Supervised hours requirements in graduated driver licensing: Effectiveness and parental awareness

Abstract

Most states require teens to complete a certain number of hours of supervised driving practice to obtain a license to drive unsupervised. Although widely implemented, the effect of requiring supervised practice is largely unknown. Using auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) interrupted time-series analysis, we found no change in fatal and injury crash involvement of 16–17-year-old drivers in Minnesota following enactment of a 30h supervised driving requirement. To supplement and provide insight into these findings, we conducted telephone interviews with parents of newly licensed teenage drivers in five states with varying amounts of required supervised driving, including Minnesota. Interviews revealed awareness of supervised driving requirements was limited. Only a third of parents (32%) overall could correctly identify the number of hours their state required. In Minnesota only 15% of parents could identify the amount of supervised driving their teen was required to complete. Awareness of the number of hours required was substantially higher (55%) in Maryland. Unlike the other states, Maryland requires submission of a driving log detailing the hours of supervised driving. The findings suggest states need to develop more effective mechanisms to ensure parents are aware of supervised hours requirements.