Abstract for: Riding with Alcohol Impaired Drivers Aged 15 to 24 in the United States from 1982 to 2020

Riding with an impaired driver (RWI) and driving while impaired (DWI) are prevalent among teens and young adults. RWI not only exposes young passengers to danger but also increases their chance of future DWI. Although trends of DWI trips and its contributors have been extensively studied, it is unknown how RWI trips have changed over the past decades. Specifically, national surveys report the percent of people who engage in RWI but no data on the frequency of RWI trips exist. Thus, RWI trips and their trend cannot be estimated. In this study, we extended the system dynamics model that we developed for DWI behaviors of male and female drivers aged 15 to 24 in the US to explore the trend of RWI trips with peers and examine interventions for reducing RWI. We obtained historical data from multiple sources and examined whether the average number of riders per alcohol impaired young driver involved in fatal crashes has changed between 1982 and 2020 and whether it can be included as an exogenous variable in the system dynamics model. We ran sensitivity analyses to present the likely trend of RWI trips. Finally, we examined the trajectories of RWI trips under multiple scenarios.