Research Studies & Reports
DMV’s Research & Development Branch has been conducting research and producing studies and reports since the 1950s. Research & Development reports help DMV to measure the impact of new laws on making drivers safer. We also identify areas where we can improve our processes, explore new approaches to solving existing problems, and branch out into new opportunities to serve you better.
Studies & Reports Sections
Studies and reports are assigned to a Section that best describes the type of report. Click on a section title below to see a short description.
I. Driver Education & Training Studies
II. Driver Licensing Screening Studies
III. Studies on Improvement and Control of Deviant Drivers
IV. Basic Research & Methodological Studies: Driver Performance, Accident Etiology, Prediction Models, and Actuarial Applications
V. Driver Licensing / Control Systems & Safety Management Studies
VI. Studies on Special Driver Populations
VII. Miscellaneous Studies & Reports
Request printed copies of studies and reports by mail at:
Department of Motor Vehicles
Research and Development Branch
2415 1st Ave. Mail Station: F-126
Sacramento, CA 95818
(916) 914-8125
Please include the report number, the number of copies requested, and your name, address, and phone number.
| Report ID | Date Published | Title | Section | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 149 | 1995/ 05 |
An Evaluation of California’s Commercial Driver License Drive TestThe federal government requires states which permit third-party testing of commercial drivers to determine whether these tests are equivalent to those given by the state driver licensing authority. To meet this requirement, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) plans to sample commercial driver license (CDL) applicants tested by their employer, retest them at DMV, and compare the fail rates for the employer and DMV tests to determine if they are equivalent in difficulty and reliability. In order to make this determination, it is necessary to estimate the reliability and other psychometric properties of the California DMV CDL test. Without this information, it is not possible to determine whether differences between the DMV and employer test exceed what would be expected from repeat administration of the CDL test by DMV. |
II | |
| 152 | 1995/ 06 |
Vision Testing of Renewal Applicants: Crashes Predicted when Compensation for Impairment is InadequateThis study addresses the enhanced vision test system component of a departmental plan to increase the competency level of the California driving population. Five experimental vision tests were administered to 3,669 randomly selected Class C renewal applicants in three field offices. The objective was to identify the vision tests showing the most promise for further validation in a large-scale statewide study. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that the relationship between vision test scores and crash involvement varies depending on applicant's age, general visual ability, and reported level of self-restriction. It was recommended that (1) management consider referring all DMV Snellen test fails to a vision specialist through the DL 62 process, (2) cross-validate the most promising tests (Pelli-Robson low-contrast acuity and perceptual reaction time assessment) in a large-scale demonstration project, and (3) continue research on developing improved assessment tests and protocols for drivers with age-related impairments. |
II | |
| 154 | 1995/ 08 |
An Evaluation of the Validity of California’s Driving PerformanceEvaluation Road TestThis report presents findings of an evaluation of the validity of the Driving Performance Evaluation(DPE) road test that was piloted in 30 California Department of Motor Vehicles field offices. Thestudy represents the fourth stage in a four-stage project to develop an improved competency-baseddrive test for possible statewide implementation. The DPE was found to have construct validity asdemonstrated by experienced good drivers having had significantly lower fail rates and mean pointscores than did inexperienced drivers and drivers with physical or mental disabilities that affected theirdriving. The evaluation also found the DPE to be more difficult than the current drive test, with failrates of 45.6% and 26.2% for the two tests, respectively. The DPE was also found to take 11 minuteslonger to administer than did the current drive test. The impact on test validity of severalmodifications to shorten the DPE test time was also evaluated. |
II | |
| 177 | 1998/ 05 |
Evaluation of the Referral Driving Performance EvaluationProgram—Follow-Up ReportThis study evaluated the safety impact of the new Referral Driving Performance Evaluation (RDPE) drivetest program. The 3-year prior accident and citation rates for drivers taking the RDPE drive tests werecompared to the general driving population and to drivers who passed the Special Drive Test (SDT) in anearlier DMV study. The results indicated that in every age and gender category except one, drivers in theRDPE program had much higher prior accident and citation rates than did drivers in general. This findingsupported the department’s policy of testing drivers referred for medical and other reasons. The prioraccident rates for drivers who passed the RDPE tests were not significantly different from those for driverswho failed the tests. Hence, the validity of using RDPE test results as indicators of accident risk was notconclusively supported by the data. Contrary to expectation, drivers who passed the RDPE tests also hadaccident rates similar to those for drivers who passed the SDT, which indicated that the RDPE tests wereno better than the SDT at distinguishing between higher- and lower-risk drivers. However, because theRDPE tests fail a much higher percentage of referral drivers than does the SDT, the tests do result inaccident savings. |
II | |
| 178 | 1998/ 12 |
Evaluation of the Delegated Drive Test Pilot Program: Technical AppendixThis study evaluated the safety impact of allowing driving schools to administer the Driving PerformanceEvaluation (DPE) to provisional license applicants. The results of the driver record comparisons betweenprovisional applicants tested by the driving schools and those tested by DMV did not indicate a statisticallysignificant difference in the 6-month post-licensure accident or citation rates for the groups. Unfortunately,inadequate sample sizes and the potential biases present in the study preclude drawing any firm conclusionsregarding the comparative safety impact of private versus DMV testing. However, the results of the scoringconsistency and reliability analyses are more interpretable and less subject to these problems. The comparisons ofscoring consistency between driving school and DMV examiners indicates that the driving school examinersfollowed the DPE scoring criteria less stringently than did the DMV examiners, and were far more lenient, havingpassed many applicants who subsequently failed the drive test at DMV. Although these findings also requirequalification, it is very unlikely that differences of the magnitude observed can be attributed to bias alone. The lowvolume of subjects, which was a major reason for the low statistical poser of the analyses, may indicate that themarket for delegated testing is small, both within the general public and the driver training industry itself |
II | |
| 181 | 1998/ 12 |
An Evaluation of the Impact of California’s Driving PerformanceEvaluation Road Test on Traffic Accident and Citation RatesThis evaluation is the final stage of a project to develop and evaluate the driving performance evaluation(DPE) drive test for possible statewide implementation in California. This study and earlier studies in theseries are part of a more extensive effort by the department to increase the competency of Californiamotorists by improving the driver licensing process. The DPE is currently being used in over 60 fieldoffices in southern California.The effect of the DPE on accident and citation rates was determined by comparing driving records for asample of applicants taking the DPE with those of a sample of applicants taking the current drive test bothbefore and after implementation of the DPE.Logistic regression analysis was used to compare the crash and citation rates of the groups during the 2years immediately following driver license application. The findings failed to substantiate any reduction inaccident involvements or traffic law violations resulting from implementation of the program. However,there is no question that the DPE is a more reliable and content-valid test. Therefore, it is recommendedthat the DPE road test be expanded to all offices in the state. |
II | |
| 196 | 2005/ 05 |
Development and Evaluation of Revised Class C Driver LicenseWritten Knowledge TestsThis report presents the results of an evaluation of English and Spanish language Class C license written knowledge examinations administered to applicants for an original or renewal driver licenses. The tests were extensively modified following the 1999 statewide evaluation (Masten, 1999). The study assessed the fail rate, mean number of errors, and internal-consistency reliability for each test form, as well as the pass rate, percentage of applicants selecting each answer choice, and item-total correlation for each item on each English language test form. The results are based on 10,502 completed test forms that were collected from field offices statewide in April 2001. It was found that the test fail rates for all tests decreased from the last statewide evaluation. However, the disparity in fail rates between the English and Spanish tests increased, with the rates for Spanish applicants continuing to be substantially higher than the rates for English applicants. |
II | |
| 44 | 1973/ 12 |
An Evaluation of the Drive Test as an Examination Requirement for Drivers Previously Licensed in Another StateTo determine if waiving the drive test for original applicants previously licensed in another state would be detrimental to their driving records. |
II | |
| 52 | 1976/ 04 |
An Evaluation of the California Driver Knowledge Test and the University of Michigan Item PoolTo evaluate both the written DMV driver licensing test and a large sample of driver knowledge test items selected from the University of Michigan's Highway Safety Research Institute (HSRI) item pool. |
II | |
| 61 | 1978/ 06 |
The Effects of Administering Written Tests Stressing Knowledge of Safe Driving Principles to Renewal Driver’s License ApplicantsA new licensing test series stressing knowledge of safe driving principles and recent law changes was administered to a group of California driver's license renewal applicants. The primary purpose was to determine if the two series of test forms, testing knowledge of different types of information, differentially affected subjects' subsequent driving records when used in the California DMV knowledge testing program. A secondary objective was to determine the degree of relationship between test scores and driving performance. |
II |