New research has highlighted the importance of sharing evidence with young drivers to demonstrate and explain the safety case for graduated driver licensing (GDL).
This Ipsos research, commissioned by the RAC Foundation, explored the attitudes towards GDL of 66 17-19-year-olds. The interviewees comprised a mixture of learners, fully-licensed drivers and non-drivers.
Their reactions, even after the risks newly-qualified young drivers face were discussed, were at best muted.
Whilst those involved in the research typically accepted that young drivers were at greater risk, they did not readily view this as a product of age and inexperience.
Instead, risky or reckless driving behaviours were more often cited as the cause, making it harder for participants to support a scheme that they felt would unfairly affect themselves and their friends, who they did not consider to be “the problem.”
There was some softening in attitudes to GDL as discussions progressed, particularly when international experience was reviewed.
Participants were also more open to changes in the learning-to-drive period (for example, the introduction of a minimum learning period) than to measures applied post-test, such as restrictions on carrying passengers.
The report concludes: “Implementing GDL measures requires public acceptance to ensure young drivers comply with the rules, for the safety benefits to be realised. Any policy proposition for introducing GDL must be guided by the evidence on what works.
“It should also be grounded in the views and lived experiences of the people it will impact.
“Through participants’ deliberations, this study has generated evidence on the potential arguments for and against GDL which could emerge if it were to be introduced, which could shape its overall public acceptability. It has also pointed to where public views could shift marginally, as well as bases of support.”
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