Article

Encouraging compliance with graduated driver licensing restrictions.

Highway Safety Research Center, University of North Carolina, 730 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Campus Box 3430, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3430, USA.
Journal of Safety Research (impact factor: 1.29). 02/2006; 37(4):343-51. DOI:10.1016/j.jsr.2006.05.004 pp.343-51
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Although graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs have reduced the high crash rates for 16-and 17-year-old drivers, research suggests that some teenagers fail to comply with restrictions on nighttime driving and carrying passengers.
A program to encourage compliance with GDL restrictions and seat belt requirements was implemented in Guilford County, North Carolina. The program combined increased enforcement with a multi-faceted publicity campaign drawing attention to the enforcement activity. A comparison community was studied to assess whether changes over time could be reasonably attributed to the program.
Several measures indicate that greater enforcement did occur in the intervention community and that teenagers perceived the increase. However, self-reported data and direct observations of young drivers in the intervention and comparison communities showed the program resulted in only modest changes in compliance with GDL restrictions.
The program put in place the mechanisms known to produce changes in driver behavior, but these may have been insufficient to alter the behavior of the minority of teenagers (and parents) who were not already complying with restrictions. However, the modest changes in young driver behavior plus the clear changes in both actual and perceived enforcement suggest that high visibility enforcement programs merit further use and evaluation in other communities, particularly those where compliance with GDL provisions is lower than in Guilford County.

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Keywords

16-and 17-year-old drivers
 
clear changes
 
comparison communities
 
comparison community
 
crash rates
 
direct observations
 
driver behavior
 
enforcement activity
 
GDL provisions
 
GDL restrictions
 
graduated driver licensing
 
greater enforcement
 
intervention community
 
modest changes
 
multi-faceted publicity campaign
 
seat belt requirements
 
self-reported data
 
visibility enforcement programs merit
 
young driver behavior
 
young drivers