Youth Transportation Safety

Texas A&M Transportation Institute
1100 NW Loop 410
Suite 600
San Antonio, TX 78213
(979) 314-9571
[email protected]

Christine Yager is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and Principal Investigator in the Youth Transportation Safety (YTS) Program in TTI's Center for Transportation Safety. She has over 10 years of experience leading transportation safety research projects with a focus on human factors, driver distraction, and young driver behavior and serves as an expert witness on cases that involve distracted driving. Ms. Yager also oversees the data collection and analysis activities for the YTS Program including: annual surveys, Zero Hero, You in the Driver Seat App, and the overall Teens in the Driver Seat program evaluations. The annual surveys are collected from a sample of youth from participating program schools and allows the program to track youth driving risk awareness and attitudes toward and participation in certain driving behaviors. Zero Hero activities are pre- and post-observation activities that focus on seat belt use and distracted driving and walking. The You in the Driver Seat App is designed to positively incentivize young drivers (ages 16-25) to avoid cell phone use and excessive speeding while driving by instilling the idea that Responsibility has its Rewards. Young drivers earn gift card rewards after reaching certain safe driving milestones.

Ms. Yager also develops educational outreach materials aimed to help young drivers increase safety amongst their peers. She is a Certified Peer Program Educator, serves as the Southeast Texas and Washington state Regional Representative to support schools that enroll in the Teens in the Driver Seat program, and regularly participates in community outreach events to promote traffic safety. Teens in the Driver Seat (TDS) is an innovative peer-to-peer teen driver safety program that is available for free to schools all across the United States.