16 is too young to drive!

The age to get a drivers license is 16 in most states, this is too young. Most 16 year old kids are not mature enough to handle the responsibility of driving. I know there are people who are 16 and are mature enough.... hell there are even 12 year olds who could handle driving... but for the majority of the 16 year olds in the country, they shouldn't be behind the wheel.

One of my brother's best friends got killed on Wednesday by a 16 year old kid who got his license that day. He missed a stop sign and T-boned her, she died instantly. She was 24 and was finishing up her wedding plans and all of that is gone now. Sure he'll have to live the rest of his life with what he did, but after he becomes an adult it will be off his record. Over and done, just a memory.

Driving is a privelage and takes responsibility. We're letting kids that are too young to take control of their lives and others. They need more education and training before they should be allowed to drive.

Sorry about your loss, but one senario just doesn't prove your point.

exactly, one anecdote doesn't prove that all kids are irresponsible. i have exactly one ticket, no crashes, and that ticket was when i was 18. i drove quite safely, and frankly, anally, when i was 16.

that said, i'm sorry for your loss.

I drive more irresponsibly than I did when I got my licence.
People of any age make mistakes

I didn't say that all kids are irresponsible. Regardless of what happened, I do believe that at 16 years old, a greater portion of kids that age are not mature enough to handle the responsibility of driving than those who are mature enough.

I'm 23, been driving since I was 16, never been in an accident or got a ticket. I feel that I was mature enough to drive at that age, but many people who I knew were not.

It just doesn't make sense to allow people who are not legal adults yet, the responsibility of driving.

I purposely did not go get my license until after I was 19. I was not ready to drive. I have never been in an accident. I have only sped once and that was by accident.

To help Shadowsoul:
Accidental reports show that people who are younger are more likely to be in the accident. In particular males under 24!

Driving is dangerous, but we have to allow people to drive at some point. I can't really see it being higher than 18.... Is there really that big of a difference in driving ability and maturity between an 18 year old and a 16 year old? Would people really become that much better drivers in 2 years?

Also, most people have to be able to drive at 18. Many leave home then. Would it really be wise to go "Okay, there ya go, get out in the world, and now you get to learn to drive!" Driving is as essential a skill to learn to prepare for adulthood as any other you learn in school.

For most 16 year olds, driving is part time. Learning to drive at 16 gives you a chance to learn to do it at a slow pace. If you couldn't learn till 18 -- when you were required to drive full-time -- that seems to me be just as dangerous.

[Edited on Aug 26, 2005 by Keith]

Though I am terribly sorry about your loss, I disagree (a little.) I believe that elderly drivers are much more of a menace than teenagers in my neck of the woods.
In South Dakota, you can drive as young as 13, but you rarely hear about young kids getting into accidents. What you read about more in the paper is elderly drivers not being able to pay attention and missing stop signs, running reds etc... I just recently had my car totalled because a 84 year old man assumed a light was green.
I think that elderly drivers are far more dangerous than teenagers are. But that's just my opinion. And this is coming from a girl that has driven her daddy's truck through fences that he held open since she was 9. (Farmers will understand.)

i was gonna say...if you lived in america, you'd probably see the necessity (albeit a necessary evil) of driving. quite a different deal.

i don't like having to drive everywhere i go, but i don't really have a choice that's economically viable at this point.

This I can agree with. Adults are a problem too however.

I agree that elderly drivers are a problem as well. In general, driving laws and regulations are probably too lenient. At 18, you don't even need drivers education training for a license, it's just off to the DMV to take the tests and if you pass... tada! You're in control of a lethal weapon.

My whole deal is, I know you can't put an age on maturity and responsibility level on a per person basis, but in broad terms it is how the government works. 16 is too young to have complete responsibility.

Keith: People can become considerably better drivers in 2 years. In that sense, it would be like comparing a 14 year old driver to a 16 year old, or a 12 year old to a 14 year old. 2 years is a lot of time to grow and mature.

If 16 year olds were allowed a learners permit to drive with a licensed adult and then when 18 were allowed a full license, I think a lot of lives would be saved.

Senior are far more dangerous, at least at 16 you still have your reflexes.

Nah. The thing is, you need the confidence of a teenager when you're learning to drive. I've noticed that people who learn to drive later tend to fear it, which frequently (not always, of course) results in horrible driving.

I mean, I'd be all for deciding on a case by case basis whether or not a person was mature enough to drive, but the lines at the DMV are long enough without that.

Beat me to it

It's not really like either since the other two periods of time you're talking about you go through massive hormonal and development stages, far more than the 16-18 period, particularly if we're discussing girls. There is a difference between a sixteen and an eighteen year old, maturity-wise, but really, I think you should learn to drive while you're still living with your parents. Many eighteen year olds will be headed off to college during the time period you're talking about. And I don't see college freshman's behavior as generally being responsible, and would rather not add to that by having this be the first time they're driving the car by themselves.

I agree. I always knew that driving was a huge responsibility, that's why I didn't get my license until I was 24.
I also agree that seniors are a big problem. I think they ought to be much more strictly regulated; maybe mandatory yearly driving tests...

Often, I think, all the accidents that come with the process of learning to drive are confused with "irresponsibility of teenagers." If driving age was 30, the highest number of accidents would likely be among 30 year-olds, because by definition among the population they'd have had the least driving experience. Your story is a perfect example. The teenager in this story wasn't acting irresponsibly (driving drunk, driving excessively fast for thrill, driving with 6 other kids in the car), he just made a simple (and sadly fatal) mistake that comes with the inexperience inherent in learning a new skill. It's sad that such casualties happen in the process of learning to drive, but many of them (including the one in your story) would not be prevented by waiting until a more "mature" age.

if you change the age from 16 to 18 or what have you, the numbers are still the same pretty much.

I'm not confusing the process of learning with irresponsibility of teenagers. Given what you're saying, it would be ok if the driving age was 8 years old because it's just about experience levels and not about maturity?

huh here ya not allowed to drive with out a licensed driver plus curfew until a year passed...

Your counter-argument here assumes that 16 year olds differ from 8 year olds only in their degree of "maturity" and "responsibility." However, even if an 8 year old had the maturity of an adult, he would not yet have developed the mental faculties necessary for the skills of driving. Essentially, an 8 year old wouldn't be able to learn or understand the complex array of rules and tasks requisite for driving, even if he was as mature as an adult. The capacity to multi-task and understand rules that an 8 year-old lacks, a 16 year-old would clearly have developed. This has more to do with developing basic skills than with irresponsibility and maturity.

Apparently you don't know what maturity means.
Whatever, for all of the arguments out there... you say 16 is the same as 18 and 18 is the same as 20. Doesn't that make 16 the same as 20? But you won't say that 12 is the same as 16.

Plain and simple, a 16 year old is not done growing up yet.

I'm sorry for your loss and I know that it's upsetting... but this is just ridiculous.

No, a 16 year old isn't done growing up. But neither is an 18 year old and guess what... you have to learn some time. The longer you put off the process the harder it becomes. Barring people from driving until 18 causes all sorts of problems. I drove all kinds of errands for my parents when they both worked. My brother did the same. A lot of kids going off to university and college depend on having their own vehicles to move and to get around away from home. Once again, I'm sorry for your loss but I think you're asking a little too much.



[Edited on Aug 26, 2005 by FreakPirate]