Accompanied driving: who participate in 2toDrive and why? : a questionnaire study among 16 and 17-year-olds in the Netherlands. On 1 November 2011, 2toDrive, a six-year pilot of accompanied driving, commenced in the Netherlands. In 2toDrive youths can start their driver training and take the theory exam from the age of 16.5 years-old. They can then take their practical driving test from the age of 17 years-old. After having obtained the driving licence, they can only drive when accompanied by an experienced driver, the coach, until their 18th birthday. Experiences in other countries show that accompanied driving can be an effective measure to lower the crash rate among young novice drivers. To investigate the effectiveness of the measure in the Netherlands, SWOV is performing an evaluation study. This study focuses on the effects on crash involvement, on the number of traffic offences, and on everyday road behaviour. The evaluation is carried out in steps. The final results, with an estimate of the effect on crashes, will be presented in 2017. The study presented in this report is the first step in the evaluation and serves two purposes: • Obtaining a better understanding of the familiarity of youths with 2toDrive and their reasons for participating or not participating. • Insight in possible differences between participants in 2toDrive and non-participants that may be of importance for road safety. Such differences — due to self-selection — must be considered in the next steps of the evaluation as they can bias the possible effects of 2toDrive on traffic behaviour and crash involvement. The study was carried out using an online questionnaire among youths aged 16 to 17.5 years-old. There was a total of 1,474 respondents.
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