Effectiveness of the "Teens in the Driver Seat Program" in Texas

Henk, Russell H.; Pezoldt, Valmon J; Womack, Katie N. · 2008 · ROSA P / Texas. Department of Transportation

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the "Teens in the Driver Seat" (TDS) Program, a peer-to-peer driver education initiative deployed in Texas to address teen driving fatalities, the leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States. The program targets five primary risk factors: driving at night, distractions (passengers and cell phones), speeding, seat belt non-use, and alcohol use. The research, conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, aimed to determine if the program improved teen awareness and behavior to justify continued support and expansion. The assessment utilized a mixed-methods approach involving attitudinal surveys, field studies, personal interviews, website analytics, and crash data analysis. The TDS Program was deployed at approximately 60 high schools across urban and rural Texas during the 2006–2007 school year, reaching roughly 67,000 students. Pre-program attitudinal surveys were administered to over 2,800 students, though post-program survey data could not be collected. Field studies compared behavioral metrics at schools in the Garland School District (program participants) against a control group in the neighboring Mesquite School District (non-participants). Observations focused on seat belt usage and wireless device use during peak traffic periods. Additionally, the study analyzed traffic to the program’s website and conducted interviews with student leaders. Crash data analysis was limited due to the lack of timely, localized data, relying instead on historical fatal crash statistics. Findings indicated significant improvements in risk awareness and specific behaviors. Pre-program surveys revealed that while awareness of drinking and driving was high (over 80%), awareness of other risks like driving at night (1.1–3.7%) and seat belt non-use (13.4–14.8%) was low. Field studies showed that seat belt use among teens in Garland schools was, on average, 11 percent higher than in the Mesquite control group, with back-seat usage showing an 80.7 percent relative increase. Furthermore, wireless device use by teen drivers in Garland was 30 percent lower than in Mesquite during afternoon peak hours. Website traffic increased by over 1,500 percent, with average visit duration doubling to eight minutes. Personal interviews confirmed that students found the peer-led approach effective and engaging. However, the study noted that rural teens exhibited significantly higher rates of risky behaviors, such as speeding and night driving, compared to their urban counterparts. The study concludes that the TDS Program successfully increased awareness of driving risks and positively influenced specific safety behaviors, particularly seat belt use and reduced cell phone usage. The peer-to-peer model was well-received by students, who viewed it as a productive method for spreading safety messages. The authors recommend continued deployment and support of the program, particularly in rural areas where risky behaviors are more prevalent. They also emphasize the need for improved, timely crash data systems to better evaluate long-term safety impacts in future assessments.

Key finding

Seat belt use was 11 percent higher and cell phone use or texting was 30 percent lower at program schools compared to control schools, while risk awareness improved by 40 to over 200 percent.

Methodology

mixed_methods

Sample size: 2820

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• driver education effectiveness
• passenger effects
• parental management
• public messaging

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence, crash risk outcomes