1 Driving and Licensing Experiences of Learner Drivers in Queensland: Comparing pre-and post-July 2007 Presenter: Bridie Scott-Parker (PhD Candidate) Co-Authors Ms Lyndel Bates, Prof Barry Watson, Dr Mark King, Dr Melissa Hyde

Extent of the Problem Young drivers (17-24 yrs), Queensland, 2008  13% of licensed driver/ rider population  20% of persons killed  33% of all fatalities arose from crashes involving young drivers/ riders

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Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL)  Novice gains more supervised driving experience under lower-risk driving conditions over an extended duration  Enhanced GDL for Learners, Queensland July 2007  Minimum age 16 years, minimum duration 1 year  Must record 100 hours supervised practice recorded in logbook, including 10 hours of night driving  First 10 hours of professional supervision equates to 30 logbook hours  Enhanced GDL for Provisional period at same time 4

Study Aims 1.To document the experiences of Learners within the current-GDL program (introduced July 2007) 2. To compare some of the experiences of Learners within the current-GDL program with those of Learners within the former-GDL program (pre-July 2007) 5

MethodFormer-GDL ProgramCurrent-GDL Program Recruitment 2006, pre-July 2007 Recruited in-person from Brisbane and Townsville Licensing Centres April, May, June 2010 Recruited Queensland- wide with Flyer when progressed from Learner to Provisional Licence Participants (Provisional licence) (17-19 years) 149 Novices 75 females 74 males 1162 Novices 681 females 481 males Design and Procedure (Longitudinal research) 35 minute telephone interview Second telephone interview 1 year later 30 minute online or paper survey Two further 20 minute surveys after 6 and 12 months 6 Methodology

Driving Practice 7 CharacteristicFormer-GDL N = 149 Current-GDL N = 1162 Significance Level Driving practice (Hours) (M, SD) (48.00) (25.36) <.001 Driving practice, parents/ friends as supervisor (Hours) (M, SD) (45.80) (43.85)<.001 Driving practice, Instructor as supervisor (Hours) (M, SD) (15.81) 9.71 (11.11)=.09

Duration and Difficulty 8 CharacteristicFormer-GDL N = 149 Current-GDL N = 1162 Significance Level Duration of the Learner period (Months) (M, SD) (6.76) (5.67) <.001 Difficulty getting supervised practice (Difficult) 35.3%22.4%<.05 “Difficult” Females Males 50.0% 19.8% 26.0% 17.4% ----

Gaining Provisional Licence 9 CharacteristicFormer-GDL N = 149 Current-GDL N = 1162 Significance Level Provisional licence first attempt (M, SD) 61.5%68.5%=.09 Number of attempts to gain Provisional licence (M, SD) 1.47 (.68)1.38 (.72)=.16 Provisional licence type (Manual) 72.8%70.7%=.60

Self-Reported Behaviour 10 CharacteristicFormer-GDL N = 149 Current-GDL N = 1162 Significance Level Offences detected4.7%2.6%=.14 Crash involvement6.2%2.5%<.05 Unsupervised driving16.9%11.5%=.06

Additional Results – Current-GDL only  When did you get most of your driving practice? One third “from the beginning”; 50% of males and 60% of females “mainly at the end” of the Learner period  Did you continue practising after submitting your logbook and the practical driving assessment? 94.8% yes  How accurate were the entries in your logbook? 83.2% of novices reported their logbook accurate 12.8% of novices reported some rounding up of hours 4.0% of novices reported including extra hours 11

Strengths and Limitations Former-GDL/ Current-GDL/ Comparison –Representativeness of samples –Accuracy of responses –Key measures explored –Longitudinal research Emerging results need to be confirmed by larger-scale evaluations 12

In Conclusion Novices gained more supervised driving experience Parents supervising Learners more No change in number of hours of supervision provided by driving instructors Novices reported less crash-involvement No increase in unsupervised driving Novices reported less difficulty obtaining supervised driving practice 13

14 Thank-you. Contact Details: Bridie Scott-Parker, PhD Candidate Telephone: Mark your Diaries! International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety Conference (ICADTS T2013) August 2013, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre