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Nowadays, higher education worldwide is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has affected students’ attendance in the universities and causes universities to close down in more than 190 countries. On the other hand, novice engineers studied only a few lectures related to highway engineering. Their lectures have included very little knowledge about asphalt pavement construction as highway engineering consists of many areas that are not studied in detail during their studying years subject to their traditional education. Due to all mentioned, a new drive to promote online learning paves the way to evaluate our future approach to curriculum development and delivery of educational materials for engineering courses. However, experts can offer solutions to these problems using their past experience. Hence, a system that allows experts to share their experience with other engineers after completing a project is needed. Nevertheless, the web-based expert system for maintaining flexible pavement problems in tropical regions (ESTAMPSYS) designed in this study is a novel concept. Prior to developing this system, the need for such a system was determined through literature review and validated through a questionnaire survey. Experts were interviewed, and a questionnaire survey was conducted to construct the knowledge base of the system. Knowledge was presented as rules and coded in software through PHP programming. Web pages that support the user interface were designed using a framework that consists of CSS, HTML, and J-Query. Furthermore, the system was tested by an array of users engaged in highway engineering, namely, experts, teaching experts, novice engineers, and students. The mean values of the overall system evaluation performed by 20 users using a five-point Likert scale were 4, 4.5, 3.75, 4.25, 5, 4, and 3.5. Expert and user satisfaction prove the effectiveness of the proposed system.

This study examines how novice driving behaviors affect highway flow and collision potential. Driving behaviors of candidates receiving driving training are analyzed for the first time using drone images, in-car footage, and image processing methods. Driving parameters such as standstill distance [CC0], acceleration/deceleration, perception-reaction times, and speeds are extracted using image processing and field observation. These novice driver (ND) parameters are then incorporated into the VISSIM traffic micro-simulation model as a separate driving behavior dataset. The impact of NDs on traffic under different compositions and the resulting crash potential is then assessed. Safety analysis using the Collision Potential Index (CPI) reveal a 35% increase in CPI with only 10% novice drivers, while mobility analysis indicates a 14% average speed decrease with 50% ND traffic composition. Interestingly, a decrease in CPI values is observed when the ND ratio increases to 40% and 50%, which is explained by the more cautious behavior of experienced drivers and a decrease in traffic flow speed. The use of real-world data increases the authenticity and reliability of the study. The findings contribute to the understanding of the risks associated with novice drivers, highlighting the need for effective safety measures. This study provides valuable insights for policy makers and traffic safety experts to reduce the threats posed by inexperienced drivers and regulate the behavior of experienced drivers.

Young novice drivers are more prone than older drivers to get involved in a risky driving situation. Some young drivers underestimate risk while overestimating their driving abilities, increasing the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviour. Age and inexperience both influence risk estimation, though it is not clear which of these variables is more important. Can drivers’ willingness to engage in risky behaviour be assessed in a similar way to hazard perception skill using video-based risky situations? The aim of the current study was to assess whether a video-based tool could measure the willingness to participate in risky driving situations and whether it can distinguish between different types of risky driving scenarios across gender and driver age groups. We also explored the moderating effect of age and gender on drivers’ experience in relation to the risky manoeuvres and participants’ willingness to engage in risky situations. Participants were presented with naturalistic videos from the perspective of the driver that contained active risky situations (result of driver’s own actions) and were asked to make a decision regarding a potential action (to overtake a bus/bicycle or pass through an amber light) and whether they would accelerate at this point. Participants reported that they were more willing to accelerate and overtake cyclists and buses and less willing to pass a light in amber. Young drivers were more willing to both engage in the risky behaviours and accelerate than older drivers, with young males reporting higher scores than the other groups. Gender differences were observed, with males being more prone to overtake and pass through a light in amber than females; however, this difference was not observed for the intention to accelerate. All the above effects remained when we tested the impact of experience on decision making while controlling for age and gender, although driving experience was no longer significant. These results demonstrate that drivers’ intention to assume risk can indeed be measured in a similar video-based methodology to that used by hazard perception tests. The findings raise the possibility of assessing and training drivers on a wider range of safety-related behaviours.

Education and post-licencing training programmes for novice drivers are widely implemented to improve road safety, yet their effectiveness remains debated. This study evaluates short-term attitudinal changes relating to participation in a mandatory post-licencing training programme for novice drivers in Slovenia. A within-subject pre–post survey methodology was used to evaluate self-reported driving attitudes across six safety-related domains among 225 novice drivers at a Slovenian driving training centre in 2024. Paired t-tests revealed minor yet statistically significant improvement following the programme in perceived support for the additional driver training, lowered overconfidence, heightened care in speeding and intersection behaviour, and enhanced attitudes towards vehicle operation and utilization of safety equipment. Attitudes regarding attention and adherence to traffic regulations showed negligible shifts, indicating a strong baseline attitude towards safe driving. The findings indicate a modest but fairly consistent short-term change in attitudes after programme participation. Due to the lack of a control group and dependence on self-reported data, the findings should be seen as evaluative rather than causative, necessitating more longitudinal and behavioural research to evaluate long-term and behavioural effects.

Overtaking on two-lane highways is a complex and multi-phase maneuver associated with high collision risk, especially for young novice drivers. Most of the relevant studies, however, focused mainly on the first phase, i.e., the lane-changing phase, such as willingness to overtake, while the second phase, i.e., the back-to-lane phase, has not been investigated systematically. It is a risky phase in which a driver faces the risk of collision with not only the approaching vehicle on the opposite lane but also the impeding vehicle at the original lane. In this study, by designing and conducting a driving simulator experiment, we assess the driving risk of 47 young novice drivers during their second phase of overtaking on two-lane highways. The time-to-collision (TTC) values at the two critical positions are calculated from a micro-geometric point of view, based on which a two-dimensional risk index is proposed and the fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm is applied to group all the samples and to assess their overtaking risk. Furthermore, a multi-class logistic model is developed to understand the potential factors related to the risky overtaking maneuvers at this phase. The results show that most of the young novice drivers cannot make accurate judgments during their second phase of overtaking. When turning back to the original lane, they are more likely to be aware of the opposite vehicle that is approaching them, while how to correctly avoid the collision risk with the impeding vehicle at this phase is probably a more critical issue for young novice drivers.

Risky driving behaviors of young novice drivers and related crashes pose not only a threat to road safety but also a significant challenge to sustainable development. The high rate of traffic crashes involving young drivers leads to substantial losses in human capital, productivity, and labor, which are irreparable and place a strain on societal resources. Addressing the safety issues of this vital group in society is crucial for promoting the long-term social and economic sustainability of communities. Despite this, studies have lacked a comprehensive explanation of the safety issues surrounding young novice drivers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify factors affecting the safety of young novice drivers in Iran, a developing country with a significant young population. The study uses a qualitative approach that is built on grounded theory to reveal the model. The statistical population of the study is specialists, experts, and researchers in the field of road safety who are spread across Iran. The data collection phase was realized through the conduction of semi-structured interviews with 36 of them, and the analysis process was continued until complete theoretical saturation was achieved. The research data were then analyzed using the coding method based on the systematic design of Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory. Finally, the categories were organized into seventeen subcategories within the six dimensions of the paradigm model: main category (three subcategories), causal factors (three subcategories), contextual factors (three subcategories), strategies (two subcategories), environmental conditions (three subcategories), and consequences (three subcategories). These findings not only provide a deep understanding of the safety issues faced by young novice drivers but also offer strategies that can contribute to improving road safety, thereby fostering social sustainability. Enhancing driver safety is crucial for reducing the economic and social costs of road crashes, which aligns with the broader goals of sustainable development by preserving human capital and societal well-being.

Background: Recently (in 2018), females were legally allowed to drive and use automobiles in Saudi Arabia (SA) for the first time. This study investigated and analyzed the general fear of driving (GFDS), perceived self-confidence (PSCR), socio-economic variables, demographic distribution, and self-reported RTCs in novice female drivers from SA. Methods: The work was based on survey responses from 9608 participants from the first generation of female drivers from SA. Factor analysis was used to extract GFDS and PSCR scales. Results: Cronbach’s α values of 0.781 and 0.800 were observed for GFDS and PSCR, respectively. Logistic regression was employed to model road traffic collisions (RTCs) as a function of all significant variables. The results showed that of the 17.4% of geographically distributed respondents who reported RTCs, only 4% reported severe or minor injuries, and the rest (96.0%) of the accidents involved property damage. The GFDS and PSCR values showed a positive association with the RTCs of novice female drivers. Furthermore, age was not a significant influencing factor in the RTCs of novice female drivers. However, exposure factors were positively associated with the risk of RTC involvement. Conclusions: Female novice drivers who were single, divorced/widowed, employed, and had higher individual incomes were at higher risk of getting into RTCs. The female drivers who hired personal trainers, compared to those who did not, exhibited similar chances of getting involved in RTCs. An extra on-road in-traffic driving lesson is suggested to be included in the new-driver license training program for drivers with higher GFDS in SA.

Novice drivers often face challenges such as misjudgment, inappropriate steering control, distraction, and insufficient speed control when making left turns at intersections, leading to safety hazards. Installing intersection guide lines offers a solution by providing clear path directions, mitigating safety concerns associated with novice drivers’ left-turn actions. This study explored the impact of intersection guide line configurations on the driving behavior of novice drivers during left turns, utilizing large, medium, and small typical intersections to create six categories of left-turn simulation scenarios in a driving simulator. Data on vehicle trajectory, steering angle, steering speed, and eye-tracking were collected and analyzed. The study revealed that guide line arrangement significantly influences novice drivers’ left-turning behavior, enhancing path guidance while reducing trajectory and steering angle fluctuations, speed variations, and driver attention dispersion. This improvement in stability is particularly notable as intersection size and the number of left-turn lanes increase. The study’s findings offer robust theoretical support and guidance for the development and widespread adoption of intersection guide lines.

Human errors cause approximately 90 percent of traffic accidents, and drivers with risky driving behaviors are involved in about 52 percent of severe traffic crashes. Driver education using driving simulators has been used extensively to obtain a quantitative evaluation of driving behaviors without causing drivers to be at risk for physical injuries. However, since many driver education programs that use simulators have limits on realistic interactions with surrounding vehicles, they are limited in reducing risky driving behaviors associated with surrounding vehicles. This study introduces surrogate safety measures (SSMs) into simulator-based training in order to evaluate the potential for crashes and to reduce risky driving behaviors in driving situations that include surrounding vehicles. A preliminary experiment was conducted with 31 drivers to analyze whether the SSMs could identify risky driving behaviors. The results showed that 15 SSMs were statistically significant measures to capture risky driving behaviors. This study used simulator-based training with 21 novice drivers, 16 elderly drivers, and 21 commercial drivers to determine whether a simulator-based training program using the SSMs is effective in reducing risky driving behaviors. The risky driving behaviors by novice drivers were reduced significantly with the exception of erratic lane-changing. In the case of elderly drivers, speeding was the only risky driving behavior that was reduced; the others were not reduced because of their difficulty with manipulating the pedals in the driving simulator and their defensive driving. Risky driving behaviors by commercial drivers were reduced overall. The results of this study indicated that the SSMs can be used to enhance drivers’ safety, to evaluate the safety of traffic management strategies as well as to reduce risky driving behaviors in simulator-based training.

The neural mechanisms underlying hazard perception are poorly understood as to how experience affects it in drivers. In this study we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine experienced-related changes in brain activation of a hazard perception skill between novice and aged drivers. Additionally, region of interest (ROI) and seed-to-voxel analysis were conducted to examine experienced-related functional connectivity changes in visual attention and saliency networks between novice (n=15, age 22.13± 3.38 years years) and experienced (n=16, age 41.44± 5.83 years) drivers. Experienced drivers had significantly lower hazard perception reaction time (1.32 ± 1.09 s) and miss rates (11.42 ± 8.36 %) compared to the novice (3.58± 1.45 s and 39.67 ± 15.72 %, respectively). Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activation increased in occipital, parietal and frontal areas when executing hazard perception task in the both the groups. During task execution, experienced drivers showed, in general, greater activation in occipital lobe, Supramarginal Gyrus (SMG), right insular cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and cerebellar regions compared to the novice drivers indicating more efficient visual attention and decision-making processing in hazard perception skill. Seed based functional analyses in the task revealed greater connectivity between the ACC and the entire salience network (visual attention network) in the experienced group. Additionally, ACC had higher functional connectivity with right frontal eye field (FEF) and, bilateral Intraparietal Sulcus (IPS) and lateral occipital areas in the experienced group. Our results suggest that the hazard perception ability in experienced drivers is due to increase in the activation of executive attention regions, and better functional connectivity between bilateral occipital cortices and salience network. Better hazard perception performance is highly dependent on emotional awareness and attention to the velocity of motion.