GRADUATED DRIVER LICENSING FOR YOUNG NOVICE DRIVERS UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) believes that graduated licensing is a key component in addressing the over-representation of youths in traffic crashes and will continue to encourage states to implement such a system. This paper discusses the early NHTSA graduated licensing model; the experience in Maryland, which was the first state to implement and evaluate several features of the model graduated licensing system; the experience in California and Oregon, states which also implemented and evaluated components of the model graduated driver licensing system; current NHTSA recommendations for graduated licensing; states which now have components of a graduated licensing system; and NHTSA's initiatives in encouraging states to adopt graduated licensing.