Exploring Young People’s Attitudes to Graduated Driver Licensing

As we encourage and support them to become safe road users, unfortunately newly qualified young drivers are disproportionately likely to be involved in road crashes where someone is hurt.

This deliberative research by Ipsos, commissioned by the RAC Foundation, explores the attitudes towards Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) of sixty-six seventeen-to-nineteen-year-olds. The interviewees comprised a mixture of learners, fully-licensed drivers and non-drivers. Their reactions, even after the risks newly-qualified young drivers face were discussed, were at best muted.

Key findings include:

• While young people recognised the risks for new drivers, they often attributed crashes to reckless individuals rather than age and inexperience.
• Attitudes to GDL softened when international evidence was reviewed, with more openness to changes pre-test (e.g. minimum learning period) than post-test restrictions.
• Acceptance of GDL remains muted, but the study underscores the importance of understanding young people’s perspectives in shaping policy.