Driving delayed: transportation planning and public health perspectives on adolescent safe mobility

Delayed licensure among U.S. adolescents has become an increasingly prevalent trend, particularly among low-income, racially marginalized, and geographically isolated youth. Delayed driving licensure (DDL) refers to postponing licensure beyond the age at which Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) requirements apply, typically age 18 in the U.S. While often framed as a behavioral choice, DDL more accurately reflects a complex web of structural constraints, including access to driver education, insurance affordability, transit availability, and spatial inequities in the built environment. This paper examines DDL through an interdisciplinary lens grounded in public health, transportation planning, and mobility justice. It first documents national disparities in licensure timing and identifies how institutional policies and family-level factors shape access to safe and independent mobility. It then evaluates the public health consequences of DDL, highlighting how youth who delay licensure and GDL therefore bypass or have reduced exposure to GDL systems face elevated crash risks and missed developmental support. Building on these insights, the paper critically assesses transportation policies and proposes a set of targeted interventions across three domains: (1) expanding structural opportunities of driver training, (2) reducing cost barriers through financial support and insurance assistance, and (3) investing in mobility-enhancing infrastructure and transit. Grounded in Safe System principles and supported by real-world examples, these strategies aim to remove constraints and ensure the conditions necessary for youth to travel safely and equitably, by car or by alternative modes.