A new study has found that graduated driver licensing (GDL) can improve road safety while having 'minimal impact' on new drivers' access to education, employment and social activities.
A report by TRL – Supporting New Drivers in Great Britain - for the RAC Foundation and the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund, found that the UK lags behind other countries in implementing GDL due to concerns which are essentially unfounded.
Worries associated with GDL, such as access to employment and education, its impact on rural areas and the difficulty of enforcement, were largely dismissed by the new study.
GDL imposes some limited restrictions on new drivers, most of whom are young, to allow them to safely gain experience in the critical few months after they pass their test.
These limitations commonly target known risk situations, such as driving in the dark and carrying peer-age passengers.
The RAC Foundation highlighted that currently, young drivers are disproportionately likely to be involved in a crash, with pre-COVID data showing that almost a quarter (24%) of those killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads were in a collision involving a young driver (aged 17-24 years old) even though this age group makes up only about 7% of the total driving population.
International evidence shows that GDL, in one form or another, can reduce collisions and trauma from collisions involving young drivers, by 20-40%.
Having conducted a literature review, interviews with young people in Great Britain and interviews with international experts, the authors (Dr Shaun Helman, Dr Neale Kinnear, Jack Hitchings and Dr Sarah Jones) of the TRL study conclude that: 'Serious adverse impacts are not seen or expected in any of the areas considered.
'This is because all stakeholders (new drivers, and their friends and families; employers; and service providers) were found to adapt to restrictions, with evidence showing that exemptions and changes in travel patterns help people to maintain the most important elements of their mobility, while still benefitting from well-evidenced improvements in safety.'
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: 'Rather than limiting young people's life chances, GDL is all about ensuring they can seize them safely. Immediately after young people pass their driving tests they are at the point of greatest risk, but the evidence from overseas is that a framework of minimal restrictions and exemptions would enable these new drivers to access a world of opportunity in the safest possible way for themselves and other road users.
'The mistake critics of GDL make is to think of it as a single bundle of restrictions rather than a menu where even minimal constraints can cut death and injury whilst still being applied proportionately to accommodate the trips – such as getting to work and college – that young drivers need to make.'
Dr Shaun Helman, chief scientist at TRL, said: 'We often hear ministers say that Great Britain has been a leader in road safety, but this is one area in which we have lagged behind other countries over the last three decades. GDL is a simple, evidence-based approach to licensing that we know reduces risk and that this work confirms does not lead to serious reductions in mobility for young people, or problems with enforcement.
'It would spare thousands of people every year from preventable death and life-changing injury, and thousands more from the grief of losing loved ones to road trauma.'
Dr Neale Kinnear, lead behavioural scientist at Humn, said: 'Managing young driver risk through phased licensing has been effective in every country where it has been implemented.
'Contrary to the concerns raised by the Transport Select Committee and DfT, putting in place measures to manage young driver risk has many advantages for young people and the economy, not least the saving of lives and the unnecessary and preventable trauma it causes.'
