary tasks.
Abstract Purpose Secondary task engagement that distracts the driver is a contributing factor to motor vehicle crashes among adults. However, the association between eye glance duration and crash ...risk with novice teenage drivers has not been determined. Methods Vehicles of 42 newly licensed teenage drivers were instrumented with cameras, accelerometers, Global Positioning System(s) (GPS), and other devices. Data were collected continuously for 18 months. Crashes and near crashes (CNCs) were identified by examining highly elevated gravitational force events. Video footage of the 6 seconds prior to each CNC and randomly sampled non-CNC road segments were coded for the duration of eye glances off the forward roadway and the presence of secondary task engagement. The likelihood (odds ratios) of CNC due to eye glance behavior was calculated by comparing the prevalence of secondary task engagement and duration of eyes off road prior to CNC with the prevalence and duration of eyes off road during non-CNC road segments. Results Crash risk increased with the duration of single longest glance during all secondary tasks (OR = 3.8 for >2 s) and wireless secondary task engagement (OR = 5.5 for >2 s). Single longest glance provided a more consistent estimate of crash risk than total time eyes off the forward roadway. Conclusions Those eye glances away from the forward roadway involving secondary tasks increased the likelihood of CNC. The longer the duration of eye glance away from the road the greater the risk, regardless of type of secondary task. Education and policy discouraging secondary task engagement, particularly for prolonged periods, is warranted.
Abstract Purpose A systematic review of the literature was conducted to appraise the evidence from epidemiological studies of crash risk in young drivers accompanied by passengers, compared with solo ...driving. Methods Databases searched were the Cochrane Library, Embase, Scopus, Transportation Research Information Services, and Web of Science for studies published between January 1, 1989 and August 1, 2013. Epidemiological studies were selected for review if they focused on crashes of young drivers (≤24 years old) and included both a no-passenger comparison group and some measure of exposure to enable calculation of estimates. Results Fifteen articles (17 studies) were selected; seven studies reported on fatal crashes and 10 on nonfatal or combined fatal/nonfatal crashes. Studies on fatal crashes showed increased risk, compared with solo driving, for young drivers with at least one passenger (significant estimates ranging from 1.24 to 1.89) and two or more passengers versus solo driving (1.70–2.92). Increased risk was also found for fatal crashes and for combined or nonfatal crashes with male versus female passengers (1.53–2.66) and for younger versus older drivers (1.42–3.14). Conclusions Results more clearly indicated an increased risk for passenger presence in fatal crashes than that in nonfatal or combined fatal/nonfatal crashes. Findings of this review, based on correlational studies, support licensing policies that limit the presence and number of young passengers for young drivers.
The young driver problem is typified by high crash rates early in licensure that decline with experience, but are higher initially and decline more slowly for the youngest novices. Despite ...considerable effort, only Graduated Driver Licensing System (GDLS) policies have been shown to improve novice young driver safety outcomes. Unfortunately, GDLS policies are mostly limited to countries with a relatively young licensure age. Meanwhile, it is not entirely clear how GDLS and other young driver transportation safety efforts, including driver training and testing, supervised practice and parental management of young drivers, can best be configured. Notably, professional training can foster improvements in vehicle management skills that are necessary, but do not assure safe driving behavior. Substantial recent research has focused on training methods to improve driving skills, but the safety benefits of driver training have not been established. While prolonged practice driving increases experience and provides supervisors with opportunities to prepare novices for independent driving, the transition to independent driving challenges novices to employ, on their own, poorly-mastered skills under unfamiliar and complex driving conditions. Licensing policies and parental management practices can limit the complexity of driving conditions while novices gain needed driving experience. Nevertheless, an emerging body of literature suggests that future advances in training and supervision of novice teenage drivers might best focus on the translation of learning to independent driving by fostering safe driving attitudes and norms, judgment, dedicated attention to driving tasks and self-control at the wheel.
The purpose of this study is to quantify the immediate and anticipated effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on local travel in the U.S.
A national survey of a representative sample of U.S. adults was ...conducted using The Harris Poll panel. The online survey was conducted from June 17 to 29, 2020. Respondents reported the frequency of travel before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and anticipated travel when normal activities resume for walking, bicycling, personal vehicle use, and public transit. Analyses were conducted in July and August 2020.
During the pandemic, local travel significantly decreased (−10.36%, 95% CI= −16.26, −4.02) relative to prepandemic levels. Within travel modes, significant decreases were reported for public transit, personal vehicle use, and walking. There was no change in reported bicycle use during the pandemic period relative to prepandemic levels. When normal activities resume, respondents anticipated a significant increase in bicycling (24.54%, 95% CI=3.24, 50.24). Anticipated travel using personal vehicles, public transit, and walking were not significantly different from the prepandemic levels.
Unlike the other local travel modes, bicycling did not decrease during the pandemic and is anticipated to significantly increase. Investment in bicycle-safe infrastructure could sustain the anticipated increase in bicycling.
Electric scooters: a crisis and opportunity Ehsani, Johnathon P; Eshragi, Ava Clara; Hellinger, Andrew
Trauma surgery & acute care open,
03/2024, Letnik:
9, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Correspondence to Dr Johnathon P Ehsani; johnathon.ehsani@jhu.edu In their paper published in this issue of Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, Luceri and colleagues1 document e-scooter-related traumas ...that were presented to an Italian Orthopedic Center emergency department during 6 months in 2021. An emerging approach to road safety, known as safe systems, aims to eliminate road injuries through better design of the road system itself,2 creating roadways and vehicles that are inherently safe instead of relying on road users to promote safety.3 For e-scooters, a safe systems approach would modify the roadway environment to include dedicated, protected lanes for e-scooter riders. Cities regulating the use of e-scooters could use GPS monitoring systems to limit the speed a scooter can travel in high-risk areas.
Novice adolescents' crash rates are highly elevated early in licensure, despite substantial practicedriving during the learner period. The objectives of this study were to examine the variability in ...measures of driving risk among adolescents during the learner and early independent driving periods and evaluate how risk varies by driving experience, gender, time of day, and road surface conditions.
Objective driving data were collected in a naturalistic cohort study of 90 adolescent drivers with learner driving permit and 131 experienced adult drivers. Participants’ private vehicles were equipped with data acquisition system documenting driving kinematics, miles driven, and video recordings of the driver and the driving environment. Crash/near-crash (CNC) and kinematic risky driving (KRD) rates were calculated during the learner and early independent driving periods by gender (female/male), time of day (day/night), and road surface conditions (wet/dry) for adolescents and adults.
CNC and KRD rates of adolescents were similar to adult drivers during the learner period (CNC: incident rate ratio IRR = 1.67, confidence interval CI = .98–2.82 and KRD: IRR = 1.04, CI = .78–1.40, respectively), but dramatically higher in the first year of independent driving (CNC: IRR = 6.51, CI = 4.03–10.51 and KRD: IRR = 3.95, CI = 2.96–5.26, respectively), and particularly elevated the first 3months of licensure. Adolescent KRD rates were higher for males than females and invariably higher than adult rates during day and night, wet and dry conditions.
While the learner driving period was relatively safe for adolescents, the transition to independent driving was typified by a dramatic increase in risk among adolescents that was higher than adult rates overall and under varying driving conditions.
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