Journal of Safety Research 40 (2009) 377381

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Journal of Safety Research

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / j s r

A comparison of web-based and telephone surveys for assessing trafc safety concerns, beliefs, and behaviors
Kenneth H. Beck , Alice F. Yan, Min Qi Wang
Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD 20742, USA

a r t i c l e

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a b s t r a c t
Introduction: The purpose of this investigation was to compare the results of a web-based and a telephone interview survey measuring driver concerns about a variety of trafc safety issues, their beliefs, and specic driving behaviors. Method: State-wide, annual random digit-dial telephone surveys and web-based surveys were conducted in Maryland. A total of 1,700 drivers were surveyed by telephone and 6,806 took a web survey. Results: Telephone respondents were more likely to be female and older. Web respondents were more likely to be white and not Latino/Hispanic. After controlling for demographic differences, telephone survey respondents were more likely to be concerned about trafc safety. They were more likely to believe that sobriety checkpoints reduce drunk driving (OR = 2.18, 95% CI 1.94, 2.45), they would be ticketed for not wearing a seat belt (OR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.12, 1.43), and they would be stopped by the police if they drove after drinking too much (OR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.03, 1.32). They were less likely to report a variety of risky behaviors including using a cell phone while driving (OR = .54, 95% CI .48, .61) and driving 10+ mph over the speed limit (OR = .81, 95% CI .72, .91), but were more likely to report having been ticketed for a moving violation in the last month (OR = 2.22, 95% CI 1.70, 2.90). Suggestions are offered for overcoming potential sources of sampling bias. Impact on Industry: Webbased surveys produce substantially different results than random-digit-dial telephone surveys, when used for public assessments of trafc safety concerns and behaviors. 2009 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Available online 25 September 2009 Keywords: Trafc safety surveys Telephone Internet methods

1. Problem Telephone surveys are a commonly used method of obtaining public opinions on a variety of public health issues, especially in trafc safety (Beck & Moser, 2006; Beck, Wang, & Mitchell, 2006; Beck, Yan, & Wang, 2009; Hartos & Huff, 2008; Patil, Shope, & Raghunathan, 2006; Simons-Morton, Hartos, & Leaf, 2006; Williams & Chaudhary, 2008). Indeed, telephone survey methods are used for national assessments such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (CDC, 2009) as well as the National Highway Trafc Safety Administration (NHTSA) Survey of Driver Attitudes and Behaviors (NHTSA, 2003). Concerns have been raised about whether telephone surveys will continue to be a viable option for obtaining relevant health data. A recent article in the Washington Post (Brown, 2009) noted that more people are moving to cell phones and abandoning their land lines. The result is that telephone surveys may be jeopardized because a cell phone user who participates in a phone survey pays for the connect time for an incoming call. This would make it unlikely that they would be willing to participate in a traditional random-digit-dial telephone. One possible solution to this problem is to use web-based surveys. The use of such surveys has increased signicantly over the past

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 301 405 2527; fax: +1 301 314 9167. E-mail address: kbeck1@umd.edu (K.H. Beck).

several years (Cotton & Gupta, 2004; Graham & Papandonatos, 2008; Ritter, Lorig, Laurent, & Matthews, 2004; Ybarra & Suman, 2008). Online software tools such as Survey Monkey (surveymonkey.com) recently have become very popular and allow users to develop and conduct their own web-based surveys. Many professional survey rms now offer both telephone as well as web-based survey options for their customers. Both web-based and telephone surveys have unique advantages and disadvantages. Random-digit-dial telephone surveys allow a specic response rate to be calculated. This is usually derived by the percentage of the number of contacts (i.e., where someone answered the phone) that resulted in a completed survey (factoring out the number of refusers or terminators or incomplete interviews). Web surveys usually do not allow any direct calculation of response rate, as the number of people who chose not to respond to a survey is usually unknown. In certain instances where select groups may be known (i.e., members of specic medical practice or members of an insurance plan) and sent notices to go to the web site, one could derive an estimate of how many responded. However, for non-member specic groups in the population at large (i.e., licensed drivers in a state) this is not a feasible option. Web surveys have a distinct advantage in that they are cheaper to administer, in that you don't have to train and pay interviewers and they create a direct data input le. They can also be accessed outside of the home, such as at the workplace, libraries, internet cafes, and other central locations, making them more

0022-4375/$ see front matter 2009 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jsr.2009.07.007

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K.H. Beck et al. / Journal of Safety Research 40 (2009) 377381

convenient to the user. A potential disadvantage is that a user can log on to a web (from different locations) more than one time and retake the survey, thereby biasing the results. Finally, not everybody is web literate or feels comfortable taking a web survey. Thus, web-based respondents may be younger, better educated, and more likely to be technologically savvy than telephone respondents. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the results of a state-wide telephone trafc safety survey about public perceptions and behaviors with that of a web-based survey. 2. Methods 2.1. Procedures Telephone data were collected by means of a random-digit-dial survey, for the purpose of monitoring public knowledge, attitudes, and reported behaviors of licensed drivers. Every year, beginning in 2004, 850 licensed drivers are interviewed across the state. The specic methods of this annual survey have been described elsewhere (Beck & Moser, 2004, 2006; Beck, Yan, & Wang, 2007). The annual response rate is around 36%, determined by dividing the number of completes (850) by the number of refusals (1,509) plus completes (850). The margin of error is 3.36%. Telephone survey data collected in the years 2007 and 2008 were used. Starting in 2007, a web-based version of certain core elements of this questionnaire was made available to collect data at the county level. Each of Maryland's 24 counties (including Baltimore City) has a community trafc safety program (CTSP) coordinator, whose job it is to plan, administer, and evaluate the trafc safety programs specic to their county. A web-based version of the core questions was developed and made available to each CTSP. In addition to the core questions, the CTSPs were encouraged to develop and add in their own questions that would be unique but relevant to their particular community and/or programs. The CTSPs were encouraged to promote the survey in their community and encourage residents to take it when it became active. While the number of people who took this survey varied across county, in 2007 a total of 4,103 were surveyed and 2,656 were surveyed in 2008. These 6,806 web survey respondents were compared to the 1,700 telephone respondents, using the core questions common to each survey. These questions pertained to their concerns, beliefs, and self-reported behaviors. The procedures for this survey were approved by the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board. 2.2. Measures Concerns were measured by the following question "I'm going to read to you a list of potential trafc problems. Which ones do you think are the most critical?" A list of concerns was then presented (see Table 2) and the respondent indicated which ones were critical. A series of belief items were asked. Those relevant for this investigation (see Table 3) asked about whether sobriety checkpoints were effective, should there be extra penalties for drivers who are arrested with very high blood alcohol concentrations (such as .15), what are the chances of getting a ticket if one did not wear a seat belt and how likely it would be that they would be stopped by a police ofcer if they drove after having too much to drink. All responses were dichotomously recoded into "yes" versus "no" or "almost certain/very likely" versus "somewhat likely," "somewhat unlikely," or "very unlikely." Behaviors were measured by asking if in the last month the respondent had ever engaged in a variety of risky driving activities (see Table 4). 2.3. Analysis First, comparisons were made between the two samples and the state demographic characteristics for licensed drivers. This allowed us to determine how representative each survey method was in

producing a sample that was proportionate to that of the state for gender, age group, and ethnic category. Second the two samples were compared in terms of their response to their reported concerns, beliefs, and behaviors, using the chi-square test. Given the number of analyses performed, we adopted a conservative approach (i.e., Bonferroni's correction) for dening statistical signicance. For instance, when comparing the two samples on each of the 18 separate concerns, statistical signicance was dened as p < .002. When comparing the 11 separate driving behaviors, statistical signicance was dened as p < .01. When comparing the four beliefs, signicance was dened as p < .02. Finally, the two samples were compared in a series of binary logistic regression analyses in which their demographic factors (gender, age group, racial group, and whether they identied themselves as being of Latino/Hispanic origin) were treated as covariates. The resultant adjusted odds ratios indicate the relative likelihood that the phone respondents are likely to report a given concern, belief, or behavior, adjusting for any demographic difference. All analyses were conducted using SPSS (version 16.0). 3. Results The demographic characteristics of the telephone and web survey respondents are presented and compared to the state's population in Table 1. The telephone survey oversampled females (60.7%), while the web survey was very close to the state's proportion for gender. Neither method was particularly effective at sampling young drivers, especially in the age group 1620. The telephone survey method over sampled older drivers (aged 65 and above), while the web survey under sampled them. The telephone method was closer to sampling the proportion of white and African-American drivers, as well as people of Latino/Hispanic origin. The telephone method more accurately sampled people from Maryland's Central and Southern Metropolitan counties, where the majority (86.2%) of the driving population resides. Finally, the respondent's zip code (Maryland postal code) was also collected and matched to 2000 U.S. Census data by zip code. Zip-code-based median household income measures
Table 1 Demographic composition of samples, 20072008. Licensed Drivers Web Survey (n = 6,806) Gender (%) Male Female Age (%) 1620 2129 3045 4664 65+ Race (%) White African American Asian Native American Other Population Latino/Hispanic Origin (%) Yes 1.9 No 98.1 Region (%) Eastern Shore 8.64 Central 28.48 Southern Metropolitan 46.49 Western 16.40 as of 2007. as of 2006. as of 2005. 3.7 96.3 7.7 41.94 35.76 14.53 5.7 94.3 5.9 45.2 37.4 11.4 44.4 54.7 0.8 9.7 33.3 47.5 7.9 84.9 9.1 1.1 0.4 3.0 Telephone Survey (n = 1,700) 39.3 60.7 2.1 6.6 24.4 40.2 26.7 74.5 19.1 3.1 0.4 2.8 State-wide (n = 3,912,390) 47.9 52.1 5.9 14.6 32.8 33.0 13.6 69.5 23.7 4.3 0.1 2.5

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were then imputed for all respondents. There was no difference in the mean household income between the web survey respondents (M = $59,254.05, SD = 18,380) and the telephone respondents ($58, 320.45, SD = 19, 410), t(1, 8295) = 1.78, p > .05. Telephone survey respondents were more likely than web respondents to report that all of the trafc safety issues were critical concerns (Table 2). The biggest discrepancies (>55% difference) were for underage drinking (85.3% vs. 26.8%), pedestrian safety (72.6% vs. 16.6%), and making intersections safer (73.0% vs. 16.9%). The least amount of discrepancy (<30% difference) was for speeding and aggressive driving (91.1% vs. 70.4%), older drivers (39.8% vs. 13.2%), cell phone use while driving (86.5% vs. 58.7%), racial proling (34.8% vs. 5.0%), and drunk driving (90.4% vs. 61.4%). The logistic regression analyses indicated that, after accounting for demographic factors, telephone survey respondents were at least 10 times more likely than web survey respondents to identify transportation needs for people with disabilities, underage drinking, making intersections safer, pedestrian safety, and racial proling as critical concerns. Telephone respondents were signicantly more likely than web respondents to believe that: (a) sobriety checkpoints reduce drunk driving; (b) they would be ticketed if they did not wear their seat belts; and (c) they would be stopped by a police ofcer if they drove after having too much to drink (Table 3). Web survey respondents were signicantly more likely to report using a cell phone while driving, drive 10 or more miles over the speed limit, having had an encounter with an aggressive driver, and having a close call or near miss. Telephone respondents were signicantly more likely to report that they drove more than 20 mph over the speed limit, drove aggressively, ran a stop sign, and that they got a ticket or citation (Table 4). 4. Discussion There were substantial demographic differences between the people who participated in a web survey versus a random-digit-dial
Table 2 Critical trafc safety concerns for web and telephone survey respondents. Survey Type % Web (n = 6,806) Drunk driving Speeding and aggressive driving Running red lights or stop signs Pedestrian safety Distracted, drowsy or inattentive driving Seat belt and child safety seat usage Better roadway design Construction that interferes with trafc Gridlock and trafc congestion Younger drivers Older drivers Underage drinking Racial proling Road rage Making intersections safer Cell phone use while driving Transportation for people with disabilities Motorcycle safety 61.4 70.4 44.6 16.6 44.8 18.8 13.1 16.1 36.1 25.7 13.2 26.8 5.0 40.5 16.9 58.7 4.2 17.4 % Telephone AOR (95%CI) (n = 1,700) 90.4 91.1 79.1 72.6 84.8 69.8 54.8 56.2 76.3 64.6 39.8 85.3 34.8 82.4 73.0 86.5 52.7 66.5 5.25 3.64 4.18 12.64 6.79 9.81 8.20 6.70 6.14 5.12 5.54 14.63 10.59 6.12 12.95 3.90 24.94 9.21 (4.42, 6.24) (3.04, 4.35) (3.67, 4.77) (11.09, 14.42) (5.87, 7.87) (8.63, 11.15) (7.22, 9.31) (5.92, 7.58) (5.39, 6.99) (4.54, 5.77) (4.85, 6.33) (12.61, 16.98) (8.90, 12.60) (5.34, 7.03) (11.36, 14.77) (3.35, 4.53) (21.21, 29.34) (8.13, 10.44)

telephone survey of trafc safety issues in Maryland. This raises concerns about the ability of a web-based data collection system to collect accurate and representative information on a population. When both the telephone and web data were weighted by gender, age group, and ethnicity (white vs. non-white) to approximate the proportion of drivers in these categories, the results were unchanged. Despite an attempt to correct for any demographic bias, a fundamental difference remains between people who take web surveys and those who are contacted at random to participate in a telephone interview. Weighting by demographic factors alone does not eliminate motivational biases for who chooses to participate in a survey. This unknown bias is present with all self-report surveys, be they telephone or web-based. We did not collect information on the respondent's educational background or their internet using habits; this would have allowed us to see if the web sample was more likely to have a higher socioeconomic level and be more web-literate than the telephone sample. Most studies of internet usage have focused on the so called "mainstream" users who are largely non-Hispanic white, college educated, and have higher incomes (Graham & Papandonatos, 2008). Our attempts to determine if there was a median household income difference between the two samples may not have been sensitive enough to capture any differences in educational level and internet prociency and comfort. Our results suggest that web respondents are less concerned about a variety of trafc safety issues and may perceive less risk. For instance, they were more likely to report using a cell phone while driving, drive at least 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, and they were less likely to report having been ticketed in the last month. However, they were more likely to report that they had an encounter with an aggressive driver and had a close call or near miss. It may be that a ticket or citation is a more signicant event than encountering aggressive drivers or having a close call. These events are perhaps more common and less concrete than actually being ticketed. This is consistent with the nding that web respondents also were less likely to feel that they would be ticketed for not wearing a seat belt or that they would be caught by the police if they drove after drinking too much. 4.1. Implications There are several implications of these results. First, the use of web-based surveys for general population-based assessments of public attitudes and behaviors is likely to produce a bias that may not be corrected through weighting or other sample adjustments. Even using a pre-selected sample of people who will take a web survey (a feature now offered by many professional sampling rms), whose demographic characteristics precisely match that of the population of interest (in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity) does not ensure that these people are representative of the larger population. Using a sample of recruited web survey takers (who are paid to take your particular survey as well as other surveys that are offered to them by a survey rm) is likely to be very different than one reached through a "cold call," random-digit-dial telephone method. Thus, while some web samples offer the appearance of precision, due to their ability to provide proportionate sampling along predetermined demographic factors (e.g., age, gender), their representativeness remains in question. Second, it is advisable to compare the results with other surveys that have documented the prevalence of the phenomenon in question. For instance, national surveys have shown that more than 90% of respondents believe that drinking and driving is a serious threat to their safety (NHTSA, 2003). This is consistent with our telephone survey results that showed that around 90% viewed drunk driving as a critical concern. In contrast, only about 60% of the web survey respondents viewed this as a critical concern. It is also advisable to

Note: all differences signicant, p < .001. AOR (adjusted odds ratio) indicates the relative likelihood that telephone survey respondents indicated a concern, after controlling for gender, age, racial group and Latino/Hispanic origin.

380 Table 3 Beliefs of web and telephone survey respondents.

K.H. Beck et al. / Journal of Safety Research 40 (2009) 377381

% Web

% Telephone AOR (95% CI)

(n = 6,806) (n = 1700) Do you think sobriety checkpoints reduce drunk driving? (yes) Do you think there should be extra penalties for drivers with very high blood alcohol concentrations, such as .15? (yes) What are the chances of getting a ticket if you did not wear your seat belt? (almost certain/very likely) If you drove after having too much to drink how likely are you to be stopped by a police ofcer? (almost certain/ very likely) 28.8 80.2 25.8 24.3 48.2 80.3 32.7 30.1 2.18 .88 (.77, 1.01) 1.26 (1.12, 1.43) 1.17 (1.03, 1.32)

p < .02. p < .01. AOR (adjusted odds ratio) indicates the relative likelihood that telephone survey respondents indicated a belief, after controlling for gender, age, racial group and Latino/Hispanic origin.

validate these survey methods with other kinds of data. An example would be to see if there is a relationship between certain types of crashes and public concerns. Recently, we performed an investigation in which alcohol-impaired driving crash data were found to be related to public perceptions (as measured by telephone surveys) of concerns about drunk driving and perceptions of police and judicial leniency regarding apprehending and processing drunk drivers (Beck et al., 2009). As expected, counties that had more serious impaired driving crashes (i.e., fatalities and injuries) had respondents who were more likely to feel that drunk driving was a critical trafc safety issue and feel that the police and judicial system were too lenient in detecting and legally disposing of these crimes than residents who lived in lower crash rate counties. We have not been able to perform this assessment yet using the web data, as we have not collected web data over a sufcient number of years to compare with the state and county crash trends. Third, we should decide what the purpose of the survey is. For estimates of general population trends and prevalence, telephone surveys appear to be useful, although not ideal. However, for obtaining feedback on some issue in a preselected or local population (e.g., people of a list serve or members of a local community), web surveys may be better. Thus, web surveys might be used for gaining insight into the kinds of issues and concerns that people have, rather than to establish the extent, signicance, or prevalence of them in a general population. However, this will depend upon how well the survey web sites are promoted and advertised in the local communities. One must keep in mind that while telephone surveys appear to be anonymous in the sense that no personal identiers are used, they still require direct contact with another person. This form of interpersonal interaction between a respondent and an interviewee may in some cases inhibit people from expressing their true attitudes or behaviors. This is not the case with a web survey. Thus it is possible that a web survey offers the appearance of even greater anonymity
Table 4 Self-reported driving behaviors (last month) of web and telephone survey respondents. % Web % Telephone AOR (95% CI)

and may produce more valid responses in those respondents who are inclined to use them. Future research should compare these two modalities in terms of respondent feelings of comfort, anonymity, and willingness to self-disclose personal attitudes and behaviors. Fourth, people that use telephone survey methods may have to consider building into their budgets for the cost of reimbursing participants for their connect time minutes, if they are using a cell phone to respond. This may help in reaching more young drivers. Also, call display and formal blocking of telemarketing numbers are making it increasingly difcult to reach consumers via random dialing methods. The effect of these features on the representativeness of telephone samples is yet to be determined. However, it seems likely that the non-response rates will escalate. One possible solution is to use a combination of purely random-digit-dial contacts supplemented with random selection from age-targeted lists that have been compiled from various publicly available marketing sources. This approach is increasingly being used and it may solve the problem of under sampling young drivers. However, it is unclear if this would produce a more representative sampling of young drivers. Future research should address this issue as well. Finally, we need to use mixed methods, relying on a variety of techniques and display results that demonstrate consistency. In Maryland, the results of both the telephone and web survey results are displayed to each of the CTSP's on a specially designed website, and the results are color-coded such that concerns indicated by at least 60% of the population appear in red, those expressed by 40-60% are presented in yellow, and those under 40% are in green. In this way, the CTSPs are able to see what concerns are surfacing on the "radar" of their public surveillance. Therefore, instead of worrying about numerical correspondence between the web and telephone surveys, the CTSPs are able to focus more on the consistency with which certain issues seem to be viewed as important to a majority of their constituency. 4.2. Limitations Any survey of beliefs and behaviors is subject to various selfselection and self-report biases. As we acknowledged earlier, telephone methods are not immune to these limitations. Neither are web surveys. While steps can be taken to minimize such concerns, through anonymity assurances and informed consent, ultimately we are dependent upon an individual's willingness to disclose his/her thoughts and actions. The degree to which telephone respondents are likely to be telling us the truth cannot be determined. All we know is that there is consistency in the data over time and it appears to converge with other sources of data. The telephone survey used a random contact method while the web survey required respondents to go and complete the survey online. We cannot really determine if the same group of people contacted by telephone would have preferred to take the survey by web. Future research should address this issue by using a random assignment process to determine if the same type of people who agree to be interviewed would give different answers if the format is altered. Alternatively, a cross-over design could be used whereby

(n = 6,806) (n = 1,700) Used a cell phone while driving Driven while drowsy Drove more than 10+ mph over the speed limit Drove more than 20+ mph over the speed limit Had an encounter with an aggressive driver Drove aggressively Drove after a few drinks Driven when you know you've had too much Ran a stop sign or trafc light Got a ticket or citation Had a close call or near miss 79.3 22.4 64.0 10.5 55.7 7.6 10.2 1.6 5.2 2.6 35.7 54.4 20.9 54.8 11.1 47.2 9.2 8.9 1.6 8.8 6.0 26.4 .54 1.08 .81 1.21 .82 1.42 .85 1.18 1.76 2.22 .68 (.48, .61) (.73, 1.48) (.72, .91) (1.01, 1.46) (.74, .92) (1.16, 1.74) (.70, 1.04) (.76, 1.84) (1.42, 2.17) (1.70, 2.90) (.60, .77)

p < .001. AOR (adjusted odds ratio) indicates the relative likelihood that telephone survey respondents reported a behavior, after controlling for gender, age, racial group and Latino/Hispanic origin.

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people who randomly take one form of the survey (web or phone) are subsequently administered the other form in order to see if their responses are consistent. While this would answer the question of whether methods variance was the major factor, it would still not resolve the issue of which method one should use to collect data from a general population. The results of this investigation indicate that random-digit-dial telephone surveys offer a superior method for obtaining prevalence data on trafc safety issues. 5. Summary This study compares the results of a trafc safety survey under two different methods (telephone or web-based). Substantial differences in concerns, beliefs, and behaviors exist between these two types of samples, indicating a serious bias when using web-based surveys for public opinion surveys. Before web surveys can offer a valid substitute for traditional random-digit dial telephone interviewing, further research needs to be conducted to determine the characteristics of those people who are motivated to take a web-based survey of trafc safety issues. Acknowledgement Support for this investigation was provided by the Maryland Highway Safety Ofce. They had no role in the analysis or writing of this report. References
Beck, K. H., & Moser, M. L. (2004). Exposure to the Sobriety "Checkpoint Strikeforce" Campaign in Maryland: Impact on Driver Perceptions of Vulnerability and Behavior. Trafc Injury Prevention, 5(2), 101106. Beck, K. H., & Moser, M. L. (2006). Does the type of exposure to a roadside sobriety checkpoint inuence driver perceptions regarding drunk driving? American Journal of Health Behavior, 30(3), 268277. Beck, K. H., Wang, M. Q., & Mitchell, M. M. (2006). Concerns, dispositions and behaviors of aggressive drivers: What do self-identied aggressive drivers believe about trafc safety? Journal of Safety Research, 37(2), 159165. Beck, K. H., Yan, A. F., Wang, M. Q., Kerns, T. J., & Burch, C. A. (2009). The relationship between impaired driving crashes and beliefs about impaired driving: Do residents in high crash rate counties have greater concerns about impaired driving? Trafc Injury Prevention, 10(2), 127133. Beck, K. H., Yan, F., & Wang, M. Q. (2007). Cell phone users, reported crash risk, unsafe driving behaviors and dispositions: A survey of motorists in Maryland. Journal of Safety Research, 38(6), 683688. Brown, D. (2009, January 12, 2009). Cellphones' Growth Does a Number on Health Research. Washington Post.

CDC (2009). Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: http:// www.cdc.gov/brfss/ Cotton, S. R., & Gupta, S. S. (2004). Characteristics of online and ofine health information seekers and factors that discriminate between them. Social Science & Medicine, 59, 17951806. Graham, A. L., & Papandonatos, G. D. (2008). Reliability of internet-versus telephoneadministered questionnaires in a diverse sample of smokers. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10(1), e8. doi:10.2196/jmir.987. Hartos, J. L., & Huff, D. C. (2008). Parent attitudes toward integrating parent involvement into teenage driver education courses. Trafc Injury Prevention, 9(3), 38. National Highway Trafc Safety Administration [NHTSA]. (2003). National Survey of Drinking and Driving Attitudes and Behavior Volume I: Summary Report. Retrieved Auguest 18, 2008, from http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov Patil, S. M., Shope, J. T., & Raghunathan, T. E. (2006). The role of personality characteristics in young adult driving. Trafc injury prevention, 7(4), 328334. Ritter, P., Lorig, K., Laurent, D., & Matthews, K. (2004). Internet versus mailed questionnaires: a randomized comparison. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 6(3), e29. doi:10.2196/jmir.6.3.e29. Simons-Morton, B. G., Hartos, J. L., & Leaf, W. A. (2006). The effect on teen driving outcomes of the Checkpoints Program in a state-wide trial. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 38(5), 907912. Williams, A. F., & Chaudhary, N. K. (2008). Views of Connecticut parents of teens and other adults about graduated licensing upgrades. Trafc Injury Prevention, 9(6), 503507. Ybarra, M., & Suman, M. (2008). Reasons, assessments and actions taken: sex and age differences in uses of Internet health information. Health Education Research, 23(3), 512521. Kenneth H. Beck, Ph.D., received his doctorate in Social Psychology from Syracuse University. He is a Professor of Public and Community Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health at College Park. Dr. Beck's interests include the determinants of threat perception and risk taking, including alcohol misuse and trafc injury prevention. His research has dealt with adolescents, parents, as well as multiple alcohol offenders. He conducted the rst randomized trial of alcohol ignition interlocks. Currently, Dr. Beck is concerned with developing strategies for parents of young drivers to reduce their risk of a trafc injury. Alice F. Yan, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Public and Community Health from the University of Maryland School of Public Health. She has a M.D. degree from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is as Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at the Univerity of Texas at San Antonio. Her areas of interest are advanced statistical applications and social and environmental determinants of health. Min Qi Wang, Ph.D., received his doctorate from the interdisciplinary doctoral program at Arizona State University with the concentration on health psychology and biostatistics. He is a Professor of Public and Community Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health at College Park. Dr. Wang's interests include research behavior assessment, preventions, and evaluations. In addition, he does research in quantitative, statistical, and programming techniques and applies these techniques to health research projects.