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Raising the legal driving age to 18

Leave age limits as they are if they make sense for the area, (low ages for rural areas where driving is more of a necessity), but make the tests to get your license much stricter. Make sure that people who are going to be driving have the skills to do it safely. Maybe even make people take a followup test just to make sure they still know what they're doing.

Better public transportation seems to be a better idea so that young people can still get around as they mature (and become less easily distracted).
 
In some areas, I think they should just make harder tests.

In my state they call off the test if it lightly sprinkles, and if you're half way through they just pass you when that happens. I mean I failed twice when it's that easy. I wasn't ready to drive, but because my father pushed me on my last test I "technically" didn't do anything wrong so I wasn't failed, even though the tester was uncomfortable with my nervousness. I used to make so many mistakes, and it's only about four years later that I'm barely comfortable driving.

If you are allowed to get your learners permit at a younger age, and just make the test harder I think that will work. So if you need it out of necessity or you're pretty good at it already there's nothing stopping you, but if you're not good you just have to spend more time with your learners and having an adult to help you.
 
Zupplu said:
It's 18 in Australia and i have to say i think it works well, for this country anyway. Only 1290 lives were lost across the country last year, and i believe that making the age 18 is contributing to the low road toll.
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Depends on the state. In QLD(where I live), you can get your Ls at 16 but you have to do 100hours of recorded driving(I think it's actually 200 now) before you can go for your Ps.

In all honesty, raising the age limit is just postponing accidents.
 
I believe the age here to start is 15/16. We have a graduated licensing system here. So, you have your written test and then you can drive around with your parents. A year later you can go for your first driving test - just roads. Pass that and you can drive on your own, except for the highway (and some other restrictions, like the number of passengers you can have in your car at late hours).

A year after that you take a highway test and then you have you full license. So... if you started on time you'll be around 18 by the time you're all done. Which seems perfectly fine to me. You're still in highschool until your 18 anyway.
 
I think it's unnecessary. I mean... what good/bad will it do? It's not even a relevant discussion. In Maryland here I believe it is 16... I think 16 is probably a good age. But 18... nah. Well... what difference would it make? Honestly I don't care, but it would piss a lot of people who have strong opinions... like everyone here... off if they did raise it.
 
No, both are too old. By the time someone is 18, they can be out of highschool. Getting a full drivers license takes about a year (or at least it does in Canada) and I think it is silly to expect someone to try and find a job when they wont be able to have transportation. Not all places have busses, and not all people stay at home with their parents.
 
I don't think it's as much age as it is experience and maturity. If the age was raised to 18, then the people will be just as new to driving as someone that is 16. Besides, at least in my state you have to go through a driver's training class that includes country and city driving in order to get your liscence at 16.

Not every teenager is irresponsible either. I'm 16 and when most people imagine a teenager's car they expect loud music, text messages, and basically a party. In my truck the party consists of, me driving with my Ipod set on a loop of my favorite songs plugged into the radio (quietly I might add), my friend with my Ipod playing games on there, and my brother passed out (sleeping) in the back seat. At least that how it was when I was shuttling us to school and back. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a pretty lame party.

As far as restrictions go, I say they are fair. For the first six months you can't have more than 2 passengers in your car, can't have hands free devices (for cell phones) at all, and you can't be out passed 1 am. to sunrise. If you have no accidents, these rules will be lifted.
 
Where I'm at you start driving at 16. You have to past a 'test' just to be allowed to drive WITH an adult present at all times and only that adult in the car. After 6 months of that you get to take another 'test' with an guy how is more anal about proper driving procedures than you could ever imagine. If you pass that (80% fail on the first try usually) you get a nice new license with a big shiny 'N' on it, letting everyone how sees it know that you are not allowed to be out past 12am. And, yes, people rebel. But if you get caught you lose the license and have to retake the tests (which you pay for) after a year wait. For this 'N' to be removed you have to wait a year and take a driving school class that costs about 800$. So needless to say, 'young' drivers here are pretty good to be honest.. It's the people that have been driving 5+ years that worry me.
 
I rode with a teen driver once. It wasn't that bad tbh. He seemed to be as good as my mom in driving, and there were no cases of irresponsibility as far as I could tell.

So no, 15 1/2 / 16 is the perfect age imo. Because by the time you get a license it's probably more realistically 16 1/2, and then you can get some practice in for college and life so you don't completely humiliate yourself in college.

And besides, as many people have said on here and irl, alcohol for teens is stupid. It's for the "does your mother know you're out" kind of people. They think it's cool but in fact they're most likely on a road to lonliness and/or insanity. And besides most people (at my school at least) don't party heavily anyways. It's more of a college thing than high school teenager thing, so raising it to 18 won't do anything or make it worse.
 
Kura said:
No, both are too old. By the time someone is 18, they can be out of highschool. Getting a full drivers license takes about a year (or at least it does in Canada) and I think it is silly to expect someone to try and find a job when they wont be able to have transportation. Not all places have busses, and not all people stay at home with their parents.
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I thought it was one year between each level of the graduated license? So... wouldn't you require two years to get a full licence?
 
TRIFORCE89 said:

I thought it was one year between each level of the graduated license? So... wouldn't you require two years to get a full licence?
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Well either way, it's pretty embarrassing to not be able to drive to class (or get around) in college. Though a bike should work, you're a big boy now. You don't need no parents.
 
I don't see how this would really do anything other than creating a new issue where 16 year olds drive anyways. Hell, when I was a sophomore in high school I remember a few kids my age going to court because they got pulled over driving on their permit (in Oregon you can get a permit at 15, which lets you drive a car if someone that has a drivers license over the age of 21 is present). Whos to say that more kids wouldn't just do this anyways?

Not to mention there are just people that are terrible drivers no matter what age they are. I have friends that I wouldn't be caught dead in a car with because they are such terrible drivers. They were terrible at 16, and they are still terrible at 19.

droomph said:

Well either way, it's pretty embarrassing to not be able to drive to class (or get around) in college. Though a bike should work, you're a big boy now. You don't need no parents.
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Honestly, this is a weak argument. I know plenty of people in college that take public transportation to school and work everyday - and that doesn't require a drivers license. In fact, my 31 year old lab partner last term did exactly that, and I don't recall anyone laughing at him for not driving to school.
 
Well I guess it's not so much embarrassment as it is inconvenience. For example, the nearest Gamestop where I live is two towns away. While I could just transfer buses over to there (our bus systems are all exclusively one city) it's not that easy to find a route that will let you do that, because they all have their own schedules. And while I could ride my bike there, it's too far to bike there (though you could argue that I just need more practice.)

All in all, the car is more convenient in a spaced out area like the Bay Area, at least. Like, if I was in Japan, riding a bike to work wouldn't be that bad because 1) distances are generally smaller because you're in the city and 2) usually all you need is in the same town/district, except for maybe a couple of novelty stores here and there.
 
This topic was rigorously debated last year at my school.
You guys were talking earlier about the age for licenses in Australia before, well in Vic you get your learner's at 16 do 120 hours and when you turn 18 go for your red probationary license. But when you turn 18 you are now legally allowed to drink alcohol.
On two occasions I know of people (one close friend, other only knew of) on their red P's who have had serious accidents and were found to have alcohol in their system.

The problem here is not raise the age at which you can get your license but to raise the age you are allowed to purchase and consume alcohol. By raising that to 21 here at least it makes it harder for P platers to get their hands on it.

Other than alcohol the main contributors to road accidents are inexperience and fatigue.
So by lowering the age at which you get your L's to 14 or 15 to give more experience in the hands of an adult would prove much more effective. That and getting a good night sleep.
 
droomph said:


Well either way, it's pretty embarrassing to not be able to drive to class (or get around) in college. Though a bike should work, you're a big boy now. You don't need no parents.
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The wonders of cheap, affordable, public transportation. That's the sort of thing you get when you pay taxes, but don't bother trying to get that through to Conservatives in state & federal legislatures.
 
I never go into a car that a 15 year old is driving because I don't trust them. It's probally good to rise the age law to 18.
 
TrAndyy said:
Isn't it true that teens are most likely to text while driving?
Isn't it true that insurance companies recognize that teens are the most dangerous drivers?
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Do you think that's because of inexperienced drivers or teenage drivers? Do you have anything that backs up the theory that raising the age would lower accidents/create less dangerous drivers? I'm thinking something along the lines of a study that compares new teen drivers to new adult drivers.
 
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