The efficacy of hazard perception training and education: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Hazard perception (HP) has been argued to improve with experience, with numerous training programs having been developed in an attempt to fast track the development of this critical safety skill. To date, there has been little synthesis of these methods.

Objective: The present study sought to synthesise the literature for all road users to capture the breadth of methodologies and intervention types, and quantify their efficacy.

Data Sources: A systematic review of both peer reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature was completed. A total of 57 papers were found to have met inclusion criteria.

Results: Research into hazard perception has focused primarily on drivers (with 42 studies), with a limited number of studies focusing on vulnerable road users, including motorcyclists (3 studies), cyclists (7 studies) and pedestrians (5 studies). Training was found to have a large significant effect on improving hazard perception skills for drivers (g = 0.78) and cyclists (g = 0.97), a moderate effect for pedestrians (g = 0.64) and small effect for motorcyclists (g = 0.42). There was considerable heterogeneity in the findings, with the efficacy of training varying as a function of the hazard perception skill being measured, the type of training enacted (active, passive or combined) and the number of sessions of training (single or multiple). Active training and single sessions were found to yield more consistent significant improvements in hazard perception.

Conclusions: This study found that HP training improved HP skill across all road user groups with generally moderate to large effects identified. HP training should employ a training method that actively engages the participants in the training task. Preliminary results suggest that a single session of training may be sufficient to improve HP skill however more research is needed into the delivery of these single sessions and long-term retention. Further research is also required to determine whether improvements in early-stage skills translate to improvements in responses on the road, and the long-term retention of the skills developed through training.