The evolution and effectiveness of graduated licensing
Section snippets
Evolution
As described in a previous paper in these proceedings (Williams, Nelson, & Leaf, 2002) and documented extensively elsewhere (e.g., Mayhew & Simpson, 1990a, Mayhew & Simpson, 1990b, Mayhew & Simpson, 1995), young drivers have a higher risk of collision than older, more experienced drivers. Historically, a mainstay of prevention strategies to address this serious road safety and public health problem has been some form of licensing system that requires beginners to qualify for a licence before
Evaluation
The description of the evolution of graduated licensing provided above could lead to the conclusion that its adoption has been driven primarily by the so-called domino principle of road safety—a notion that my colleague Dan Mayhew and I introduced many years ago. It suggests that road safety policies and programs are often implemented with less regard for their scientific merit and proven effectiveness than for the fact that someone else adopted it. This cascading effect of follow-the-leader
Future directions
As noted earlier, the evaluations conducted to date consistently show that graduated licensing is associated with significant and meaningful reductions in collisions. At the same time, it is evident that the reductions are by no means uniform, and at this point, we do not know how much of the variability is attributable to differences in the evaluation methodologies, to the sites where the studies have been conducted, or to fundamental differences in the programs themselves. This needs to be
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