Adolescents are more likely than older people to engage in risky driving practices, and some young people are particularly prone to risky driving. Young beginners combine risky driving practices with driving inexperience, greatly heightening crash risk. The young driver problem is acute in the United States because licensure is allowed at very young ages, and the path to full driving privileges is quick and easy. Risky driving is tied to developmental and lifestyle factors and is difficult to change. The traditional approaches of driver education and penalty-based licensing systems have not worked adequately. Graduated licensing systems now are being considered by many states and have been adopted by some. These systems do not address risk factors directly but are structured to provide beginners the opportunity to gain initial on-road experience outside of situations that have more driving difficulty and therefore more risk and/or that encourage risk taking. Graduates are older and on their way to maturing out of risky driving tendencies, and they will have accumulated important driving experience under protected conditions. The initial graduated systems adopted in the United States vary substantially in their features. It will be important to evaluate the effect of these systems in reducing young driver crashes and to determine which set of provisions is optimal in terms of both acceptability and effectiveness. (A)
Samenvatting