CIECA Congress

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Driver Licensing A North American Perspective
CIECA Congress
Marseille, France ? June 9, 2006
Allan F. Williams Bethesda, MD USA
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• Should the driver education teacher be
  responsible only for whether the student can
  drive adequately or whether he actually does
  drive in this manner?
• Pat Waller, 1977

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Dekalb driver education evaluation study

• Random assignment of 16,338 students to a program
  considered to be state-of-the-art (SPC), a
  minimum education group, or a control group.
• SPC program more than 70 hours of instruction,
  allocated between classroom, simulator, closed
  course, and on-road training.
• No positive effects on subsequent crash
  involvement.

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1960s Michigan Insight training program

• High school seniors participated in 7 two-hour
  sessions, dealing with the effects of anger,
  frustration, and competition on driving
  situational factors and how to deal with them
  discussion of collisions and close calls
  experienced examination of personal driving
  styles and changes needed.
• No effect on subsequent crash involvement.

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Worldwide reviews of driver education evaluations

• Mayhew et al. (1998) Canada
• Vernick et al. (1999) USA
• Wooley (2000) Australia
• Christie (2001) Australia
• Roberts (2002) UK (Cochrane review)

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• The research literatures suggests that beyond
  imparting basic car control and road law
  knowledge skills, pre-license driver training
  contributes little to post-license reductions in
  casualty crashesThis pattern of results has been
  confirmed and replicated across numerous studies
  conducted in Australia, New Zealand, North
  America, Europe, and Scandinavia during the last
  30 years.
• Ron Christie, 2001

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Driver crash involvements per million
miles
traveled1995
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Principles of graduated licensing

• Keep young beginners out of high-risk driving
  situations
• Encourage low-risk on-road practice driving
• Find appropriate trade-off between safety and
  mobility
• Delay full driving privileges until teenagers are
  older and starting to mature out of risky driving
  practices

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Different styles of graduated licensing

• North America, New Zealand Restrictions on
  high-risk driving
• Australia Long probationary periods
• Europe Reductions in the learner age

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Fatal crashes per 100 million milesDay vs.
night, by driver age, 2001-02
driver age
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Crash rates by driver age and passenger
presencePer 10,000 trips
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
0
1
2
3
0
1
2
3
ages 18-19
ages 30-59
ages 16-17
number of passengers
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Number of fatally injured drivers and
passengersU.S., 2004
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Crashes per 10,000 drivers, Nova ScotiaBy months
of licensure
months
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Graduated licensing basics

• Learner stage 6-month minimum, require parent
  certification of at least 50 hours of practice
• Intermediate stage unsupervised driving not
  allowed late at night, and when transporting
  young passengers
• Full license delayed until age 17 or 18

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What states have done
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Evaluations of graduated licensing programs
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Crash rates of 18-20 year-old Norwegian
Drivers by time since licensing test Crashes per
million vehicle kilometers
Fridulv Sagberg Institute of Transport
Economics Oslo, Norway
1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10
13-14
11-12
15-16
months with drivers license
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Graduated licensing and driver education

• Graduated licensing now established as policy
• Driver education well established as method for
  learning to drive
• The challenge coordinating graduated licensing
  and driver education to enhance effects

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Present status of driver education

• Decline in school-based programs
• Driver ed industry highly fragmented, great
  variety, use of technology aids
• Growing popularity of advanced training courses
• Issue quality of programs and instructors

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Coordination of graduated licensing and
driver education

• Two-phase driver education programs
• Programs with a parent component
• Partnering driver education and lay instructors
  to maximize supervised driving experience
• Potential for driver education instructors to
  advise and motivate parents, making them better
  supervisors

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Conclusions

• Graduated licensing in the U.S. has become
  popular, well accepted, and has reduced the
  young driver problem.
• Graduated licensing and driver education
  co-exist, and coordinating these two programs has
  potential for further reducing the problem.
• The possibilities for coordination have not been
  fully explored or tested.