Detect Me if You Can: Unlicensed Drivers and Road Safety in British Columbia

Unlicensed driving is a road safety concern that contributes to bodily injuries, personal property damage, and fatalities. Typically, unlicensed drivers are unknown to law enforcement agencies until they crash or are caught committing another traffic violation. As such, unlicensed drivers pose a major health and safety risk to all other drivers sharing the same road space. This study assesses the prevalence of the unlicensed driving problem within the British Columbia jurisdiction. It starts with a broad literature review including an analysis of what other jurisdictions are currently doing in response to unlicensed driving. Then statistics provided by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia’s Crash Claims Database are interpreted to provide an idea of the scope of the problem in British Columbia. A number of themes are discussed before a set of policy measures are used to analyze four policy options. This study concludes adopting licence checks at all random roadblocks, designing a low-cost targeted education campaign, and Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology are all feasible policy options to respond to unlicensed driving in British Columbia.