Would you support raising the driving age to 18?

[JACKHAMMER]

Originally posted by: farmercal

Originally posted by: Acanthus
yes, the vast majority of accidents are caused by people under 18 who arent mature enough to properly handle driving a vehicle.

The drunk driver that pulled in front on me and totaled my car and injured my son was grandfather. I didn't ask but I doubt he was under 18. Try again.

And we should pull statisitcs just from your ONE experience. Face it young people UNDER 18 cause far more than thier share of accidents on the road. If you don't believe it, just look it up or call you local insurence salesman and ask about therates for kids under 18.

 

[JACKHAMMER]

Originally posted by: Viper0329
Heck no. Parents need to just teach their kids responsibility. Where I come from, a drivers liscense any older than 16 would actually hurt some of our farmers, and the economy.

As long as those kids stay in school they would have their license. AND being from IL myself, driving the farm equipment around doesnt requre a license, so no impact there.

 

[archcommus]

I can't believe the majority answer to the poll is yes. Have these people never been 16 years old before? Do you expect people to not get jobs and to just be learning to drive a few months before going to college?

 

[Reckoner]

Everyone talks about driving to work. What about riding a bike? I don't know about you guys, but most of the jobs I had at that age were within 2-3 miles.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats
Everyone talks about driving to work. What about riding a bike? I don't know about you guys, but most of the jobs I had at that age were within 2-3 miles.

That's simply not the norm. I had three jobs before college, all of which were almost 8 miles from home, and the only way to get there was over highways.

 

[Reckoner]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats
Everyone talks about driving to work. What about riding a bike? I don't know about you guys, but most of the jobs I had at that age were within 2-3 miles.

That's simply not the norm. I had three jobs before college, all of which were almost 8 miles from home, and the only way to get there was over highways.

What about Public Transportation?

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: JACKHAMMER
And we should pull statisitcs just from your ONE experience. Face it young people UNDER 18 cause far more than thier share of accidents on the road. If you don't believe it, just look it up or call you local insurence salesman and ask about therates for kids under 18.

QFT. I'm currently dishing out $2400 a year for insurance despite being accident-free, living in a good neighborhood, driving a fairly safe car, etc.

It is true, teenagers are the ones who cause the most accidents. Howeve, as I've mentioned in my earlier post, it's not a matter of age, its a matter of maturity... bottom line. Age only bears some correlation to maturity. For example, if a 16-year-old is an idiot and a bad driver, making him wait 2 years probably isn't going to make a difference.

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: archcommus
I can't believe the majority answer to the poll is yes. Have these people never been 16 years old before? Do you expect people to not get jobs and to just be learning to drive a few months before going to college?

I got my driver's licence at 24 years old. Public transportation works fine and is a lot cheaper than maintaining a car.

 

[DPmaster]

Originally posted by: farmercal
It's not an age problem its an experience problem. I think the poster that said "putting powerful cars in the hands of inexperience divers is causing the problems", was more to the point. Any inexperienced driver at any age can get a car they can't handle and be potentially dangerous on the road. My son inexperienced (got license late do to being out of country), had and accident at the age of 19 because of his inexperience. Maturity had nothing to do with it, and the same thing has happened to a lot of new drivers at all ages. TEACHING people to drive defensibly is the answer, not older age requirements. Also like someone else said how else are they going to get around in most of America where there is no mass transit?

Bingo. It's all about experience. Raising the age limit to something like 18 would just mean there would be a lot of accidents caused by 18-year olds because they lack experience in driving.

Take a look at the sports world. For example, who's going to be the better golfer? A child who has been playing golf since he was 4 years old? Or a 30-year old who has never even touched golf clubs until he recently got them for his birthday. You can say a 30-year old is more mature but he won't be able to touch that 15-year old kid who's been playing golf for 2/3 of his life.

Experience is the key.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: archcommus
I can't believe the majority answer to the poll is yes. Have these people never been 16 years old before? Do you expect people to not get jobs and to just be learning to drive a few months before going to college?

I got my driver's licence at 24 years old. Public transportation works fine and is a lot cheaper than maintaining a car.

Very true. However, a lot of kids live in suburbs where public transportation isn't an option. Not everyone can use the bus.

 

[LtPage1]

I'd rather just make the driving test WAY harder, but raising the age to 18 is good too. Also, let's make people take it every 5 years to keep the bad old people drivers off the road as well.