Introduction

Although access to a motor vehicle is essential for pursuing social and economic opportunity and ensuring health and well-being, states have increasingly used driver's license suspensions as a means of compelling compliance with a variety of laws and regulations unrelated to driving, including failure to pay a fine or appear in court. Little known about the population of suspended drivers and what geographic resources may be available to them to help mitigate the impact of a suspension.

Methods

Using data from the New Jersey Safety Health Outcomes (NJ-SHO) data warehouse 2004–2018, we compared characteristics of suspended drivers, their residential census tract, as well as access to public transportation and jobs, by reason for the suspension (driving or non-driving related). In addition, we examined trends in the incidence and prevalence of driving- and non-driving-related suspensions by sub-type over time.

Results

We found that the vast majority (91%) of license suspensions were for non-driving-related events, with the most common reason for a suspension being failure to pay a fine. Compared to drivers with a driving-related suspension or no suspension, non-driving-related suspended drivers lived in census tracts with a lower household median income, higher proportion of black and Hispanic residents and higher unemployment rates, but also better walkability scores and better access to public transportation and jobs.

Conclusions

Our study contributes to a growing literature that shows, despite public perception that they are meant to address traffic safety, the majority of suspensions are for non-driving-related events. Further, these non-driving-related suspensions are most common in low-income communities and communities with a high-proportion of black and Hispanic residents. Although non-driving-related suspensions are also concentrated in communities with better access to public transportation and nearby jobs, additional work is needed to determine what effect this has for the social and economic well-being of suspended drivers.

中文翻译：

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驾驶执照吊销的个人和地理差异：种族、民族和收入差异的证据。

介绍

尽管获得机动车对于追求社会和经济机会以及确保健康和福祉至关重要，但各州越来越多地使用吊销驾驶执照作为强制遵守与驾驶无关的各种法律法规的手段，包括未能支付罚款或出庭。鲜为人知的是停牌司机的人数以及他们可以使用哪些地理资源来帮助减轻停牌的影响。

方法

我们使用 2004-2018 年新泽西安全健康结果 (NJ-SHO) 数据仓库中的数据，比较了停职司机的特征、他们的居住人口普查区，以及公共交通和工作机会，按停职原因（驾驶或非驾驶相关）。此外，我们还检查了随时间推移按子类型划分的与驾驶和非驾驶相关的停赛发生率和流行率的趋势。

结果

我们发现，绝大多数 (91%) 的驾照吊销是针对与驾驶无关的事件，吊销的最常见原因是未支付罚款。与因驾驶相关停赛或没有停赛的司机相比，非驾驶相关停赛司机居住在家庭收入中位数较低、黑人和西班牙裔居民比例较高、失业率较高的人口普查区，但其步行能力得分更高且更好使用公共交通和工作。

结论

我们的研究为越来越多的文献做出了贡献，这些文献表明，尽管公众认为它们是为了解决交通安全问题，但大多数停赛都是针对与驾驶无关的事件。此外，这些与驾驶无关的停赛在低收入社区以及黑人和西班牙裔居民比例较高的社区中最为常见。尽管与驾驶无关的停工也集中在公共交通和附近工作更方便的社区，但还需要做更多的工作来确定这对停工司机的社会和经济福祉有何影响。