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Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) systems were designed to protect young novice drivers by creating a safe environment in which to learn to drive and limit exposure to known high-risk conditions until the drivers have amassed at least several months of experience driving. A large body of research has found that GDL systems have substantially reduced […]
Crash involvement by 16- and 17-year-old drivers has decreased substantially over the past 15 years. This is largely due to the widespread adoption of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) programs and to the Great Recession, which substantially reduced driving by young teenagers. However, with one exception—New Jersey—GDL systems apply only to new drivers younger than 18, […]
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children, teenagers, and young adults in the United States (Subramanian, 2012). Graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems, first introduced in the United States in 1996, are designed to protect young novice drivers by restricting exposure to risk initially and then gradually phasing in increased privileges as […]
Obtaining a driver’s license was once widely regarded as a “rite of passage” for teenagers in the United States. However, only 36% of young people surveyed in 2012 by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reported having obtained their first driver’s license at or before the age of 16 and only 54% reported having done […]
From 2007 to 2016, fatalities of young drivers (15-20 years old) have declined by nearly 40% (NCSA, 2018). Despite that large reduction, overall, young drivers are still overrepresented in motor vehicle crashes. While these crashes are devastating for the teen drivers and their families, it is also important to understand the impact that these crashes […]
Several studies have found that the presence of teenage passengers increases the crash risk of teenage drivers. Most U.S. states now have graduated driver licensing systems that limit the number of passengers that a young driver is allowed to carry in the vehicle during the first several months of licensed independent driving. The objective of […]
The presence of passengers in a vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of fatal crash involvement for teenage drivers; however, the studies that have quantified this relationship were based on data that are now over a decade old. In the years since these studies, most U.S. states have enacted graduated driver licensing systems […]
In 2017, there were 37,133 motor vehicle fatalities on U.S. roadways. This is a 1.8% decrease from the 37,806 people killed in 2016 (NHTSA, 2018). While there has generally been a downward trend in traffic fatalities over the past 40 years, the number of miles U.S. drivers travel continues to rise, increasing their exposure to […]
The AAA LongROAD study is a multisite prospective cohort study of 2,990 drivers recruited from five study sites: Ann Arbor, Michigan; Baltimore, Maryland; Cooperstown, New York; Denver, Colorado; and San Diego, California. Inclusion in the study required participants to be between 65 and 79 years of age, hold a valid driver’s license and drive at […]
Please come join AAA Alabama for a Distracted Driving Walk to help raise awareness of the dangers of driving distracted. This is a terrific opportunity to bring attention to a very dangerous behavior and help change the culture associated with driving distracted! The walk is free and open to the public on Wednesday, May 8th, outside the […]