18, not 16, to drive!

[stutt944]

aside from the frighteningly weak licensing tests, i feel there should be some serious changes to the DMV's licensing program:

licenses should be aquired at 18 years of age, not 16. there are too many reasons to list. the roads are becoming more crowded, exponentially more dangerous, economy, environment, etc etc etc.

i think its a good idea for all the right reasons. if i was 16, i would've hated it, but it would have been best in the long run, no doubt.

post your 16 - 18 year old automotive horror stories.

and you cant try to fight this one. i'm right.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

your wrong, the way the system is set up here, you pretty much dont get your lisence until you are 17 anyway, they made those laws for the reasons you stated above, it didnt do ****, except piss me off when i was trying to get my lisence. besides, if the drivers have horror stories, its not because they arent 18, its because they have no experience driving. 18 isnt a magical age where on your birthday you instantly become better at everything.

[GEO]

True... I am only 17 and I have never had a horror story.

[stutt944]

papasmurf, thats great. come out the gate with "your wrong." first off, thats incorrect grammar.

and ok, 16 or 17 whatever, its still too young. otherwise i would've said 17, not 16, to drive. and the whole basis of this is that we should have ample driver education, lasting 2 years. the only way (in my eyes) for this to be most effective is to start the program at 16, and graduate it at 18. not start at 14 and finish at 16 or start at 15 and finish at 17. and to quote:" besides, if the drivers have horror stories, its not because they arent 18, its because they have no experience driving." my point exactly.

[Turb0wned]

ur saying that now but if u were 15 turning 16 you would want ur license to im 17 turning 18 so it really doesnt bother me if they change the law but when i was 15 i would have hated it

[stutt944]

anyone out there who is more mature than these two whirlwinds of brainpower feel free to speak up.

i would've hated it too. but my parents would've loved it. and they would've been in the right.

[Bruno240]

ok 1st off, if your parents would of loved that law so much, they would of not let youg et your licence till youwe re 18 like some parents.

The problem isnt the age, its the experience. so raising the age limit isnt going to do anything. you will just have 18 year olds that are un experienced getting in to wrecks.

if you want to solve the problems, get better driving schools where they last longer and stuff like that. I just finished driving school and i didnt learn that much from it. i learned a couple things. most of it i will forget. and i also got a 94% on the final test.

so your solotion is not fixing the problem. you need to find a way to educate new drivers better than the current method. rasing the age limit will not do this

[Charlie240sxt]

i got mine when I was 15 cuz i lived in MT and then moved to OK and now still have it and I have had only one wreck and it was not my falt and i am now 18 almost 19 the wreck is what killed my last 240sx

[stutt944]

there are more reasons than just developing ineperienced drivers:

the roads are becoming more crowded, exponentially more dangerous, economy, environment, etc etc etc.

[lessthanjakejohn]

No. That would mean that I would of gotten my license when I just got out of high school. I can't pick up dates, I can't go where I want. Momma has to drive me everywhere. The closest I have ever been to getting in a wreck was in a school zone stopped at a stop sign. I couldn't see around the corner so i pulled out a little bit and someone had to hit there brakes so that if i had continued going forward I wouldn't of hit him.

Also just because a wreck 'wasn't your fault' doesn't mean that it shoudn't have happened. Most wrecks could be avoided if just one of the drivers was paying attention.

[fiznat]

I'm definetly all for making the training program more serious. I dont know if that means increasing the age to 18, but I think licences should definetly be awarded for skill, not age. Classes should involve much more driving experience, not just sitting behind a desk and watching movies on how not to drink and drive... or stupid rules that you never use when you drive - like counting how many seconds you are behind other cars, etc. There are too many kids out there who are FAR too confident behind the wheel when they really dont have enough experience to make the right decisions.... I dont know what the progam would specifically be like, but I definetly think drivers training should be MUCH more extensive.

[Guffed]

"its not because they arent 18, its because they have no experience driving. 18 isnt a magical age where on your birthday you instantly become better at everything."

Sorry but he's is 100% right...Age doesn't mean anything really. And if you think 16 year olds are less mature than 18 year olds...Boy could I proove you wrong, I swear, I look older, but I feel like I'm 13. Oh, and this doesnt make any scence, but if you have more 18 year old drivers, you have more unhealthy drivers...you know, cuz they can smoke?...nevermind.

[Sircnay]

It's the driving school people. They suck balls. They don't teach you how to drive. They teach you the laws behind driving. And then they drive with you around town for 2 days. As if those 2 days will let you survive for the next however many years. We need to improve our driving schools, ones that have Auto-x that'll teach you how to drive a RWD, FWD, MR, and AWD car. And drive them all in the rain, snow, etc. They should teach you NOT to lift and smash the brakes in a FR and MR car. Raising the age won't do Sh*t. That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard about this. What's that going to do? It just means the person will just suck at driving just another 2 years from when they turn 16. Ridiculous.

[Mr1der]

if it was changed to 18, how else are you gonna impress chicks with you ride? and it'd make skipping school so much harder, and it'd all together ruin the fun days of high school.

sure you can say it'd be safer and all that jive, but we seem to be just taking out all the fun of living in this country with some stuff.

I hated wearing the uniform my senior year of high school, and this was at a freaking public school! It was supposed to make school less of a distraction, but the teachers had to spend about ten minutes of each class to make sure we were up to par with that crap. I think it's already become so much more leanient in the three years (this is the start of the 4th year now) it's been in effect though.

[lessthanjakejohn]

I think that I went to one of the better driving schools in Dallas. We would do the standard classes and movies and all that stuff, then we would drive 8-10 times for 20 minutes in a big SUV. (3 people in the car times 20 minutes = hour total)

[Altiman94]

Put yourself in a 15 year old kid's position. There really is no reason for this thread to even have been created because it is completely biased. You probably got hit by a young driver and totally think it was completely age related. I have been driving vehicles for as long as I can remember, so there is no way I am inexperienced compared to any 16-18 year olds. I'm almost 18 myself so I've had 2 years of unoccupied driving under my belt. Never had an accident, don't even remember coming close. I've owned a fwd car, and now I have a rwd car, and to say i wouldnt know my 240 was rearwheel drive unless it was raining or I am purposely doing donuts or something to showcase the RWD. There is pretty much no difference just driving down the road, so you can't say anyone really needs any school to teach them to drive a different car with different drivetrains.

[Sircnay]

It makes a huge difference. I'm 17 by the by. But people like you Altiman and me are VERY rare. The majority of the kids our age are stupid and retarded. Different drivetrains have different affects when drive in certain situations. FF car taking a turn kind of quickly, not much of a problem. FR car making a turn kind of quickly rear starts to come out, what happens when the kid freaks and smashes the brakes? It spins. MR car making the same turn same speed, back REALLY starts to come out kid lifts foot off pedal and it's all over.

[CaptainHenreh]

I agree that it's primarily training, but don't pretend that age doesn't play into it at all. A great deal of it is judgement calls, and that directly correlates to responsibility.

We should adopt a more eurpean style of licensing program.

[jhoward]

age has nothing to do with it. i'm gonna turn 18 wednesday and i've been driving since i was 15.5 i haven't had any problems. i'm actually a better driver than my friends who started driving when they were 18.

[UncleBen]

It makes a huge difference. I'm 17 by the by. But people like you Altiman and me are VERY rare. The majority of the kids our age are stupid and retarded. Different drivetrains have different affects when drive in certain situations. FF car taking a turn kind of quickly, not much of a problem. FR car making a turn kind of quickly rear starts to come out, what happens when the kid freaks and smashes the brakes? It spins. MR car making the same turn same speed, back REALLY starts to come out kid lifts foot off pedal and it's all over.

:Werd

[Rex]

Just to stir it up a bit, shouldn't states start looking at a max age or more extensive testing/reaction time measuring for "senior" drivers?

Also, I think regardless of the starting age, it should be a graduating scale. Start by limiting to only day time and good/fair weather driving with a parent or guardian. Then limited night driving with parent or guardian. Requiring the parent or guardian to keep a log of the hours. I think a system that requiers real world experience under a "documented" and graduated observation would make a big difference.

One last note, keep in mind driving is a privilege NOT a right.

[Get240DiZzY]

It doesn't matter what kind of training you go through, everybody has to pass some kind of test to get their license at one point or another. Most people here in KS, unfortunately, learn the skills to pass the tests, then "forget" them.

My favorite example being the girl in the left turn lane next to me. When the light turns green, she floors it and swerves over into my lane without looking. If I hadn't hit the brakes, she would've taken my bumper off (and kept driving too, no doubt :rolleyes)

IMO, the best solution is probobly re-testing you every four years when you get your license renewed.

[[Zero-S]]

Just to stir it up a bit, shouldn't states start looking at a max age or more extensive testing/reaction time measuring for "senior" drivers?

Also, I think regardless of the starting age, it should be a graduating scale. Start by limiting to only day time and good/fair weather driving with a parent or guardian. Then limited night driving with parent or guardian. Requiring the parent or guardian to keep a log of the hours. I think a system that requiers real world experience under a "documented" and graduated observation would make a big difference.

One last note, keep in mind driving is a privilege NOT a right.

Beautifully said. I can't start to list of all the would be accidents in my school parking lot because of the idiots who just started driving trying to show off. Its not cool. Maybe VA should try the graduated license thing, as it seems raising the age to 16.5 just isn't doing s***. And I totally agree with your age cap for senior drivers, as they seem to be another cause of accidents on the road, even though they're rarely involved in them.

[fiznat]

I agree that it's primarily training, but don't pretend that age doesn't play into it at all. A great deal of it is judgement calls, and that directly correlates to responsibility.

We should adopt a more eurpean style of licensing program.

I agree. Driving is a technique that can be taught, no doubt about that- but the other half of it is defiently controlled by maturity and good decisions. If you're a decent driver but you make a stupid decision, no amount of training is going to save you.

Not to say that all 16 year olds are going to make those stupid decisions - just that they're more likely to. I made PLENTY of stupid decisions during my first year of having my licence. Christ, the first night I went out in the rain and almost understeered right into a big sign.

I'd really like to see a much more involved training process that evaluated both technique and quick decision making skills.

What's the european system like?

[scruffy63]

I think the age for driving is just fine in some places. 15 for your permit then after 1 year your license. I think we should take example from the insurance. the younger drivers have higher insurance. The younger drivers should also have worse "punishments" for bad driving. more restrictions put on. I think this would cause them to drive more carefully.

[GEO]

Well I don;t want a 15-16 year old kid driving near me. ****, thats liek a sophmore in high school, still playing with pokemon cards. I mean, you see what I am saying.

[toki]

ok, I vote for you to change your name to SLUTT994. because well, you are. to even suggest some broad a5s law on everyone under a certain age is just ignorant. Now believe me, I know this field better than anyone, I am 15, I dont even have a license, but I have been learning to drive for well over a year, I ride around with people 16 and 17 every day of the week, I have been in so many near accidents it's amazing, believe me, I know. It's all about judgment. Harsher punishments my white a5s though. My friend has incurred costs already upwards of $2500 fighting a street racing ticket and has had to sell his car, and is now rolliing around in an auto accord his mom used to drive, believe me, he goes the speed limit everywhere, not even 5 over. When he got caught it was his 2nd day on his license. He just wanted to have some fun. Is it dangerous? YES. Did I feel completly safe everytime I was in his car going 80 down a 2 lane 35mph street? Yes. Why? Becuase I know him better than he even knows himself, knowing him for 11 years, and I know he uses great judgment and wouldn't do it unless he was 100% sure it was fine. If that cop had givin him a warning or just not ticketed him for drag racing, believe me he would not do it anymore, but he still wouldn't be scared sh!tless of driving reasonably. I also drive around with my friend rex in his 240 and he ****ing passes people and misses a head on by less than 2 seconds at 65 just because. I don't like to ride with him, he is the type that could benifit from better judgement.

The point of all this, everyone is different. I know being 15 I can probably drive better than half of the people in this city. Granted, this city is rated #1 on worst drivers in the US, but still. I also know alot of those crap *** drivers and try to correct them whenever possible. I think the laws suck right now as they are becuase I know my life suffers not being able to drive whenever it suits me, if anything, they should allow very rigerous tests to be givin for people under 16, just incase you know they are some damn youngins that dont know crap about crap and dont know the break from the clutch.

[TurboKA37]

moving the licensing age to 18 would would not make that much of a difference in the amount of reckless driving and accidents. no matter what the driving age is, once people get their license they will want to push their car to see what its limits are, and they will also drive recklessly because it is fun and will continue to do so until the driver starts to value other driver's lives and feelings. whether the age is 16 or 18. plus kids start getting jobs around 15 yrs old and it is a pain to base ur work scedule on when ur parents can drive u there and back. as said before the only reasonable way to decrease traffic accidents is to properly educate drivers on how cars react in different situations and how to properly control the situation. one other thing is that becoming a driver is a big part of growing up, taking responsibility, and maturing. delaying the driving age would also effect how fast one matures.

[TurboKA37]

almost forgot to say something about the amount of drivers on the road. sure there are alot of drivers on the roads these days but changing the driving age to 18 would not decrease the amount of people driving it would rather keep the amount of drivers on the road steady for about 1.5-2 years then the 18 yr olds that get their licenses would make the number increase again.

[Sircnay]

Hey, isn't that what I said?