√National young driver education program scrapped

Founded in 2008, the Keys2drive program has provided free driving lessons to hundreds-of-thousands of young Australians – but in a major blow to road safety, the scheme will soon reach the end of the road.

A program created to subsidise driving lessons for young Australians – some of whom are on struggle street facing financial difficulties – will be shut down after 14 years.

The Australian Automobile Association – the organisation representing the NRMA, RACV, RACQ, RAA, RAC, RACT, and AANT – announced it was discontinuing the Keys2drive program, with no funding sought from the Federal Government beyond June 2023.

Keys2Drive allowed learner drivers to access one free lesson with a professional driving instructor, with a view to help stop the bad driving behaviour of parents being adopted by their children – and to reduce death and injury among young drivers, who are overrepresented in road trauma statistics.

“The Keys2drive program has delivered thousands of subsidised driving lessons,” the AAA wrote in a statement.

“But unfortunately, multiple independent appraisals now show that it may not have delivered the measurable road safety improvements that we had all hoped for.”

Access to the program will end on 31 March 2023.

It’s estimated Keys2drive has helped more than 600,000 people since its inception in 2008, costing approximately $4 million annually in funding provided by the Federal Government.

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“This is how you do good road safety,” said Peter Khoury, spokesperson for the NRMA.

“You introduce policies or initiatives, you look for innovative ways to make our roads safer, and drivers safer, and then you review progress. And the review that was conducted found that there was probably a better way,” Mr Khoury told Drive.

“We’re comfortable with that approach. We believe in the process, and this is just an example of that process working,” he added.

It’s understood Keys2drive helped provide driving lessons to low-income households, though state and territory governments do often provide similar assistance to disadvantaged community members.

Charity organisations also offer help, with the Uniting Church’s 120 Countdown program available to those in South West Sydney and the Mid North Coast of NSW, and the Salvation Army’s Learn To Drive program offered in parts of NSW, Queensland, and Western Australia.

In Victoria, the Traffic Accident Commission (TAC) has the L2P program, with up to seven free professional driving lesions – in addition to a mentor and access to a vehicle.

But while these programs are primarily designed to help people obtain their licence, Keys2drive had an emphasis on reducing road-related deaths and injuries by young drivers.

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The NRMA says it will now look to work with the AAA to find ways to provide education to learner drivers in an effort to improve road safety.

“The AAA looks forward to working with the Commonwealth to help design, develop, and fund new programs that can deliver measurable road safety improvements, and which can help meet Australia’s ambitious road trauma reduction goals,” the organisation wrote in a statement.

“The AAA is deeply committed to helping reduce Australia’s worsening road toll and supports the Australian Government’s stated goal of halving national road deaths by 50 per cent through the decade to 2030.”

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