The Fall and Rise of Graduated Licensing in North America

摘要

Frustration arises when sound research indicates that a certain measure reduces motor vehicle crashes or injuries but the measure is not widely implemented. This is especially so when one can point to measures not supported by research mat are mainstays of society's approach to the highway safety problem, for example, education and publicity campaigns alone or high school driver education (15). In a more perfect world, only science-based policies would be implemented and maintained. Researchers would conduct high-quality research, advocates would market the findings, and policy makers would enact appropriate legislation. Things do not work quite that way, so this paper discusses the ways in which policies do get implemented and how this process might be influenced. What are the barriers to adopting science-based policies, and what are the elements that lead to their successful adoption? This paper covers a success story—the widespread adoption of graduated licensing—and what might be learned from it mat could assist in future efforts to convert research into policy. The adoption of graduated licensing in North America has been both a powerful and fast-moving social phenomenon, with jurisdictions rushing to adopt mis popular licensing scheme that began in 1994 in Canada and 1996 in the United States. By 2003,11 of the 12 Canadian provinces and territories plus 46 U.S. states and the District of Columbia had adopted at least one key element of a graduated system. In all, 41 North American jurisdictions have the recommended three stages—the extended learner phase of low-risk supervised driving, an intermediate phase with restrictions on high-risk unsupervised driving, and finally a full-privilege license. There is great variation in the comprehensiveness of these systems, and a welcome trend has developed to go back and strengthen initial legislation. All of this activity adds up to one of the strongest public health movements ever seen in North America.