Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
The learner period is the safest time for novice drivers, supervised by a licensed adult, while they gain skills and confidence to drive independently and responsibly. This is also the stage in which the
supervising adult has an opportunity to help instill lifetime safe driving behaviors. Unfortunately, SB 69 seeks to reduce the critical learner’s period from 12 to just six months.
This legislation would improve the current graduated driver licensing (GDL) law for novice drivers by requiring supervised driving hours and extending the examination and special learner’s permit holding period for novice teen and young adult drivers.
read moreOn January 14, 2021, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) sent a letter to the Iowa House Agriculture Committee in opposition to House Study Bill (HSB) 4. The legislation would
would expand an exemption to the state’s graduated driver licensing (GDL) law for a special minor’s driver’s license to permit 14.5-year-old novice drivers to drive unsupervised up to 50 miles between destinations if they live or work on a farm and would remove a restriction preventing applicants who live within one mile of their school from qualifying.
Advocates urges state elected officials to advance legislation still in play this year, lauds lawmakers who have repeatedly worked to improve state GDL programs, and calls out missed opportunities to pass GDL laws which could have led to making the learning-to-drive process safer for young drivers.
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