Implementation of Victoria?s new Hazard Perception Test

In 1999, the Registration and Licensing Department of VicRoads commissioned a team led by ARRB Transport Research Ltd (ARRB TR) to update and extend the Hazard Perception Test (HPT). Professor Gitte Lindgaard and the Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd were sub contracted by ARRB TR and contributed to a range of tasks within the project.

A paper presented at last year?s Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference (Catchpole and Leadbeatter, 2000) described:
– Victoria?s existing Hazard Perception Test;
– the objectives for the updated test;
– the development of a new human-computer interface and new instruction messages;
– a trial of the user friendliness of the new interface and instructions;
– the types of accidents in which newly licensed drivers are most likely to be involved; and
– the development of scripts for test items addressing the most relevant accident types.

The purpose of the present paper is to describe the methods and results of a major trial of the newly developed test items and test construction. The trial formed the basis of the final construction of the updated Hazard Perception Test.