I’ve been trying to find any studies done of the psychological impacts of someone who is not permitted to operate a vehicle for two years or more, but have been unsuccessful. Anybody here on the Dope seen anything like this?
I don’t know of any offhand. What are the circumstances though? Does “not permitted” mean having a licence taken away due to some infringement? And how dependent is this person on a car - is it essential for work? Is there reliable public transport available? All of these things (and more) would come into play.
Good questions. I would define ‘not permitted’ as the license has been suspended. Work is not necessarily dependent on a car to complete it. Public transportation is at best infrequent or non-existent.
I’m not sure just what you mean by “psychological impact” but the US military has identified that Soldiers returning from deployment have a greatly increased risk of getting into accidents. Soldiers who are deployed for a year or more can go the entire time without driving. If they do drive, it may be in vehicles that are vastly different from a normal car or under conditions that differ greatly from the norm.
You could try searching the website of the US Army Safety Center. Look on the left for Privately Owned Vehicle (normally shortened to “POV”) Safety
Redeployment these days, at least the last one that I did, returning in July 2011, included pretty extensive driver re-integration briefings. If I recall correctly, there were also some Commander-imposed restrictions on how much you could drive upon return. There was also mandatory driver’s refresher training for the younger / more junior Soldiers. Don’t even get me started on the million-and-one talks about motorcycle safety during redeployment. Sheesh.