"A full driving licence has been increasingly seen, particularly by young men, as a rite of passage to adulthood: part of personal independence and mobility. The link with social responsibilities towards fellow citizens, particularly those who are more vulnerable, has not been emphasised enough."

These words, taken from the government's road safety strategy document Tomorrow's Roads: Safer for Everyone, highlight the importance placed on cars by many young men. And indeed, the same could be said for young women, albeit with a change in emphasis.

When the conversation in a youth group turns to the car, the emphasis for young men is often on questions of speed, "pulling power", image and freedom. For young women it is more likely to be more practical issues such as personal safety, employment opportunity and mobility.

Of course these are partly stereotypes. But the overriding issue is that most young people now aspire to own a car, and in fact see it as their right.

Our society is car-dependent. In its report Motoring towards 2050, the RAC Foundation states that "83 per cent of motorists would find it difficult to adjust to a lifestyle without a car". Having the use of a car is now the norm, and those who have no access to a car are excluded from many opportunities.

There is of course another issue of particular importance to young people: the fact that they are at risk of serious or fatal road accidents. Again the government's strategy document suggests that even after passing their test "young and newly qualified drivers have a poor safety record compared with older more experienced drivers". Although young people (aged 17-21) only represent 7 per cent of all licence holders, they are involved in 13 per cent of all injury accidents (1998 figures). This suggests that not enough work is being done to prepare young people for taking on the responsibilities of road use and vehicle ownership.

Youth projects have been using young people's interest in cars to divert them from crime for the past 30 years. Having their origins in work with so-called "joy riders" throughout the 1980s, motor projects have concentrated on getting young people - mostly male - involved in converting and racing cars as an alternative to offending. In the early 1990s, however, we started to see a real change in emphasis, with projects such as Motivate in Leicester, placing more emphasis on education rather then adrenaline substitution.

This change has continued with larger projects, such as Skidz in High Wycombe, now operating a motor-based activity centre that firmly puts the motor vehicle in its place. Skidz is concerned with using cars as a starting point for learning, and as a point of reference that all young people will recognise.

There is no doubt that cars and motorbikes have a real relevance for all young people, even if they don't like driving or riding, and that their skill as road users - or lack of it - will have an impact on their lives at some point. For many young people, a motor vehicle can represent the difference between employment and unemployment, freedom and dependence, confidence and fear and in some cases offending and non-offending. We now need to embrace the motor vehicle and young people's feelings about it. Using the car as a starting point, we can get young people to think seriously about issues such as risk taking, the environment, offending and personal safety. Now there's a journey worth making.

Graham Lloyd is the manager of youth work charity UK Youth's Momentum programme.

About Momentum

UK Youth's Momentum programme offers a nationally recognised framework for road user education. It has two main components: First Gear, focusing on cars and On Two Wheels, focusing on motorbikes. Momentum uses a range of exercises to help young people explore the issues that are of most concern to them, as well as giving them some basic driving and motor vehicle maintenance training. www.roadusereducation.org