Assessing the American public's preferences for reforms to teen driving licensure systems: a discrete choice experiment

Objectives: To analyse factors influencing the American public's preferences for changes to teenage driver licensing requirements. Methods: We employed a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with 808 participants from National Opinion Research Center's AmeriSpeak panel to assess preferences for two existing elements (on-road testing and intermediate licensure period) and a new feature (driver monitoring with telematics during the intermediate licensure period) of licensing system. Multinomial and mixed logit models were used to estimate preference weights, marginal rates of substitution and the relative importance of each attribute. Results: Among 730 respondents who completed all DCE choice tasks, we found robust support for changes to teenage driver licensing requirements, with preferences varying by individual characteristics. Respondents expressed a high baseline support for changes to teen driving licensure policies. They favoured testing, prioritising easy tests and opposed prolonged driver monitoring and extended intermediate licensure periods. Baseline preference weights exhibited substantial heterogeneity, emphasising the diversity of public preferences. The marginal rates of substitution revealed a preference for extended driver monitoring over an extended intermediate licensure period. An easy test was valued at 2.85 times more than a hard one. The most influential attributes were the length of intermediate licence period and testing requirements, with the former twice as important. Conclusions: Our study found robust support for reforms to teenage driver licensing requirements, favouring easier on-road driving tests over an extended period of intermediate licensure and driver monitoring. Public preferences for licensing systems need to be balanced with the broader policy objectives including optimising mobility and maximising safety.