New teen driving study finds reasons young adults delay getting a driver's license

Going to the DMV on your 16th birthday to get your driver’s permit or license used to be a teen rite of passage, but that is not the case anymore. More young adults are delaying licensure and until now, there hasn’t been clear evidence why. A new study sheds some light on this trend and some of their reasons are surprising.

It was once thought that the stricter state Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws were a major factor in young people delaying getting a license until after age 18, when GDL laws lifted. Those laws help protect new drivers by phasing in privileges as they gain experience behind the wheel, but studies haven’t found that to be a deterrent. Another thought was that the declines were related to the economy, which is partially a factor.

To get to the bottom of this cultural shift, University of Michigan researchers asked people directly why they decided to delay driving.

The University study was conducted online with 618 people between the ages of 18 and 39 years. They were asked for the main and secondary reasons why they did not have a driver’s license and their future plans for obtaining one.

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The study found the top reasons were:

1. They were too busy or didn’t have enough time to get a driver’s license (37 percent).
2. Owning and maintaining a vehicle is too expensive (32 percent).
3. They are able to get transportation from others (31 percent).
4. They prefer to bike or walk (22 percent).
5. They prefer to use public transportation (17 percent).
6. They are concerned about how driving impacts the environment (9 percent).
7. They are able to communicate and/or conduct business online instead (8 percent).
8. They have disability, medical, or vision problems (7 percent).

Of the respondents, 22 percent said they plan on never getting a driver’s license, but 69 percent said they expect to get a license within the next five years. It is interesting to note that the split between the sexes in the study was 63 percent female compared with 37 percent male.

The study also found that the younger adults without a license had higher unemployment and less education than people of the same age in the general public. Clearly, there are many factors influencing this trend. Between joblessness and the high cost for young adults to own and operate a vehicle, money is an understandable issue. Ultimately, this societal shift will have a variety of effects on the transportation industry and even infrastructure, and it bears further study.

For more on teen driving safety, see our special section.

—Liza Barth

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