PIRP Online Programs’ Effectiveness is Disputed; Remedy Urged

Aspiring drivers who have never climbed behind the wheel no longer have to endure a classroom-based class before taking to the roads in New York because of a new pilot program signed into law Friday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

But critics question the effectiveness of on-line substitutions for drivers education and point reduction programs, and argue that lawmakers have failed to meet their burden of adequately studying the matter.

To obtain a license in New York, drivers must attend five hours of an approved pre-licensing course and complete 50 hours of practice behind the wheel with a licensed driver before sitting for a road test. Drivers who commit traffic infractions also have had the opportunity, since 1987, to reduce points on their records via the state’s Point and Insurance Reduction Program, a six-hour course given either in one daytime or two evening sessions with a certified instructor present, according to the New York Department of Motor Vehicles. Completing a DMV-approved PIRP provides a three-year, 10% reduction of the motorist’s liability, no-fault and collision insurance premiums, according to the New York Safety Council.

A decade ago, New York approved a pilot to allow drivers to take those courses on-line rather than in a classroom. The five-year pilot, approved in 2009, offered an alternate delivery method for classroom for the program, called the I-PIRP, which allowed drivers up to 30 days to complete 320 minutes of Internet-based instruction. The program has been extended twice, but will expire April 1, 2020 if legislators take no further action.

Now S.B. 3965, introduced in February by Timothy Kennedy, D-Buffalo, will establish a similar internet pilot but for pre-licensing. Under
the new law, the commissioner of the New York DMV will establish a pilot designed to evaluate the use of the internet for delivering an approved five-hour pre-licensing course. Currently, aspiring drivers need to complete the five-hour course onsite in a vendor-approved class before taking a road test. The American Driver and Traffic and Safety Education Association recommends 45 hours of pre-licensing classroom instruction and eight hours of behind-the-wheel driving instruction before taking a road test.

The New York pre-licensing pilot is set to run from June 30, 2020 through June 30, 2025, and will require the commissioner to report the results of the pilot prior to the program’s expiration. The law will also require accepted course providers to validate student identity at registration and throughout the course. Assemblymember Michael Cusick, D-Staten Island, had introduced similar legislation, A.B. 5874, but ultimately Sen. Kennedy’s version was accepted unanimously by both the Assembly and Senate.

William Bonds, president of Empire Safety Council in Smithtown, New York, which offers predominantly classroom-based instruction to more than 100,000 students each year, said he is concerned by the use of internet courses in place of a traditional classroom approach and how it may affect the safety of the roads in the state.

“They’re saying that because I-PIRP is a success that they want to expand it to a pre-licensing course,” said Mr. Bonds. “The internet has no proven effectiveness, period.”

Despite the fact that Section 12C of New York Vehicle and Traffic Law — which outlined the requirements for the I-PIRP pilot in 2009 — stipulated that the DMV commissioner evaluate effectiveness of the internet-based course vs. a traditional classroom approach for driver point reduction classes, Mr. Bonds says the studies used to validate the internet-based classes were “fraudulent” and not actually conducted by the State University of New York system as the New York DMV had stated.

Fordham University professor F. Joseph Wertz in 2015 published his own evaluation of the I-PIRP, noting that the studies presented by the DMV cited “no real evidence that the I-PIRP courses available to New York drivers actually improves driving behavior, skills or accident rates,” he wrote. “On the contrary, the state-sponsored studies demonstrate that these internet-based courses have no measurable positive impacts on driver improvement …”

Some states have conducted research on drivers education courses, studying their ability to prepare or remediate drivers, and comparing on-line courses with those taught onsite in a classroom. However, most of the research is outdated.

The California DMV studied the effectiveness of take-at-home drivers training courses versus the classroom in 2003, finding that home-study courses were as effective as classroom instruction, but noted that students who completed a classroom-based course were about 12% more likely to pass their DMV written test on the first try than students in home-study.

April 2009 study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration discussing the feasibility of evaluating driver education curriculum found that the programs have not been utilized in a way that can be scientifically evaluated.

“However, given the popularity and overwhelming public support of driver education as a viable traffic safety intervention for teen drivers, the benefits of evaluating such programs may outweigh the costs,” said the conclusion of the report. “Since almost all prior driver education program evaluations have not found positive effects on crashes, and some have found adverse effects, the possibility of these outcomes also needs to be considered, with steps taken to eliminate the early licensing effect.”

A 2015 study conducted by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln did find value in traditional pre-licensing education. The researchers found that teen drivers who failed to complete drivers education were nearly 75% more likely to receive a traffic ticket and 24% more likely to be involved in an accident with an injury or fatality.

Mr. Bonds says classroom-based point reduction classes have been shown to reduce repeat traffic offenses by nearly 60%.

Another potential concern with the internet-based classes is the inability to properly validate an individual’s identity, argued Mr. Bonds.

Under the terms of the I-PIRP pilot, the New York DMV stated that each sponsor’s validation methods would be tested and verified prior to being granted approval to conduct on-line courses. I-PIRP sponsors use voiceprint, keystroke analysis or telephone numbers — or a combination of the three — to validate the identity of class takers.

“Obviously, these measures are easily defeated,” said Mr. Bonds. “It’s user validation that doesn’t work and can’t be fixed.”

Mr. Wertz also questioned whether the DMV had “satisfactorily investigated the user identity validation methods employed by course sponsors.”

Internet-based classes affiliated with Empire use telephone numbers for verification, said Mr. Bonds; about 3% of his customers are Internet PIRP course takers.

On Aug. 26, 2019, two Albany-based attorneys from Jackson Lewis drafted a memorandum in opposition of S.B. 3965 on behalf of White Plains, New York-based Golden Crown Driving School Inc., arguing that offering internet courses in lieu of traditional brick and mortar classes would have a negative effect on public safety and would “put New York drivers and pedestrians at a greater risk of suffering from injury or death due to motor vehicle accidents.”

The memo contended that on-line courses provided “insufficient safeguards” to ensure that driver’s license applicants were actually taking the course or paying attention to the instructions, whereas a classroom environment ensures “that students do not show up under the influence of alcohol or other substances” and that live instructors also “ensure applicants taking the class pay attention to the course material being instructed.”

Mr. Bonds himself also filed a lawsuit in August against Gov. Cuomo, the New York DMV commissioner and others, alleging violations of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, insurance law, false claims and state finance law for failing to show proof of effectiveness of the I-PIRP pilot and conflict of interest due to the charging scheme of the program.

Classroom-based PIRP programs cost roughly $40, while the internet method costs an average of $25. However, the New York DMV collects $2 per person for classroom instruction, but $8 per person for I-PIRP takers, which the lawsuit contends is “a clear conflict of interest” and that the DMV “should be removed as far as possible from the assessment process.”

While Mr. Bonds has since withdrawn his complaint, he does plan to refile, and may team up with other classroom-based driver training companies to file a class action lawsuit, he said.