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Affiliation
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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London , Exhibition Road , London , SW7 2AZ , UK Phone: +44 20 7594 6105 Fax: +44 20 7594 6105. |
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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: To identify the reasons that young adults (age 17 to 29) in Britain delay or forgo driving licence acquisition
METHODS: Using year 2010 British National Travel Survey microdata, we first analyse self-reported reasons (including their prioritisation) for not holding a full car driving licence and then estimate a logistic regression model for licence-holding to investigate additional factors, several of which extend from previous studies. This study also employs a novel segmentation approach to analyse the sets of reasons that individual young adults cite for not driving.
RESULTS: These results show that, despite the lack of a graduated driving licence system at present, many young adults indicate that issues associated with the driving-licence-acquisition process are the main reason they do not hold a full driving licence. About three in ten young adults can be interpreted as not viewing driving as a priority, whilst half of those without a licence are either learning to drive or are deterred principally by the cost of learning. We calculate that after their 17(th) birthday (the age of eligibility for a full driving licence) young adults spend a mean of 1.7 years learning to drive. Young adults citing the costs of insurance or car purchase are likely to cite them as secondary rather than the main reason for not driving, whereas those citing physical/health difficulties are very likely to cite this as the main reason they do not drive. Two distinct groups of young people are identified that both indicate that costs deter them from driving-one group that is less well-off financially and that indicates that costs alone are the primary deterrent, and one that reports that other reasons also apply and is better-off. Status as an international migrant was found to be an important factor, net of confounding variables, for identifying that a young adult in Britain does not hold a driving licence. Further research is needed to understand the relative saliency of plausible causal mechanisms for this finding. We also report that both personal income and household income are independently positively associated with licence-holding, but that [intuitively] the relationship of licence-holding with a young adult's own personal income is the much stronger of the two.
CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of these findings, it can be concluded that a number of previously under-appreciated factors appear to be linked with young British adults not acquiring a driving licence.
Language: en |