This is due, in part, to the fact that there are few if any, alternative modes of transportation in most non-urban areas that would allow them to continue to work and care for their family. The National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Report 500, estimated that around 75 percent of individuals chose to drive with a suspended license. These suspensions don’t keep people off the roads. And out of those individuals with suspended driver’s licenses, more than two-thirds of them committed another non-highway-related offense.
Across the country, more than one-third of all driver’s license suspensions are due to non-highway offenses. Suspending driver’s licenses is a largely arbitrary and regressive form of punishment that does not improve roadway safety and does not prevent future crimes. In fact, because 86 percent of Americans drive to work, these unnecessary driver’s license suspensions restrict people’s ability to work and pay their court-sanctioned debt, creating an often inescapable cycle of poverty. For many people, losing a driver’s license often means losing the ability to do basic tasks such as go to work, grocery shop, or take kids to school. In 34 states, people can have their driver’s licenses suspended, revoked, or banned from renewal due to a failure to pay fines, fees, and other debts accrued in the criminal justice system, often for issues unrelated to traffic violations and driving.