The contribution of licensing measures to the safety of novice drivers in Germany

Despite the introduction of a point demerit system for young drivers and an extensive driver instruction, the accident involvement of young German drivers is still unacceptably high, and therefore further measures are called for. Measures that have recently raised much interest in Germany are post-qualification restrictions and accompanied driving. Important issues in the German discussions are: - how effective have several restrictions shown to be? - what safety gains are to be expected if such measures are introduced in Germany? - will these measures be acceptable to the public in general and the novice drivers in particular? - and what kind of side effects are to be expected? The SWOV was commissioned by BASt (Bundes Anstalt fur Strassenwesen) to review the literature on research into the effectiveness of post-qualification restrictive measures for novice drivers, and the effectiveness of accompanied driving both as part of the driver training and as part of post-qualification restrictions. The study gives a short description of the problems associated with young drivers and provides a theoretical framework on which the safety potential of measures such as post-licence restrictions and accompanied driving can be assessed. The study deals with four systems: driving licence on probation, driving licence with restrictions only, two phase driving licences and accompanied driving. Of each system, first the the prime features are presented, followed by a discussion as to which contributing factors to young driver accident involvement are influenced, and a discussion of the evaluation results of implemented systems. In the current system in Germany most but not all contributing factors to young driver safety are dealt with. Those that are not addressed are: - the occurence of overload due to low automation; - slowly developing skills such as hazard perception; - overestimation of skills; - error prone driving routines. These limitations could be overcome by - in addition to the current measures - the introduction of: M a compulsory second test after the probationary period: - testing the level of automation (behind the wheel testing); - testing the level of theoretical higher order cognitive skills (such as hazard perception, anticipation; M0 promille alcohol during the probationary period; M a voluntary driving curfew (on the assumption that a compulsory curfew; will not be acceptable to the public; M accompanied driving (voluntary) to practice for the second exam