New Driving age????

[Southpaw]

The problem with tests is they do not test for anything but skill. You cant test for the ability to make the decisions that you will have to make every day while driving. A good comprimise may be you can have your DL but if you get a speeding ticket for 20 over, have more than the safe # of occupants, ect ect you get your DL pulled.

[maxama10]

Sounds like a good solution to me.

[Dubstar112]

If you are old enough to have taxes, SS, healthcare etc taken out of your paycheck then you can drive in my opinion.

I think 16 is perfect for getting a driving ability, however the NYS law makes perfect sense. Apply for permit, quick simple test, and a licensed driver must be with you. Then you take a 5 hour driving course and exam and you are certified for your road test. The road test demonstrates your ability to actually drive in city traffic with an intimidating fellow beside you. But what would I know, Im not a 30 somthing midlife crisis pseudo somthing. Im 18 and I got my license when I was 16 years old and 3months. Passed everything with flying colors and Ive never had a ticket or single violation.

I cant speak for the other younger percent of the population that dies or injures somone or themself in a car. But its not a perfect world and solving this problem by raising age does nothing in my opinion. Unless you call illegal driving "raising the age". Which is known to occur.

Saddle time is the best teacher. The second best teacher is your parents. If they cant show you responsible driving then at thier age they shouldnt have a license either.

[trains are bad]

Slightly on topic, recent research indicates that young men aged 18-21, while talking on cell phones, have reaction times appoximately equal to that of men aged 75-85...even when using a hands-free device.

[trains are bad]

A good comprimise may be you can have your DL but if you get a speeding ticket for 20 over, have more than the safe # of occupants, ect ect you get your DL pulled.
Reply With Quote

that's the way it is in ohio, until you are 18 ANY moving vioalion gets your liscence suspended.

[tony3]

I just got my license a month ago and am under the Illinois restricted driver laws. One of them is only 1 passenger that isn't family related in the car for first 6 months. I can honestly say, this law is not followed AT ALL. None of my friends will ever follow it, or do now. I can say that I follow it just because my parents don't let me have anyone in the car for the first 6 months.

I guess it depends on the person getting their license. I know people who definitely shouldn't have gotten it. I think I was ready for it at 16, then again, I probably wasn't. In the end it's all about the maturity of the driver and how much the teenage driver's parents will inforce their driving and if they will listen to their parents. I realize that my parents don't want me getting killed when I'm 16 and they don't let me go to a lot of places. I think harder drivers ed, and lots more practice with a driving instructor, like 30 hours with instructor and 30 with a parent. Right now it is way too easy to get a license.

[Kevmaster]

Why make laws for parents who don't care? Because it affects EVERYONE when a dumbass 16yo gets on the road. We are all at risk when ANYONE gets on the road. Its common saftey that is at stake. If its just you driving on your own roads, I don't care how old you are. But if you are on the same road as I am, I damn well want you to a) know what you are doing and b) be responsible.

that said, I think raising the minimum age is just trying to avoid the real problem. Its not the fact that you are 16 that makes it so you drive poorly (and we all do(did)). An 18yo thats never been behind the wheel will be JUST AS BAD as a 16yo whos never done it. Its the fact that you have no experience. Drivers Ed programs are worthless. Our testing for drivers needs to be made much more stringent and we need to start denying people licenses who suck at driving. As it is, simply raising the minimum age is just a scotch tape job.

[Warewolf50]

Uh oh.. I better hurry up and get off my butt and get my permit before georgia changes its laws.. :/

Ive been able to get my permit for like 10 months now but im too lazy to. How sad is that? Maybe I'll get it over spring break next month... haha

ouch think bout it this way if u hadnt been lazy 10 months ago u would be able to get a realy license in 2 months , now u still have to wait a year.

[B.A.M.]

it would be pointless to raise the driving age. I think it should depend on how mature the person is and if his/her parents let them drive. SOme kids are more mature and have a better risk determining skills than some 30 year olds i know.

[Buff]

I totally agree with raising the driving age..........
I am 19, and my roomate is 17...........but the difference between us is incredible when it comes to driving. He really is stoopid. He dosn't care if he's gonna kill someone the way he drives either.......

[Bear_Claw]

Well i dont quiet agree that rasing the driving age is gona help at all but i will say that there are WAY TOO MANY imature people driving around here (yes alot of em are well over 16).

I myself have had my days and im 21. I got my lisence on my 16th birthday and was waiting at the doors to the Lisenceing office at 7:00AM (LITERALLY). I drove myself home that same day and have NEVER stoped driving since lol. My first night out with my buddies with my car (had it since 15 fixing it to be road legal lol) was a STUPID night as i remember pushing that little car to show em what it could do. All of it on the street. I also street raced a bit and was lucky to NEVER get a speeding ticket or traffic fialation (Up till last week )

I dont do that kinda stuff no more and even drive the speed limit for the most part. I got nothing to prove and if i do i like to think im smart enough to go to a tet and tune night at the local dragstrip.

Oh and that speeding ticket i got two weeks back was like right out side of my neighborhood doing 75 in a 60 zone OOOPPPPPSSS. I was not trying to speed i was just staying with traffic lol. I had the cop laughing cause i was driving my Beater VW Diesel (52hp 71lbs/tq) and told him i was under the assumption that the car was incapable of speeding lol. He let me off with no Points and a $50 ticket due to a good driving record lol.

[Bolter]

I learnt to drive when I was 17 here in England and that was too young looking back. You are not a safe driver when you pass, and to lower it further than 17/18 is rediculous. I agree that your law should change.

There is of course the exception to every rule, some under 17/18's will be able to drive just fine, but I feel its not worth the risk.

[maxama10]

Well it seems to me that every year the kids are getting less mature. Were they so immature when you all were in about 8th grade? Cause most of the kids in my classes are just stupid and act extremely immature and it also seems that parents no longer care.... if i acted like some of those kids my parents would murder me...personally i dont think maturity is with age, so much as it is how they are raised. im still young but my parents have always tried to instill common sense into me, something which many of my peers appear to lack....so does anyone around my age feel as i do?

[whymillywhy]

You guys will love me.
In South Dakota, the age to get your license is 14. If you go to the DMV you have to take a 25 question tes and get less than 5 wrong. If you pass, you get a restricted permit, You have to drive with someone who has had their license for a year and is over 18 from 6-8, and a Parent from 8-6. If you take drivers Ed, Those restrictions are only for 3 months. I opted to get the restricted permit when I turned 14 so I could practice driving before drivers Ed. It is a good idea, I am not a very good driver, If I would have just taken the drivers ed road test, I would have failed.
The problem with just going to the DMV is all my friends go in, get their licenses, and go and drive by themselves, illegally. The police are lazier than heck here, and they don't care. I stay law abiding at least. My neighbor and friend got a very nice Murcury Mountaineer, '97 a few weeks afterword. the thing about it is, he does drive illegally, but he is a good driver, and doesn't joyride a lot, he uses it to go to his dads house from his moms (It is a small town and they are divorced) That isn't much of a problem. it is others. One person who got their license right away, She is a HORRIBLe driver, this summer, without her license yet, she was driving around on a golf cart, illegally, and she was going to take to someone in a car, so she WHIPs the golf cart around and parks it in the MIDDLe of the street. That made me mad.

The main reaosn why it is so young here is because, it is a small state, with small towns, drivers are bad in the bigger cities, but around here in my small town (2000 people) Drivers are good. They are careful. And by the time most of them are 14 they are good enough to drive alone, we need to drive to work and such, but we do have restrictions. 6-10 when you get our full license

Oh and did get a deal on my car, I havn't driven it yet, but I got one for 2.01 because it was my grandpas old car, but I do follow the law at least :)

[Evil Bob]

I attended 3 funerals for people I went to high school with in both my junior and senior years, two were while they were driving, the third was a roll over where she wasn't wearing her seat belt and went through the front window, all three deaths were from driving too fast for the current road conditions. one of them was 2 days before we graduated.

When my son starts driving this summer, his car will have one of these in it and he will know about it. He knwos full well that if he gets caught being stupid that his car rights will be revoked no questions asked. He will either be responsible or he wont be driving, period. His knowing that the car is keeping a record of his location and speed at all times and that his car rights are constantly on the line will hopefully help keep the stupidity factor to a minimum. I have already discussed this with him and he agrees with it fully. He got hit on his bike while riding to school 2 years ago by a 16 year old girl who was on her way to school and was putting makeup on while driving, she crushed the rear end of his bike under her the passenger side of her car, she had drifted over into the bike lane. He was struck at around 30 mph, he was doing 15 mph on his big. He was thrown free or the bike, flew some 20 feet and landed on a grassy area narrowily missing both the curb and a fire hydrant. He was extremely lucky to have gotten away with only minor scratches and bruises. The young girl, in total panic, fled the scene and was later apprehended at school, she lost her rights to drive until she's 21.

There are many services that do real time vehicle tracking. Taxis, limosines, truck hauling services, police, ambulance, emergency servives, etc. typically use them to keep tallies on where their vehicles are operating. There are ways for parents to keep track of their childrens activities when they're not around.

Something else to keep in mind, the cpu in your car that controls the engine has been used for evidence in court cases recently. This little device keeps lots of nice little statistics, it monitors speed, tracks such inputs as breaking, acceleration, steering wheel rotation, airbag deployment, etc., all of which can be put into a pretty timeline to help give details on what the driver was doing at the time of the accident. There was a big deal on it on 20/20 many moons ago about how insurance agencies were "spying on people's driving habbits without their knowing."

-Evil Bob