Learning to Drive: The Evidence

In 2007, the Department for Transport announced that a fundamental overhaul of how people learn to drive was required in order to address key gaps in driver training and testing and to improve safety on British roads.

In response to this, the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) produced a summary of proposals in their consultation: Learning to Drive. This report sets out the evidence on why there is a need to transform the training and testing of drivers, illustrating the Department for Transport and the Driving Standards Agency’s assessment of the current problem.

The evidence has been grouped into three key (but related) issues:

• Issues with how people are learning to drive;
• Weaknesses in what people learn during driver training and testing;
• The ability, attitudes and behaviours of new drivers.

This report has been prepared by the Department for Transport, with the Driving
Standards Agency, to illustrate our assessment of the problem. It does not represent
a systematic review of all the evidence on driver education, training and testing.

The report also focuses solely on learning to drive for car drivers rather the drivers of other vehicles.