Recently qualified drivers: a comparison of two methods of driving instruction

The progress of drivers in the year after passing the driving test has been evaluated in a number of studies undertaken in France and elsewhere. These studies have focused upon the technical and psychological difficulties that newly qualified drivers need to overcome before they come to consider themselves, and to be considered by others, as fully competent drivers. The quality of driving instruction seems to be crucial in determining the kinds of problems which new drivers must face and the time taken to achieve mastery.

Two methods of driving instruction were compared in terms of the problems encountered by learners after passing their driving test. The subjects were 170 drivers taught by the traditional ‘driving-test’ method and 269 who had taken an accelerated course of intensive instruction. Each driver was sent a series of questionnaires during the 10 months after they qualified. In addition to this form of continuous survey, an in-depth study of nine other new drivers was undertaken over the same period; their on-the-road behaviour was used to supplement information obtained from the questionnaires. The results of the research are discussed in relation to a variety of factors: level of driver confidence; ease of vehicle handling; problems acknowledged by drivers; drivers’ attitude towards road safety; progress made in the period following the driving test; need for further instruction; response to frustration and evaluation of aggressive tendencies.