License Extensions for Clean-Record Drivers: A Four-Year Follow-Up

摘要

Over 4,000,000 of California's 17,000,000 licensed drivers used to come to the California Department of Motor Vehicles annually to take written and vision tests in order to renew their driver licenses. In an effort to increase public convenience and reduce costs, extension of the license by mail for select groups of drivers with clean records over the life of their previous licenses was implemented, subject to evaluation of its effect on traffic safety. Two studies of program safety effects were conducted, on evaluating a two-year extension (760,000 subjects), and the other four-year extension (407,000 subjects). Random assignment to a group offered extension by mail or to a control group undergoing standard renewal testing and procedures was followed by examination of accident and conviction activity.