Journal of Safety Research 54 (2015) 29

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Editorial

Letter from the Editors - Fourth international symposium on naturalistic

driving research

The Journal of Safety Research is pleased to present this collection of papers that were originally presented at the Fourth International Symposium on
Naturalistic Driving Research. The symposium, hosted by the National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence (NSTSCE) at Virginia Tech,
was held in August 2014. From over 40 papers and posters exploring a wide range of naturalistic driving topics, these studies have been selected
through our peer-reviewed process to be presented in this special issue.
Although all of the studies included in this special issue use naturalistic driving research methods, the topics explored and analysis methods used
vary widely. Studies in this collection can be roughly categorized into three broad groups:
Novice driving:
Naturalistic teenage driving study Findings and lessons learn
Using naturalistic driving data to examine drivers' seatbelt use behavior, comparison between teens and adults
Personality and crash risk
Conducting in-depth naturalistic riding study: examples from beginner motorcyclists

Distracted driving:
Creation of the NEST distracted driving dataset
Are cellular phone blocking applications effective for novice teen drivers?
Drivers' visual behavior when using handheld and hands-free cell phones
Examination of drivers' cell phone use behavior at intersections by using naturalistic driving data

Methodological papers exploring innovative techniques in data extraction and analysis:

Population distributions of time to collision at brake application during car following from naturalistic driving data
Evaluation of a video-based measurement of driver heart rate
Drunk driving detection based on classication of multivariate time series
Naturalistic drive cycle synthesis for pickup trucks
Older driver tness-to-drive evaluation using naturalistic driving data

We hope you nd this collection of naturalistic driving research valuable. Through programs like SHRP 2 (see accompanying letter and articles in
this issue) naturalistic driving research will become more prevalent in the years to come with the potential of revolutionizing our understanding of
motor vehicle safety. However, all research methodologies have limitations, and no single methodology can fully explain the complex causal nature
of crashes. The Journal invites all researchers conducting rigorous evidence-based investigations, regardless of the methods used or conclusions
made, to consider submitting their studies. These studies add to the understanding of us all. Only through the publishing of ndings in peer-
reviewed journals and through the subsequent debate on the merits of the research can the eld of motor vehicle safety research advance. In this
light, the Journal invites thoughtful commentary on this collection of studies.

Thomas W. Planek
Editor-in-Chief

Sergey Sinelnikov
Jonathan Thomas
Kenneth Kolosh
Associate Editors

Kathleen Porretta
Managing Editor

9 June 2015

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2015.06.003
0022-4375/ 2015 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Journal of Safety Research 54 (2015) 31

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Safety Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsr

Editorial

The 4th International Symposium on Naturalistic Driving Research

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute is proud to have hosted the 4th International Symposium on Naturalistic Driving Research in August of
2014. The papers presented in this special issue are expanded versions of the papers and posters presented at that symposium, and they represent the
rst dedicated collection of papers in this new area of research. In the past 20 years, we have seen the eld of naturalistic driving research expand in
incredible fashion. Advances have occurred in all aspects: from vehicles with car trunks and truck cabs lled with analog recording equipment to
state-of-the-art miniaturized data collection systems, from a few participants to thousands of participants per study, from manual coding of data
using video tape players and spreadsheets to sophisticated data coding and extraction software, and from simple parametric statistical analysis
to advanced statistical modeling techniques. Most importantly, naturalistic driving has progressed to the point that the methods, equipment,
and data are now available to a wide variety of researchers.
This is what made the 4th Symposium so special: for the rst time there were enough researchers doing work in the eld that we were able to
have a call for papers. By contrast, the three previous symposia were introductory in nature introducing the methods, equipment, and analysis
techniques to a new generation of researchers, with invited papers from those known to be working in the eld.
We hope that you nd the papers presented in this issue to be useful in your own research, and that you will consider adding the naturalistic driv-
ing techniques and data to your research portfolio. Most importantly, we hope that the research highlighted in this issue will provide the impetus to
help save lives and improve transportation efciency worldwide.

Jon Hankey
Senior Associate Director Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, USA

21 June 2015

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2015.06.004
0022-4375/ 2015 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Journal of Safety Research 54 (2015) 6973

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

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Using naturalistic driving data to examine drivers' seatbelt use behavior:

Comparison between teens and adults
Shan Bao Huimin Xiong Mary Lynn Buonarosa James R. Sayer
University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Problem: Teens and young drivers are often reported as one driver group that has signicantly lower seatbelt use
Received 5 January 2015 rates than other age groups. Objective: This study was designed to address the questions of whether and how
Received in revised form 5 May 2015 seatbelt-use behavior of novice teen drivers is different from young adult drivers and other adult drivers when
Accepted 23 June 2015 driving on real roads. Method: Driving data from 148 drivers who participated in two previous naturalistic driving
Available online 29 July 2015
studies were further analyzed. The combined dataset represents 313,500 miles, 37,695 valid trips, and about
9500 h of driving. Drivers did not wear their seatbelts at all during 1284 trips. Two dependent variables were cal-
Keywords:
Seatbelt use
culated, whether and when drivers used seatbelts during a trip, and analyzed using logistic regression models.
Naturalistic driving data Results: Results of this study found signicant differences in the likelihood of seatbelt use between novice teen
Novice teen drivers drivers and each of the three adult groups. Novice teen drivers who recently received their driver's licenses
Young drivers were the most likely to use a seatbelt, followed by older drivers, middle-aged drivers, and young drivers.
Old drivers Young drivers were the least likely to use a seatbelt. Older drivers were also more likely to use seatbelts than
the other two adult groups. The results also showed that novice teen drivers were more likely to fasten their
seatbelts at the beginning of a trip when compared to the other three adult groups. Summary: Novice teen drivers
who were still in the rst year after obtaining their driver's license were the most conservative seatbelt users,
when compared to adult drivers. Practical application: Findings from this study have practical application insights
in both developing training programs for novice teen drivers and designing seatbelt reminder and interlock sys-
tems to promote seatbelt use in certain driver groups.
2015 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Problem
Seatbelt usage is a proven safety measure for preventing injuries and
fatalities among motor-vehicle drivers and passengers. It has been esti-
mated that front seatbelt use reduces the fatal injury risk for occupants
by 45%, and the moderate to-critical injury risk by 50% (NHTSA, 2012b).
In 2012, nearly 48% of the 21,000 road fatality victims in the United
States were unrestrained by seatbelts at the time of the accident
(NHTSA, 2012b). The use rate of seatbelts in the United States has
steadily grown over the past few decades. According to the National
Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS), the overall observed
seatbelt-use rate was 86% in 2012, compared with 73% in 2001, and
58% in 1994 (NHTSA, 2012b). Although there has been a substantial in-
crease in overall seatbelt use, the most recent use rate is still below the
national goal of 92% set for the Healthy People 2010 (U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, 2000). In 2012, 63% of passenger-vehicle
occupants ages 21 to 24 killed in trafc crashes were not using seatbelts,
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: shanbao@umich.edu (S. Bao), xionghm@umich.edu (H. Xiong),
mlmeff@umich.edu (M.L. Buonarosa), jimsayer@umich.edu (J.R. Sayer).
compared to 53% of occupants ages 45 to 54, and 37% of occupants ages
65 to 74 (NHTSA, 2012a).
Novice teen and young driver groups are often reported as one
driver group that has signicantly lower seatbelt use rates than other
age groups (Eby, Molnar, & Olk, 2000; NHTSA, 2012a; Womack, Trout,
& Davies, 1997). Pickrell and Ye (2013) reported that in 2011, the 16
24 age group had the lowest seatbelt use rate of 79%, while drivers
who are 70 years and older had the highest seatbelt use rate at 88%.
However, since teen drivers are usually less experienced (Curry,
Hafetz, Kallan, Winston, & Durbin, 2011) and more likely to engage in
risky behavior, such as texting while driving than older drivers
(Atchley, Atwood, & Boulton, 2011; Bao, Sayer, & Flannagan, submitted),
it is important to further investigate the differences in seatbelt use be-
havior between teens, especially novice teens and adult drivers.
Most of the previous studies on seatbelt use behavior are from
self-report, crash, or observation data, which have limited informa-
tion and data reliability. Naturalistic driving studies have provided
an innovative way to study seatbelt use behavior and the decision-
making process with both very rich vehicle-kinematic and driver-
behavior data. More importantly, naturalistic driving study data re-
ect more realistic driver behavior when driving across different
conditions on real roads, than other datasets such as observational

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2015.06.006
0022-4375/ 2015 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
70 S. Bao et al. / Journal of Safety Research 54 (2015) 6973
and simulator data. Drivers' demographic background is also accu-
rately identied in the naturalistic driving study. One recent study
used the 100-car study data to evaluate factors associated with
part-time and full-time seatbelt users (Reagan, McClafferty, Berlin,
& Hankey, 2013) and reported that occasional belt users were more
likely to use their seatbelts on a given trip when driving at a higher
speed. Our previous study (Bao, Sayer, Flannagan, & LeBlanc, Submit-
ted) compared seatbelt use patterns of part-time and frequent
seatbelt users across different age groups. The dataset used in that
study was unique by using the combined data from the parent
Integrated Vehicle Based Safety System (IVBSS) Field Operational
Test (Sayer et al., 2011) and the teen IVBSS Field Operational Test
(Buonarosa, Bao, & Sayer, 2013). That study found that age, gender,
wiper state, trip distance, and average driving speed were all signif-
icant predictors of seatbelt use. Different seatbelt use patterns were
also reported for different age groups.
This study was conducted to further explore naturalistic driving data
to better understand the seatbelt use decision-making process
(i.e., whether and when to use the seatbelts) for novice teen drivers
when compared to adult drivers. This study used the same combined
adult IVBSS and teen IVBSS dataset to investigate whether and how
teen drivers have lower rates of compliance of seatbelt use when com-
pared to adult drivers, as reported by many previous studies. It was hy-
pothesized that novice teen drivers would have lower seatbelt use rates
and may be less likely to use seatbelts during beginning of a trip, when
compared to adult drivers.
2. Method
This study employed two unique naturalistic driving datasets: one is
the adult IVBSS project (Sayer et al., 2011), and the other is the teen
IVBSS project (Buonarosa et al., 2013). In the adult IVBSS project,
which was funded by U.S. Department of Transportation, a total of 108
randomly sampled, passenger-car drivers participated. The sample
was stratied by age (younger between 20 and 30 years, middle-aged
between 40 and 50 years; older between 60 and 70 years) and gender
(male and female). Sixteen late-model Honda Accords were used as re-
search vehicles. Consenting drivers used the research vehicles in an un-
supervised manner, simply pursuing their normal trip-taking behavior
over a 40-day period, using the research vehicles as a substitute for
their personal vehicles. The teen IVBSS project was jointly funded by
the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Honda R&D
North America (Buonarosa et al., 2013). A total of 40 teen drivers
(balanced for gender) participated. Teens were 16 years old and had be-
tween six and nine months of driving experience on a level 2 interme-
diate driver license. Drivers with a Michigan level 2 intermediate
driver license are allowed to operate motor vehicles with certain restric-
tions, including requirements on time of day for operating a motor vehi-
cle and number of young passengers in the vehicle. Twelve of the
original IVBSS research vehicles were utilized. Each teenager drove an
instrumented vehicle and used the vehicle for their personal purposes
for a 14-week period.
Both projects were conducted by the University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). The adult IVBSS data were
collected between April 2009 and April 2010, and the teen IVBSS data
were collected between July 2011 and September 2012. Data on
whether drivers put on seatbelts during each trip were extracted and
compared across different variables. Each trip was dened as a vehicle
operation cycle that begins with engine start-up and ends with engine
shut-off. Seatbelt use was determined via a signal from the vehicles'
car area network (CAN) bus.
3. Results
The combined dataset represents 313,500 miles, 37,695 valid trips,
and about 9500 h of driving. Drivers did not wear their seatbelts at all
during 1284 trips. Table 1 summarizes the distribution of belted and un-
belted trips for each age group. The primary reasons for categorizing a
trip as invalid include total trip distance less than 20 m, radar misalign-
ment or malfunctioning, and a fault in either the DAS or the integrated
crash-warning system. The invalid trip data were excluded from the
analysis.
The State of Michigan was reported to have a steadily high seatbelt
use rate (between 92.9% and 98.0%) in the past 10 years (NHTSA,
2012). Our data showed an estimated overall 96.6% seatbelt use rate
in southeastern Michigan, which is consistent with the observation
data from the NOPUS study (NHTSA, 2012b).
3.1. Seatbelt Use Rate
Drivers' seatbelt use behavior during each trip was measured using a
binary variable, indicating whether drivers were wearing their seatbelt
(Yes, if drivers did put on the belts during the trip; or No, if drivers did
not use the belts during the whole trip). Situations when drivers took
off their seatbelts for some reasons (e.g., to reach for items or to go to
a convenience store) during the trip and refastened belts were not con-
sidered for this analysis. The data were analyzed using a logistic regres-
sion model in SAS. 9.2, employing the PROC GENMOD procedure with
driver and trip being repeated measures (distribution specied as bino-
mial). Logit (pi) is the logistic regression model for


^1
p ^ ^ 1
1e0 ixi
where p ^ is the estimated in-
^ is the predicted probability of belt use, 0
^ are the estimated coefcients of the predictors, xi. The in-
tercept, and i
dependent variables examined in this study include age groups (novice
teen, younger, middle-aged or older), gender (male or female), time of a
day (day or night), average driving speed during each trip (continuous
variable), and trip distance (continuous variable). Vehicle speed was
monitored over the vehicle CAN bus. The CAN bus speed data was
from the transmission output shaft speed sensor. Travel distance was
the integration of vehicle speed.
Interestingly, results of this study found a higher compliance of
seatbelt use in novice teen drivers when compared to that of adult
drivers. Of the 1284 unbelted trips, teen drivers accounted for 10.8%,
young drivers accounted for 59.7%, middle-aged for 16.9%, and older
drivers for 12.5%. About 72.8% of the unbelted cases involved male
drivers, and 87.2% were from trips with short traveling distances
(i.e., travel distance less than ve miles). Nearly 93% of the unbelted
trips occurred at night.
The results from the logistic regression model on whether to
use seatbelts showed signicant results of age group (2(3) = 12.64,
p b 0.01), gender (2(1) = 8.98, p b 0.01), and average driving speed
(p b 0.01). Drivers were more likely to wear seatbelts during trips
with higher average driving speed. Table 2 shows the calculated odds
ratio for seatbelt use rates among different age and gender groups.
Results showed that the likelihood of wearing a seatbelt while driv-
ing was signicantly higher for novice teen drivers than for each of the
three adult driver groups, while the young driver group showed the
lowest seatbelt use rate of all age groups. After controlling for the
other factors, the odds of wearing a seatbelt were 7.87 times greater
for novice teen drivers than for young drivers. Middle-aged drivers
were also 2.59 times more likely to wear seatbelts than young drivers.
Table 1
Number of belted and unbelted trips for each age group.
Teen driver Young driver Middle-aged driver Older driver
Belted trips 14,899 (99%) 7527 (91%) 6972 (97%) 7013 (98%)
Unbelted trips 139 (1%) 767 (9%) 218 (3%) 160 (2%)
Total trips 15,038 8294 7190 7173
 S. Bao et al. / Journal of Safety Research 54 (2015) 6973
Table 2
Likelihood of wearing seatbelt (age and gender).
Variable Odds ratio
(95% CI)
Age group Teen vs. young 7.87 (3.12, 19.87)
Teen vs. middle 3.03 (1.52, 6.05)
Teen vs. older 2.14 (1.01, 4.53)
Middle vs. young 2.59 (1.20, 5.61)
Older vs. young 3.67 (1.56, 8.68)
Older vs. middle 1.42 (0.72, 2.79)
Gender group Female vs. male 2.37 (1.44, 3.91)
The differences between older drivers and middle-aged drivers were
not statistically signicant. Female drivers were 2.37 times more likely
to wear seatbelts than male drivers.
3.2. Trip Segment of Seatbelt Use
The second dependent variable is when drivers used their seatbelts
during a trip. Only data from trips during which drivers fastened
seatbelts were used in this part of analysis. During all the trips that
they used seatbelts, about 85% of the drivers put on their seatbelts with-
in 5 s after starting the research vehicle (i.e., before the initial seatbelt
reminder signal was issued), while about 9% of the drivers fastened
their seatbelts at least 60 s after starting the research vehicle. That is
to say that the seatbelt reminder did not work effectively for 9% of
drivers, which included about 4% young drivers, 2% middle-aged
drivers, 2% teen drivers, and 1% older drivers. As shown in Fig. 1, about
90% of the novice teen drivers put on their seatbelts before the initial
seatbelt reminder warning was issued, which was followed by older
drivers (82%), middle-aged (77%), and young drivers (74%).
The segment of the trip during which drivers rstly fastened their
seatbelts relative to trip duration during all the belted trips was timed
and compared. For the purpose of analysis, trip segment of seatbelt
use was categorized into three stages based on trip elapsed time at the
point in time when drivers rst put on their seatbelts: early-stage
(i.e., drivers put on their seatbelts within ve seconds after trip start
which was before the initial seatbelt reminder warning); medium-
stage (i.e., drivers put on their seatbelts between 5 and 60 s after trip
start during which the seatbelt reminder audio-visual warnings were
presented), and late-stage (i.e., drivers put on their seatbelts later than
60 s after trip start). The data were analyzed using a logistic regression
model in SAS. 9.2, employing the PROC GENMOD procedure with driver
being the repeated measures (distribution specied as multinomial).
The independent variables examined in this analysis included age
(novice teen, young, middle-aged, or older), gender (male or female),
time of day (day or night), average driving speed during each trip
(continuous variable), and trip distance (continuous variable).
1 users, when compared to adult drivers. Young drivers in this study were
Teen
0.8
Young
Middle-aged
Proportion
0.6
Older
0.4
0.2
0 Middle vs. young
<5s 5s~60s
Fig. 1. Distribution of seatbelt use timing by each driver age group.
71
Results found signicant predictors of age (2(3) = 15.2, p b 0.01),
gender (2(1) = 5.2, p b 0.01), trip distance (p b 0.001), and average
p Value driving speed (p b 0.001). Table 3 shows the calculated odds ratio for
pairwise comparisons among different age and gender groups. Drivers
b0.01 were more likely to fasten their seatbelts during the earlier segment of
b0.05 long trips than of short trips. The odds of using seatbelts during the
b0.05 early segment of trips with higher average driving speed was higher
b0.05
than during early segment of trips with lower average driving speed.
b0.01
n.s. Results showed that the likelihood of wearing seatbelts during earli-
b0.01 er trip stages of novice teen drivers was signicantly higher than those
of all three adult driver groups, while young drivers were more likely to
wear seatbelts during later trip segments when compared to other age
groups. Novice teen drivers are 2.81 times more likely to wear seatbelts
during earlier trip stages when compared to young drivers. Since using
seatbelts during the earlier trip stage represents a more conservative
seatbelt use attitude, this indicates that novice teen drivers were signif-
icantly more conservative than other drivers in terms of seatbelt use.
Results from pair-wise comparisons among the three adult age groups
were found not statistically signicant. Female drivers were 1.88 times
more likely to wear seatbelts during the earlier trip stage than male
drivers.
4. Discussion
This study was designed to address the questions of whether and
how seatbelt use behavior of novice teen drivers is different from
adult drivers. Different from our expectation, this analysis found signif-
icant differences in the likelihood of seatbelt use between novice teen
drivers and each of the three adult groups, with teen drivers being the
most likely to use a seatbelt, followed by older, middle-aged, and
young drivers. Young drivers (between 20 and 30 years old) were the
least likely to use a seatbelt. Older drivers were also more likely to use
seatbelts than the other two adult groups. This study also determined
that novice teen drivers were more likely to fasten their seatbelts at
the beginning of a trip when compared to the other three adult groups.
Most studies on seatbelt use have reported teen and young drivers as
one group that has the lowest seatbelt use rate (Eby et al., 2000;
NHTSA, 2012a). However, this study found very different results by ex-
ploring the naturalistic driving data. One of the possible reasons could
be that the teen drivers that participated in this study were all novice
teen drivers who just received their drivers' licenses; therefore they
were still very conservative while driving and had a higher compliance
rate with the safety regulations. One suggestion from this study is that
researchers should be more careful when grouping all teen drivers to-
gether for safety analyses. The age range of the teenager drivers in
other studies was much broader, and teen drivers may act differently
after they gain more experience. Previous studies have reported that
teen drivers' crash risks are correlated with their experience levels
(McCartt, Shabanova, & Leaf, 2003; Williams, 2003). Results from this
study found that novice teen drivers who were still in the rst year
after obtaining their driver license were the most conservative seatbelt
Table 3
Likelihood of wearing seatbelt during earlier trip stage (age and gender).
Variable Odds ratio p-Value
(95% CI)
Age group Teen Vs. young 2.81 (1.66, 4.77) b0.01
Teen vs. middle 2.32 (1.57, 3.42) b0.01
Teen vs. older 1.67 (1.04, 2.68) b0.05
1.21 (0.71, 2.08) n.s.
>60s Older vs. young 1.68 (0.93, 3.04) n.s.
Older vs. middle 1.38 (0.86, 2.22) n.s.
Gender group Female vs. male 1.88 (1.17, 2.34) b0.01
72 S. Bao et al. / Journal of Safety Research 54 (2015) 6973
found to be the least conservative seatbelt users; they had the lowest
seatbelt use rate and were the most likely to use seatbelts during later
trip segments. Currently, almost all driving educational programs are
designed for novice teen drivers. Results of this study suggest that it is
crucial to include young drivers in the educational programs that com-
plement seat belt laws and enforcement.
Female drivers had a signicantly higher overall seatbelt use rate
than male drivers, and this nding is consistent with previous studies
(Eby et al., 2000; McCartt & Northrup, 2004). This analysis further
found that female drivers were more likely to wear seatbelts during
early trip stages than male drivers. McCartt and Northrup (2004)
found lower belt use in fatally injured male teenage drivers than in fe-
male teenage drivers, while results of this study suggest that female
drivers are generally more conservative belt users.
Driving speed (as a surrogate measure of road types) has been found
to have a signicant impact on drivers' decisions on whether and when
to use seatbelts. Drivers were found more likely to use the seatbelts dur-
ing early trip segments in a trip with higher driving speed. Trip duration
was also found to impact drivers on the timing of using the seatbelts.
This was consistent with the ndings in a previous study (Reagan
et al., 2013).
Results of the seatbelt use timing analyses showed that the seatbelt
reminder systems fail to function during some trips by prompting
drivers to buckle up shortly after they received the reminder warnings.
According to the Euro NCAP protocol for seatbelt reminders design
(European new car assessment programme, 2013), an audiovisual
nal seatbelt reminder signal shall be issued before the engine has
been running for 60 seconds. Results of this study showed that in 9%
of all the belted trips, drivers did not use their seatbelts until 60 s after
the engine was started, suggesting that they used the seatbelts during
later of the trips in response to other important factors other than to
the reminder warnings.
Seat belt use has increased from 54% in 1994 to more than 86% in
2012 (Pickrell & Ye, 2013). Further increases in belt use of front seat
occupants to near 100% would continue to produce substantial re-
ductions in injury and fatality. However, recent increases in seatbelt
use have been modest, suggesting there is some need for new
seatbelt use enforcement. In-vehicle belt interlock technology has
been suggested as a promising way to promote belt use, since it can
continuously monitor belt use and provide immediate feedback
whenever an occupant is unbuckled (Kidd, McCartt, & Oesch,
2014). How to set up the timing for warnings and interlock functions
is one of the key components in the seatbelt interlock design. The
ndings of this study have provided some useful data for such sys-
tem design consideration.
5. Summary
This study used naturalistic driving data to explore whether and
when drivers use their seatbelts. Logistic regression models were used
to evaluate differences related to different variables on seatbelt use
and the trip segment during which drivers fastened their seatbelts. It
was found that novice teen drivers who were still in the rst year
after obtaining their driver license were more likely to use seatbelts
and were more likely to use seatbelts during early trip stages when
compared to adult drivers. Female drivers used seatbelts more frequent-
ly than male drivers, and they were also found to be more likely to wear
seatbelts during early trip periods, suggesting that female drivers are
generally more conservative belt users.
One limitation of this study is that the average seatbelt use rate is
very high, about 97%, suggesting that drivers in this study tend to be
conservative seatbelt users in general. The seatbelt use rate in Michigan
overall has always been higher than the average national belt use rate
(NHTSA, 2012b). Therefore, the behavior pattern observed in this
study may be different from the ones in areas with much lower seatbelt
use rates. Despite the limitation, this study provides evidence that
novice teen drivers who just received their driver license are actually
more conservative seatbelt users than adult cohorts examined in this
study. They may change their belt use behavior after they gain more ex-
perience, which can be addressed in future studies.
5.1. Practical Applications
Findings regarding seatbelt use behavior of different age groups can
be included in developing and designing training and educational pro-
grams for teen drivers, and even for young drivers. The ndings from
this study also provide insights for the design of seatbelt reminder and
interlock systems to promote seatbelt use among certain driver groups,
such as young drivers.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the University of Michigan Injury
Center which provided nancial support for this research (U037072).
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Shan Bao is an assistant research scientist in Human Factors Group, the University of
Michigan Transportation Research Institute. She received her Ph.D. in industrial engineer-
ing from the University of Iowa (2009). Her research interests focus on driver behavior
modeling, driver distraction, naturalistic driving data analysis and driver-simulator study.
She has performed extensive analyses of various naturalistic driving databases to identify
driver-behavior patterns and to identify predictors of crashes and near crashes that can be
associated with different driver populations.
Huimin Xiong is a data analyst at the Hartford Financial Service Group, Inc. She received
her PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering (2013) from the University of Washington
and her MS in Mathematics (2008) from the Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, US. She
also has a Masters in Business Management (2004) and BS in Chemical Engineering
(2000) from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China. She was a research fellow at the University
of Michigan Transportation Research Institute from 2013 to 2014. Her research focused on
driver behaviors and transportation safety.
Mary Lynn Buonarosa is an Engineering Research Associate in the Human Factors Division
at UMTRI. She received a B.S. in engineering from The University of Michigan. She joined
UMTRI in 1994, and has participated in conducting research concerning driver assistance sys-
tems, models of driving braking behavior, and pedestrian visibility. She is experienced in the
 S. Bao et al. / Journal of Safety Research 54 (2015) 6973 73

recruitment, screening, and training of human subjects for eld operational testing. Ms. tems development, naturalistic driving behavior, driver distraction, driver vision, and pe-
Buonarosa has considerable experience in survey research, including the development, im- destrian conspicuity since 1993. He earned a Ph.D. and an M.S. in industrial and systems
plementation, and analysis of written questionnaires and focus groups. engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Human Factors Op-
tion, and a B.S. in psychology from the University of Michigan.
James R Sayer is a research scientist and group head of the Human Factors Group at the
University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute where he has conducted both
basic and translational research in the areas of driver assistance and advanced safety sys-