An assessment of traffic education and its examination system—an extended House of Quality approach

The study situates traffic education and testing within public administration reforms emphasizing efficiency and citizen focus (e.g., New Public Management and Neo‑Weberian State) and growing digital-era governance. Focusing on Hungary (with parallels to other Eastern European countries where education and testing are centralized), it examines how citizens and government—as distinct stakeholders with different goals—perceive and interact with the traffic education and examination systems. The research gap is to identify where stakeholder expectations converge or diverge to inform e-government service redesign for traffic rules education and testing required for driving licences and road safety. The paper proposes using an extended House of Quality (HOQ) to map and compare stakeholder goals and objectives. It also contextualizes international variability by briefly outlining processes in the USA, Germany, and Australia. The core research questions are: What are customers’ expectations for driving licence examinations? What are authorities’ expectations? What discrepancies exist between these groups?

A systematic literature review (SLR) in Scopus identified 17,002 records for Traffic and Rules, narrowed to 408 with Education, 272 journal articles, then 96 in Social Sciences, finally 87 (2000–2023). After excluding 37 off-topic papers, 51 remained: 38 in Safety (27 on technology/driving technique tests, 6 on impairment, 5 on traffic conditions) and 13 on educational development (including gaming, regulation, and general development). Prior studies examined drivers’ traffic law knowledge, parental involvement in licensing, public transport safety awareness, elderly driver programs, instructor capability modernization, social factors in rule compliance, teaching traffic rules, sign familiarity, parent views via GDE Framework, and drivers’ perceptions of road safety education. The review highlights the regulatory role of government, the potential of digitalization/e-government, and the utility of process and service development tools like HOQ. E-government literature distinguishes traditional administration, NPM, and Neo‑Weberian/Hybrid models, with digital-era governance integrating technology to improve service delivery and participation. The HOQ (Quality Function Deployment) methodology, originating in Japan and widely adopted across domains, translates customer needs into design requirements and has been extended to measure complex service systems; the study adopts an extended HOQ allowing positive, neutral, and negative correlations.

Materials and methods combine secondary statistics and primary qualitative research. Secondary analysis used Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) data (downloaded January 2020) to assess traffic education/exams and road safety context, including demographic and educational distributions relevant to the driver market and outcomes of exams (2017–2020). The paper also frames exam performance via a success-factor model and discusses information entropy as a conceptual lens for uncertainty in exam questions and curriculum alignment (not pursued analytically in this study). Primary research built two HOQ models—one for citizens (learner drivers, Generation Z focus) and one for government (traffic authorities). Goals and objectives for HOQ were derived from qualitative research: three focus groups (two homogeneous—citizens who used the system in the prior year, and government staff in traffic education/examination—plus one mixed group) with 7–11 participants each, conducted in Western Hungary. Preparation ran February–April 2020; outputs informed HOQ goal/objective sets. In-depth interviews (June–July 2020) with 9 citizens and 6 government employees elicited perceived relationships (positive, neutral, negative) among goals and objectives within each stakeholder’s HOQ. Majority views determined the final relationship codings. The HOQ framework then compared stakeholder goal–objective connections in both education and examination systems.

Secondary statistics (Hungary, 2017–2020): • Annually >200,000 authority-run theory exams; >60% pass rate each year. • Age distribution: >60% of participants are under 30. • First-attempt pass rate >70%; second attempt ~20%; third ~5%; the remainder require >3 attempts. • Increasing use of e-learning prior to exams; very few attempt the exam without formal education. HOQ results—Education (Citizens): • Numerous positive (30) and neutral (24) connections; few negative (2). • Goal G2 (It should be quick) has the most positive links (6). • Goal G7 (Be up to date) has the most neutral links (6). • Objective O1 (It should be easy to use on any device) shows the highest positive connections (7). • Objective O6 (All citizens should receive state support) shows the most neutral connections (7). Connection ratios: Citizens—Education: 53% positive, 43% neutral, 4% negative. HOQ results—Education (Government): • Fewer goals/objectives but most are linked (positive 4, negative 3, neutral 2 across pairs). • Goal G3 (Minimizing education and maintenance cost) shows only negative connections toward objectives, indicating cost minimization conflicts with service-improving objectives. Connection ratios: Government—Education: 76% positive, 24% neutral, 0% negative. HOQ results—Examination (Citizens): • Positive (13) and neutral (7) connections; no negative (0). • Goal G2 (Use simple and clear examples) has only neutral links, suggesting identified objectives do not strongly drive this goal. Connection ratios: Citizens—Examination: 65% positive, 35% neutral, 0% negative. HOQ results—Examination (Government): • Comparable numbers of goals/objectives with several positive (6), neutral (6), and negative (4) connections. • Conflict between G3 (Automation of the entire examination system) and G4 (Maintaining the current course of the examination), indicating tension between change and status quo. • Objectives O2 (Collect as many fees as possible), O3 (Keep examination points in current form), and O4 (Maintain human resource needs) are generally neutral; O1 shows positive connections. Connection ratios: Government—Examination: 38% positive, 37% neutral, 25% negative. Overall: Stakeholder viewpoints are closer for the examination system than for the education system. Citizens emphasize speed and usability; government emphasizes rule enforcement and system performance, with cost minimization conflicting with service development in education and with automation vs. continuity in examination.

The extended HOQ effectively enabled a comparative mapping of stakeholder goals and objectives, revealing where alignments and conflicts arise in traffic education and examination. Findings highlight substantive divergences—particularly around cost minimization versus service enhancement in education and automation versus preserving current processes in examinations. Citizens show clearer alignment for improving the examination experience (higher positive connections), while government shows stronger alignment in education (higher positive connections), arguably reflecting their roles in designing and regulating these services. The study underscores the challenge of reconciling citizen convenience/efficiency with government mandates to ensure comprehensive rule knowledge and road safety. Addressing neutral or negative relationships may inform redesign of e-government services, prioritizing elements that improve both passability and safety outcomes. The analysis is timely given ongoing digitalization and the future integration of autonomous driving, where consistent rule adherence remains central.

Using an extended House of Quality approach, the study compares citizen and government goals and objectives in Hungary’s traffic rules education and examination systems, supplemented by statistical background data. The analysis shows that stakeholder perspectives are more aligned for the examination system than for the education system, but meaningful contradictions remain: citizens prioritize speed, accessibility, and ease, whereas government prioritizes compliance, ongoing knowledge control, and cost or process constraints. The work demonstrates HOQ’s value for diagnosing stakeholder relationships and guiding service redesign. Future research should incorporate quantitative, post-exam data collection to build representative datasets, evaluate legal framework impacts, and refine e-government solutions that balance ease-of-use with safety and compliance. Overall, the study contributes a structured, stakeholder-centered framework to inform improvements in traffic education and examination services.

The HOQ inputs were derived from qualitative methods (focus groups and in-depth interviews) with limited, regional samples, which may constrain generalizability. No quantitative survey or behavioral performance data were collected post-exam to validate perceived relationships. Statistical analyses rely on secondary data without causal inference. The information entropy concept is discussed but not operationalized. Future work should employ large-scale quantitative measures, integrate legal framework assessments, and link educational/examination features to objective outcomes (e.g., pass rates, violation/accident data).