THE DEKALB DRIVER EDUCATION PROJECT--THE SAME MISTAKES: IMPROPER CRITERIA

The article points out that driver education is being maligned, not because it is ineffective but because the criteria being used to measure its effectiveness are wrong. Research programs which are dependent on driving records run into two basic problems: low frequency of accident occurrence, and the reliability of the driving records. Research studies have found that the driving record is inadequate as a research criterion. The development is described of the intermediate criterion which grew out of a selection of certain critical traffic situations and the driving behavior patterns required by changing traffic conditions. The method allows observation of actual driver behavior patterns under such conditions as to rate the suitability or unsuitability of the behavior exhibited. Behavior in selected traffic situations can be observed and used as a basis for measurement. This method measures both cognitive and non-cognitive behaviors, observes actual behavior patterns in relation to real-life traffic, and records interrelationships of driver behaviour to changing traffic conditions. Other advantages of this method are noted.