Thread: Feds May Raise Driving Age for Teens

Originally Posted by Breezin

Again I disagree, being responsible and being mature are two different things.

You can be a very responsible kid, but you are still a child with a child's perception of the world -- and immature.

Dang! I wish I had known that when I was 14, working to support myself, living on my own and going to school. Or hey, what about when I was 17, working to support myself, living on my own, paying my own medical bills and had to pay for a bus ticket for my mother to travel to where I was to sign papers giving permission for me to have a surgery that I was paying for on my own. Yeah, I had a lot of responsibilities...dang, how immature was I?

Have you ever looked up the definition of maturity? You can take 2 kids raised in 2 separate circumstances. One is mature and one is immature. The reason? The mature child was raised to be responsible while the immature child was raised with none.

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Back to the original point ... why does the Federal Goverment need to take over a STATE designation ?? Why don't they concentrate on enforcing EXISTING Federal laws .... like the ones covering Immigration ??

Cause we all know what a National Crisis underage drivers have become ??

Because the Federal Government is busy trying to take away ALL STATE RIGHTS. How else can we be controlled?

I think that is ridiculous, I would go for stricter testing, but 16 is a fair age for driving. At 16 I took college classes and worked after school and on weekends, I live in a rural community where I couldnt take public transportation, without being able to drive I wouldn't have been able to do any of that. I went thru drivers ed, and took defensive driver classes, maybe they should make it a prerequisite but I could not imagine not being able to work because I couldnt drive to work

Originally Posted by tngirl

Dang! I wish I had known that when I was 14, working to support myself, living on my own and going to school. Or hey, what about when I was 17, working to support myself, living on my own, paying my own medical bills and had to pay for a bus ticket for my mother to travel to where I was to sign papers giving permission for me to have a surgery that I was paying for on my own. Yeah, I had a lot of responsibilities...dang, how immature was I?

Have you ever looked up the definition of maturity? You can take 2 kids raised in 2 separate circumstances. One is mature and one is immature. The reason? The mature child was raised to be responsible while the immature child was raised with none.

I completely disagree, you can have 2 kids raised in completely the same circumstances and they one us mature and the other not, and more often than not it's the kid who was given too much responsibility that rebels.

You'd also be hard pressed to find many 14 year olds working to support themselves. Talk about the typical 14 year old.

Originally Posted by stresseater

Maybe it teaches her that not all laws are based on common sense. It doesn't take much common sense to realize what a bad idea it is to cut loose thousands and thousands of drivers on the general public who have only been driving for a little while unsupervised.

I disagree with this as well, kids become mature with responsibility.
I have 52 and 1/3 acres. MORE than enough room to teach a child how to handle a vehicle in a vast array of situations. You know what they say about people who assume, right?

so you don't have to follow laws you don't feel follow common sense so if the posted speed limit on a road is 30 and you feel that is silly you can go 60 ??

If you had 100 acres it still wouldn't give real driving experience with lights traffic and other crazy drivers to think otherwise is kind of silly.
AND P.S. I didn't make ANY assumptions -- what I actually said was "Let's be serious for half a second here how many people really have enough property to teach a child how to effectively drive a CAR, not a piece of farm equipment, well enough that it would be considered real road experience, with other drivers? " -- I didn't say that no one has that much property

You don't start driving lessons by dropping them into downtown L.A. or Midtown NY - you start with the simple stuff and work your way up. The differences between a rural community and an urban setting ... something you seem to refuse to recognise.

And - again - it is a case of the Federal goverment overstepping into States perogitives... something esle you refuse to recognise.

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

You don't start driving lessons by dropping them into downtown L.A. or Midtown NY - you start with the simple stuff and work your way up. The differences between a rural community and an urban setting ... something you seem to refuse to recognise.

And - again - it is a case of the Federal goverment overstepping into States perogitives... something esle you refuse to recognise.

But driving on a 52 acre piece of land is also not real life driving experience To say Ive been driving since I'm 13 but it's all been on private property means very little anyone can turn the wheel and hit the gas/brake pedals but it's dealing with other drivers. Name me a single state that is 100% rural??

Post script

if the kids licenses were only valid in their own state it wouldn't be an issue but a person could get a license at 15 and drive in a different state which is what changes this from a local issue as I said in my very first post

But driving on a 52 acre piece of land is also not real life driving experience To say Ive been driving since I'm 13 but it's all been on private property means very little anyone can turn the wheel and hit the gas/brake pedals but it's dealing with other drivers. Name me a single state that is 100% rural??

Which is why people use parking lots to create scenerios; why people have drivers' ed ....

The current system - permited drivers who can only drive during restricted times and with adult drivers allows them to gain RL experience on the road. The Feds are proposing a system with NO learning curve which simply sets inexperienced drivers out on the highway. A particular date on the calendar does not immediatley confer maturity and wisdom....

Post script : if the kids licenses were only valid in their own state it wouldn't be an issue but a person could get a license at 15 and drive in a different state which is what changes this from a local issue as I said in my very first post

And THAT is a valid point - if that is what the Feds wanted to address it would be a different issue. But they are taking what is a minor problem ( at best ) and using a sledgehammer approach

Originally Posted by Breezin

I completely disagree, you can have 2 kids raised in completely the same circumstances and they one us mature and the other not, and more often than not it's the kid who was given too much responsibility that rebels.

You'd also be hard pressed to find many 14 year olds working to support themselves. Talk about the typical 14 year old.

Funny, neither of my kids "rebelled" and you would be surprised the number of kids out there at 14 (and younger) that are having to do a lot (if not most or all) to take care of themselves. When you make something a blanket law it includes EVERYONE, not just those that are too immature or stupid to be driving or doing anything on their own. This law basically punishes ALL kids for the actions of the few. Most of the kids that I see driving around are safe drivers, but I don't believe the incidences of the crazy driver in teens is any higher than adults.

If you want to use the argument that teens don't have the experience to be driving in traffic, that argument stands true of anyone that starts driving at ANY AGE. My cousin didn't start driving until she was in her 40's, her driving scares me more than when I was teaching my kids to drive. Driving has nothing to do with maturity really, it is a skills thing and reflex. So, if we take all the teenagers off the roads then we need to take everyone over the age of 50 off the roads, also. As we age our reflexes tend to slow down.

I didn't get my license until I was 18. I think that's a fairly appropriate age. It worries me, these kids driving. My neighbor drove through his garage door while texting... Adults can't even drive w/ their cell phones (well some), there's no way a kid should be allowed this responsibility.