Citation

Waller PF, Olk ML, Shope JT. J. Saf. Res. 2000; 31(1): 9-15.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

In 1997, Michigan became the first jurisdiction to enact a Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) program that required certification by a responsible adult that a young driver had received extended (at least 50 hours) supervised practice. A minimum of 10 hours of practice had to be at night. Such extended supervised practice is a critical component of an effective GDL program, but the requirement also posed a major barrier to enactment of the authorizing legislation. Policy makers were reluctant to place such requirements on parents. This report describes results from a survey of parents of young drivers who had completed the supervised driving requirement. On the whole, parents were extremely positive about the new program, reporting an average of 75 hours of supervised driving. Based on these findings, it does not appear that the imposition of a requirement for extended supervised practice should discourage legislators from including it in graduated licensing programs.