Assessment of the Role of Training and Licensing Systems in Changing the Young Driver's Behavior

Abstract

Young driver crashes are over represented in any country's crash statistics. This problem is more acute in developing countries where the law enforcement is not strict and the licensing structure is not well developed. According to World Health Organization (WHO) road crashes are the single greatest cause of death for men aged 15-29 years old. More than 8500 young drivers die each year in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and the death rates for young drivers are doubled than the older aged drivers. Young driver crashes and deaths cause great economic, social cost on individuals, families and societies. Many research studies have been conducted to find out the causes of crash and deaths. These found that the conventional youth training schemes help young learner to develop their driving skills and knowledge, meanwhile they do not help to gain real road driving experience. Research shows that the lack of driving experience, higher order perception and maturity increase young driver crash exposure. To this end, Graduated Driver Licensing System (GDLS) have been developed. GDLS helps young drivers to focus on road driving experience and it divided the whole licensing process into different phases. It also helps the young drivers to get supervised driving experience which help them to accumulate driving hours to get the provisional license. The GDLS helps not only in gaining experience in driving but also in developing the higher order perception (hazard perception) which is very much needed during driving. This paper discusses a number of driver's licensing systems and training programs and highlights the need for a licensing system that focus not only on the development of better hazard perception and understanding the road environment for young drivers but also on some other factors that affect road safety. It is argued that the consultation of community concerning the development of a licensing system is essential to minimize road crashes in the youth group as it would guarantee that the young drivers are fully aware of various driving risk factors at training stage rather than the practicing stage.