The Swedish driver education programme enables drivers to start driving practice at the age of 16, and obtain a provisional licence at age 18 and a full licence at age 20; it aims to integrate theory and practice. This paper presents a study by the Swedish Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) of the effects of lowering the age limit for practising to 16 years, introduced in September 1993. The new age limit aimed to enable learner drivers to gain more driving experience before being able to drive alone, so that this increased experience would also reduce accident involvement. The study used three comparison groups: (1) the '16 years' group, consisting of drivers who began practising at age 16; (2) the 'old 17½ years' group, who obtained a driver licence before the change; and (3) the 'new 17½ years' group, whose members could have begun to practise at age 16 but chose not to do so. The groups were questioned directly after licensing, then one and two years later, and data about their accidents were obtained from police records. Results were obtained about amount of practising, accidents during practising, and accidents after licensing; the general effect of the change was to reduce young driver accident rates by about 15%. The paper finally outlines a new driver education system being developed in Sweden.
Abstract