Dealing with young drivers: to restrict or not to restrict?

There is no doubt that novice drivers, and particularly young novice drivers, are involved in a disproportionately large number of serious car crashes. What, if anything, can be done about this, however, is a question that is provoking serious debate.

Rik Thomas

16 May 2014

Learning to drive is a liberating experience for young people...

And a few months later TRL weighed in with its report, which also gave strong backing to some form of GDL for young drivers

…but accident rates amongst young drivers remain a huge cause for concern

The RAC Foundation published its report strongly recommending graduated driving licences for young people in July last year...

On 25 March last year the Government announced, with a considerable fanfare, that it was to publish a green paper on improving the safety of and reducing the risks to young drivers. Announcing the document, which, at the time, the DfT said would be published “later in the spring”, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said, “It is alarming that a fifth of people killed or seriously injured on our roads in 2011 were involved in a collision where at least one driver was aged 17...