PIRP Online Programs' Effectiveness is Disputed; Remedy Urged.

• Author: Childers, Angela

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...