Penalty point endorsements of driving licences were induced in Norway on the 1st of January 2004. The objective of the system is to prevent traffic behaviour with high accident risk, so that drivers who repeatedly behave risky in traffic may loose their driving license. The system is designed especially to reduce the number of severe road accidents. The offences which give penalty points are all connected to high-risk traffic behaviour, such as dangerous overtaking, speeding, violating priority rules, and red light driving. Furthermore the system should be understandable to the road users and be easy to operate for the authorities. The Ministry of Transport and Communication have given the task to evaluate the system to SINTEF. The results of the evaluation are summarized in this report. The goal of the evaluation is to find out if the penalty point endorsements of the driving licences have lead to a more safe behaviour in traffic, and thus to fewer killed and seriously injured road users. The evaluation was carried out in the period 2004 - 2007. The methods used are questionnaires and interviews. Also accident statistics and behavioural data are analyzed. The evaluation has consisted of the following parts: 1. Analysis of changes in traffic behaviour (mean speed and red light driving) and number of accidents. 2. The information study. Questionnaire focusing on drivers knowledge of the penalty point system and the information they had received from the authorities. 3. The before study. Questionnaire sent to car drivers shortly after the penalty point system was established. It was focusing on self reported traffic behaviour related to traffic rules included in the penalty point system. 4. The after study. Questionnaire correspondingly to the one in part 3, sent to car drivers approximately 3 year after the penalty point system was introduced. 5. Questionnaire sent car drivers who had 6 penalty points ore more, and had received a warning letter. This was done to see how they were affected by the penalty points. 6. Interviewing persons in The Norwegian Public Road Administration and the police about the organizing and operation of the penalty point arrangement. Main conclusions Since the system was introduced in 2004 and by the time of October 2007, 2700 drivers with 6 penalty points had received a warning letter about loosing their driving licence. By the 31st of August 122 drivers had 8 penalty points or more, of which only 20 % had lost their driving licence. The main reason of this is difficulties the police officers have to get up to date information of the penalty point status of a driver. This again is due to problems of having online connection to the penalty point register from police cars when on traffic control, and delay between the offence and registration of penalty points. A relatively large portion of drivers who have received 6 penalty points or more, say they have changed their traffic behaviour to be more law-abiding. As they have got more points, the more they have changed their behaviour. This is confirmed by the fact that they have got fewer penalty points the last year (2007) than in the previous two years. This indicates that they have reduced their accident risk. This group of drivers has an accident risk above average, which shows that the penalty point system "captures" drivers with high accident risk. A small share of drivers without penalty points says they have changed their traffic behaviour to be law-abiding, due to the penalty point system. There are however no systematic change in self-reported traffic behaviour or accidents from before- to the after-study. Nevertheless, there may be a tendency to safer traffic behaviour also among drivers without penalty points. However, they seems to be considerably less affected than drivers with penalty points. The results from the survey among drivers with 6 points or more, indicates that the penalty point system has an additional effect on traffic behaviour, compared to administrative fines which not give penalty points. When it comes to the development in number of killed and injured road users, it was not possible to trace any effect of the penalty point system. Neither could we see an effect on traffic speed development. The number of drivers claiming to have changed traffic behaviour after the penalty point system was induced, is small compared to the total number of persons with driving licence. Therefore it is not likely that the overall development of number of killed /injured road users or the development of mean speed will be affected by this. The management and administration of the system is performed by The Police and The Public Roads Administration. Future challenges are related to the regulation, the time from the violation to the recording in the penalty points data register, technical equipment, traffic control resources, and what type of violations the system should include. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting