Number Of Licensed Teen Drivers On The Rise

If you think there are more teen drivers on the streets and freeways, it’s not your imagination.

More than 60% of teens got their driver’s license before the age of 18, according to new research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. An 11% increase since 2012.

The new report, released during National Teen Driver Safety Week, Oct. 20-26, reveals a changing trend in teen licensure from when the Foundation first evaluated the issue in 2012. At the time, the country was just emerging from a recession and many young people cited their family’s inability to afford the high cost of driving as a reason why they did not obtain their license sooner.

“The trend for teens to acquire their driver’s license has changed over the past 10 years,” according to Dr. David Yang, executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “Many are getting licensed before the age of 18, which means more of Generation Z is learning to drive under the protection of state graduated driver licensing programs and parental supervision.”

The new AAA Foundation study surveyed young adults ages 18-24 to determine when they obtained their license and found that nationally, 40.8% got their license at or before age 16 and 60.3% got their license before the age of 18. Other findings show:

Only half (49.8%) of teens in large cities obtain their license before the age of 18, compared with nearly two-thirds of those in less urbanized areas.
Teens living in the Midwest tend to be licensed at younger ages — 55% at or before age 16 and 70% before age 18. While only one-third (32.2%) of teens living in the West and fewer than a quarter (22.3%) of teens in the Northeast reported getting their license at or before age 16, only 56% (Northeast) and 48% (West) did so before age 18.

Past AAA Foundation research found that for every mile driven, new teen drivers ages 16-17 years old are three times as likely as adults to be involved in a deadly crash. All states have graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems for teen drivers to help them gradually learn the rules of the road under less risky conditions. The programs require minimum holding periods and practice requirements for teens with learner’s permits, followed by restricted licenses that limit driving at night or with peer passengers

“The fact that more teens are starting to drive at an age when they can gradually learn the necessary skills to be safe behind the wheel is great news for all drivers,” Jennifer Ryan, AAA director of state relations, said in a prepared statement. “Past trends of waiting until turning 18 to be licensed was a cause for concern. Many of these young drivers were getting behind the wheel with minimal knowledge or support, putting themselves and others at risk.”

In California, teen motor vehicle fatalities (age 16-19) increased 2.7 percent from 219 in 2015 to 225 in 2016. Teen driver fatalities (age 16-19) increased 12.3 percent from 98 in 2015 to 110 in 2016 in the Golden State, according to the Office of Traffic Safety’s statistics.

To highlight the risk of novice drivers to themselves and others, recently in Oxnard, Calif., a teen driver fatally struck a boy, 8, and injured two others in a marked crosswalk near a school. The teenager did not have a California driver’s license – provisional or otherwise – to operate the van she was driving to drop off a family member’s children off at school.

A previous AAA Foundation study found that drivers first licensed at age 18 are more likely to be involved in a crash resulting in injuries during their first year of solo driving than new drivers licensed at any other age. Nearly 28% of the young adults in the AAA Foundation survey reported waiting until they were 18 or older to get their license. Reasons young adults cited for delaying licensure included: