TIRF has published a new report: ‘Progression through Graduated Driver Licensing Programs: Final Report,’ funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Over the past few decades, all jurisdictions in the United States and Canada have implemented some version of a Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) program to address the elevated crash risk of young and novice drivers. GDL has proven popular not only because such a licencing system makes sense but in large part because research has demonstrated its safety benefit overall, as well as in terms of the benefits of specific conditions/restrictions. Far less is known about how teens progress through GDL and trends in licencing rates. National licencing data are often inaccurate in terms of counting the numbers of licenced teen drivers overall or at different stages of GDL (learner, intermediate, and full license), primarily because of the lack of licencing data counts in most states.

The purposes of this study were to examine, in detail, licence patterns and progression through GDL in one Canadian province (Ontario) and one U.S. state (Oregon) with different GDL programs, making it possible to examine how different features (e.g., licencing at a younger or older age, or a shorter or longer minimum learner permit period) influence licence rates and progression through GDL.