Effects of Driver Expertise and Device Type on Digital Traffic Safety Education: An Experimental Study

With the continuous evolution of traffic regulations due to societal and technological changes in South Korea, traffic safety education significantly contributes to promoting compliance and preventing confusion among drivers. However, little research has explored the effectiveness of traffic safety education across different device environments, particularly among actual drivers using virtual reality (VR). In this study, we aimed to develop a VR-based driver safety training education application to address the limitations of existing traffic safety education and to empirically assess its effectiveness in contrast to mobile-based education. An experiment was conducted involving participants with varying levels of driving expertise to analyze the interaction between device type and driver experience. The results demonstrated that the VR-based education was more effective than mobile-based approaches in enhancing learner interest and reducing confusion. Notably, experienced drivers showed significant improvements in transfer of learning and a clearer understanding of traffic regulations. This study provides empirical evidence to support the design and implementation of VR-based education tools to improve learning effectiveness and driver regulatory compliance.