Driving exposure of Israeli young male drivers within a graduated driver licensing system

Young drivers in Israel, as in other parts of the world, are over-represented in car crashes. In an effort to reduce their crash involvement, a graduated driver licensing (GDL) system has been introduced, which requires all new drivers to be accompanied by an experienced driver for the first three months after obtaining a driving license. This study aims to characterize the driving patterns of young drivers in the accompanied driving period and immediately thereafter. We use information gathered from an in-vehicle data recorder (IVDR), which was installed in the primary vehicles driven by 217 young male drivers. It monitors all trips made with the vehicle and identifies the driver. We study the amount of driving young drivers undertake and the characteristics of the temporal and spatial distributions of these trips. We find substantial differences between the driving patterns characteristics in the two periods. These changes suggest an increase in exposure to risk in the solo period: The young drivers almost double the amount of driving they undertake in the solo period compared to the accompanied period. The amount of driving is highest immediately after the transition to solo driving, and gradually decreases in the weeks that follow. The timing of their driving time also changes as they drive much more during riskier conditions in the late evening and night hours and in more complex driving environments in built areas and on arterial and collector roads during the solo period. These results may be useful in that they can be used to generate realistic guidance to novice drivers and their accompanying drivers on required or suggested amounts of accompanied driving overall and in various situations. They may also suggest ways to refine the constraints imposed on novice drivers within the GDL program, such as on nighttime driving.