Think Twice Before Raising the Driving Age

Last Updated (Monday, 08 March 2010 08:41) Written by Morgan Johnston Friday, 05 March 2010 12:59

Press Releases

14 November 2009


THINK TWICE BEFORE RAISING THE DRIVING AGE
by Stephen Bell *

Given the statistics, no-one in their right mind would deny that New Zealand has a chronic road safety problem. Clearly,  Transport  Minister, Steven Joyce, is justified in wanting to do something about it.

The raft of proposals he announced over the weekend includes many ideas worth considering, including extending the learner-licence period from six to 12 months and toughening the test for restricted licences.  But, perhaps inevitably, much of the public debate so far has centred around his suggestion for raising the minimum driving age from 15 years of age to 16 or 17.

Superficially, this seems like a ‘no brainer’.  New Zealand has a notoriously bad road safety record and also has the world’s lowest legal driving age.  Moreover, younger drivers are involved disproportionately in crash and fatality statistics.  So what possible justification could there be for not raising the minimum age?

One reason could be practicality.  As Federated Farmers has pointed out, most rural youth need to drive if they are to participate in a wide range of educational, sporting and other activities.  Deprive them of this right and you also deprive them of key opportunities that will help them grow and mature.  Alternatively, you turn their hard-pressed parents into taxi service providers.

But it’s not just youth in rural areas who would risk isolation and disempowering if the driving age was raised, without other options being provided.  Much of suburban New Zealand lacks frequent, affordable and reliable public transport of the sort that enables people in many overseas cities to move about easily without cars.  It makes little sense to raise the driving age without also improving our public transport infrastructure, particularly here in Auckland, which is particularly badly served.

Of course, many mid-teen drivers are safe, competent and responsible road users.  Understandably, they would argue that they shouldn’t be penalised because of the activities of their less responsible peers.  This argument certainly has some merit but would not, I think, carry much weight, if raising the driving age really was the silver bullet that would reduce the carnage on our roads.  

However,  it’s far from clear that mid teens are the age group we need to worry about most.  Research from both New Zealand and overseas suggests that 14 and 15 year-olds might actually have more risk-averse attitudes to road safety than young people in their late teens or early twenties.  So, unless we want to restrict driving to those aged 25 or older, changing the age limit doesn’t hold out much promise as a means of lowering the road toll.

It’s also worth asking exactly why young people, and particularly young men, are prone to sensation-seeking, risk-taking and impulsive decision-making, irrespective of whether or not they are behind the wheel.  If we can work that out, we should be able to shape more appropriate methods for encouraging safe driving than we have at present

Part of the problem, according to neuroscientists, is that those in their late teens and early twenties suffer from a lack of impulse control, which, in layperson’s terms, can make them temperamentally averse to behaving safely.  Traditional driver education, with its emphasis on technical driving skills, won’t cut much ice when it comes to counter-acting this kind of mental bias.  But we might do better if driver instruction placed more emphasis on promoting positive attitudes to driving and if young people themselves were involved in designing the courses.

Another trigger for risk-taking seems to be the presence of friends in a car with a youthful driver.  There’s even evidence from the United States that the risk of fatal accident increases with the presence of each additional passenger in the vehicle. This would suggest that New Zealand’s  system of graduated driving licences, which includes a restricted period with limitations on passengers and night driving, could have a significant role to play in preventing fatalities.  

Mr Joyce’s suggestion of preventing drivers on restricted licences from using high-powered or modified is also worth thinking about, as is his proposal for a nil alcohol limit for drivers under the age of 20. However, to have any impact, such laws would need to be rigorously enforced.  

Law enforcement is also obviously relevant to reducing the high percentage of road deaths caused by speeding.  Transit New Zealand’s statistics for fatal crashes occurring between 2003 and 2007 indicate that 15-24 year-old drivers are two-and-a-half times more likely than others to have been driving too fast for the conditions.  The statistics also point to speed as by far the largest element of disparity between fatal crashes involving drivers under the age of 25 and those involving drivers aged 25 or over. All the signs are, then, that more stringent enforcement of speed limits would save lives on our roads.         

Finally, young people respond to the driving culture that surrounds them.  Drivers in older age groups need to be constantly setting a good example of courteous, defensive, risk-averse driving. If we fail to provide that example, we largely have ourselves to blame when younger drivers fail to make good choices and become a danger to themselves and to others.  

* Stephen Bell is the National Spokesperson for Youthline, which helps young people to reach their potential and provides them with a wide range of support and leadership opportunities.