Research Papers

Lacking transportation is a major barrier to health care, and license suspension policies can contribute to this barrier. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of these suspensions are for non-driving related (NDR) events, such as failure to pay a court fee or appear in court. These NDR events are disproportionately imposed on low-income and racial and ethnic minorities. Developing policies to improve this transportation equity issue are needed.

Older drivers (age 65+) crash 27% less than middle-aged drivers (age 35-54) but are 40% more likely to die in a crash as compared to middle-aged drivers. Future research is needed to identify factors that influence risk of crash involvement and survivability after a crash.

This study evaluated the quality of the metrics used to create the NJ-SHO Data Warehouse. The evaluation of this linkage suggests that it was of high quality and has the ability to support many rigorous studies.

Adolescent drivers with ADHD are more likely to crash, be issued traffic and moving violations, and engage in risky driving behaviors than their peers without ADHD. More research is needed to measure if and how these risky behaviors contribute to crash risk.

Amblyopia—known as “lazy eye”—and unilateral vision impairment (UVI) are two conditions that cause reduced vision in one eye and decreased depth perception, both important in driving. This study found that young adults with these conditions were less likely to get licensed than those with no visual impairment. However, when licensed, neither of these conditions was associated with an elevated crash risk.

This study found 1 in 3 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) acquired a driver’s license, compared to 83.5% of other adolescents. Of autistic adolescents who acquired a learner's permit, nearly 90% got licensed within 2 years of receiving it. These results show that license-related decisions are primarily made before the learner permit phase of driving, rather than during the learning-to-drive process.

This study found that the decline in crash rates from 2008-2012 among teen drivers following implementation of the GDL decal provision was not because of increased compliance with nighttime or passenger driving restrictions. Additional research is needed to understand how decal provisions may work to reduce young driver crashes.

After comparing crash rates of older and younger novice drivers, the findings support current GDL policies in NJ for 17- to 20-year-old drivers but nothing compelling to adopt additional policies for drivers licensed at age 21 to 24.  More research is needed on crash risk beyond age when licensed to help explain differences in long-term crash risk for young novice drivers.

This study examined the question of whether GDL restrictions should be applied to novice drivers age 18 and older. Novice drivers, ages 18 to 20, had initial high crash rates that steeply declined over the period of early licensure. This warrants further consideration of mandatory supervised learning periods, passenger limits, and nighttime driving restrictions.

Newly licensed teens with ADHD have an estimated 36% higher crash risk than other newly licensed teens, much lower than previously reported in other scientific studies. This risk persists during their initial driving years, regardless of gender or age when licensed. More research is needed to determine how ADHD affects crash risk to develop effective programs to manage that risk.