Effect of driving experience and driving inactivity on young driver's hazard mitigation skills

Driving skills is an accumulation of driving skills learned from training which are further developed through post-licensure on-road driving. A key driving skill is handling interaction with other road users, of which a critical component is mitigating hazards in order to avoid a crash. Driving skills learned through training during licensure degrade over time if the driver never progresses onto on-road driving (i.e. case of inactive driver). Inactive drivers are quite common in Singapore due to high car ownership cost resulting in many people in the population holding a valid driving licence, but yet having limited opportunity to drive. This research investigated the effect of on-road driving experience as well as driving inactivity on driving performance in terms of hazard mitigation. A sample of 91 participants with a range of driving exposure drove on simulated driving environment in the laboratory. Response latency and its constituent components (lag time, time to fixation and perception-response time) in hazards mitigation were used as driving performance indicators. Participants who are active drivers responded faster than inactive (novice and dormant) drivers. Driving training (during licensure) seemed to play only a small role in preparing drivers for hazard mitigation. On-road driving exposure played an important role to strengthen skills in mitigating hazards. Defensive driving course may help drivers to strengthen their driving competencies especially towards responding to hazardous situations.