Provisional licence
In the first five years after initial qualification, whatever the driving licence category, a simple demerit point system applies. The associated licence is called a provisional licence. Two serious traffic offences for which the driver was apprehended are followed by an investigation to assess the offender’s driving skills. The effectiveness of provisional licencing appears to be limited. Research has not been able to show that provisional licencing has a deterrent effect (general preventive effect) on novice drivers [46] [47]. Knowledge about the rules and sanctions, and the driver’s own opinion about the legitimacy of the rules, determine compliance with the rules, as shown by a study of the support base for graduated licencing (which includes provisional licencing) among young people in Australia [48]. For more information about the provisional licence, see SWOV fact sheet Driver training and driving tests.
Lower alcohol limit for novice drivers
International research shows that lowering the alcohol limit for novice drivers results in less drink-driving and fewer crashes. Dutch figures, however, do not show such a reduction. In the Netherlands, lower alcohol limits for novice drivers (mostly young drivers) were introduced in 2006. Data about drink-driving by young road users in the four years before and after the introduction of the lower limits (2002-2010) show that drink-driving by young road users did not decrease more strongly than drink-driving by older road users [28]. Neither did the number of alcohol-related road casualties among young people decrease in the first two years after introduction of the lower limits [49]. For more information, see SWOV fact sheet Driving under the influence of alcohol.
LEMA
The Light Educational Measure Alcohol (LEMA) is a rehabilitation course intended for novice drivers who were caught drink-driving with a blood alcohol content between 0.5 and 0.8, and for experienced drivers caught drink-driving with a blood alcohol content between 0.8 and 1.0. The course intends to make participants aware of the causes and risks their problem behaviour entails and to show them how they may change their behaviour to avoid future problems. Participants have to pay for the course themselves. A study by the Research and Documentation Centre WODC found no demonstrable effect of LEMA on recidivism (both general traffic offence recidivism and drink-driving) [50]. For more information, see SWOV fact sheet Traffic enforcement.
Accompanied driving (2toDrive)
Since 2011, accompanied driving – in the Netherlands known as ‘2toDrive’ – has given young people the opportunity to drive a car under the supervision of an adult, starting at the age of 17. The experience gained under supervision is expected to result in fewer crashes once these young drivers start driving independently. An evaluation of the 2toDrive experiment in 2015 was inconclusive about its road safety effect [51]. In other countries, for example Sweden and Germany, positive effects on crash rate were reported, although there are other countries where no positive effects were found, such as Norway and France. The number of kilometres driven while accompanied and the variation in circumstances (sufficient learning opportunities) are aspects that are important to the effectiveness of accompanied driving (SWOV-factsheet Driver training and driving tests).
