Understanding attitudes to road safety among young drivers
Karen Sherlock - 8 December 2025
Claire Benny
Motor vehicle collisions among new and young drivers are higher per capita in Alberta than in any other province in the country. It’s a disturbing fact that the Injury Prevention Centre (IPC) in the School of Public Health has been asked to explore.
The centre is launching a pilot study to determine young people’s attitudes toward road safety. The aim is to develop supplemental programming for the province’s graduated licence system (GDL) targeted at educating parents to help reduce collision rates among new drivers.
“Parents are a great point of intervention. They can speak to their kids, drive with their kids, communicate with them about driving safely,” says Claire Benny, scientific director of the Injury Prevention Centre and an assistant professor in the School of Public Health.
“But how do you do that? We don’t even know how kids feel about road safety.”
Asking young people what they think
Surveys of this nature in youth are rare, says Benny, but essential to informing programming and interventions for new drivers and their families.
The pilot study is partnering with the City of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., which runs an injury prevention program for Grade 9 students in the city and Sturgeon County called the Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth (PARTY) program. Students tour a hospital, including the morgue, and talk to doctors, emergency room staff, police officers and emergency workers about what they see in their jobs as a result of alcohol- or cannabis-related injuries.
“Injuries affect youth far beyond the acute recovery period. They can have a large impact not only on the rest of their lives, but also on their families and communities.”
The study survey asks students questions like: How likely would you be to drive after having alcohol? Do you think it’s OK to speed when conditions are good? Would you get into a car with a driver who has used cannabis?
The hypothesis is that Alberta’s graduated licence system, which differs from provinces with lower new driver collision rates, may be a factor, says Benny. Graduated licensing systems vary across Canada, and these differences may play a role in collision rates among new drivers, says Benny. Alberta’s program, as of 2023, includes one formal road test and a two-year period before drivers can advance to an unrestricted licence. Other provinces, such as B.C. and Ontario, require two road tests before granting an unrestricted licence.
“The idea is that new drivers in Alberta are less experienced and there are fewer checkpoints to make sure people are driving safely and, as a result, there’s potentially higher risk of motor vehicle collision.”
Making roads safer for everyone
The findings will be used directly to inform impending GDL supplemental programming across Alberta and may inform future prevention strategies through project partners, Fort Saskatchewan Family and Community Support Services and the Ministry of Transportation & Economic Corridors.
“The big-picture idea is that these kids become more informed drivers, that they’re having these conversations with their parents and that they’re being safe,” says Benny.
“Injuries affect youth far beyond the acute recovery period. They can have a large impact not only on the rest of their lives, but also on their families and communities. Road safety also affects everyone else on the road.”
Funding for the project has been provided by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Institutional Grant.
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