Poll: In the States you can have a drivers license at 16. That is much too young.

[neonsword13-ops]

I say yes because children in America do NOT know the value of responsibility and maturity at the age of 15 and 16.

It's kind of sickening.

 

[Zing]

16 is when you can get your learners in Australia too and it works fine. Not too early imo.

 

[Merkavar]

well in my expirence age doesnt seem to matter. people are retarded at all ages. i have a 56 year old aunt and she turns to talk to the person in the back seat while driving. 16 is not too early aslong as you teach them to drive responsibly and know the consequences. here you have to do like 120 hours os supervised driving before you get your provisional license, most people i know do like 5 hours and then forge the rest.

Yes, 16 may be too young to drive, but there are really no other options for students.

Taxi, busses, trains, walking, bikes.

 

[Saulkar]

I am Canadian and I think 16 is more or less perfect where it is. My primary concern is that not effective enough driver classes combined with an overly lax cultural attitude at times contribute to bad drivers. An ineresting thing happened in my driver's ed. There were these girls who treated the class with complete apathy and really did not care about any consequences of their actions when driving, seamingly irredeemable our driver's ed teacher did something incredible.

She played a home made tape showing a combination of photos and crash scene videos depicting the aftermaths of said collisions. Gore, bodyparts, and dismembered people clinging to life screaming. By the end of the video those girls were crying their eyes out and were seamingly paralyzed (though several guys were laughing at the video, assholes). Believe it or not after that video they took the class more seriously and ended passing driver's ed at the top of the class.

The moral of the story? Fucked if I know.

 

[Moromillas]

Well at 16, your brain hasn't actually finished growing yet, you don't always have to capacity to see around corners as it were. Based on that alone it's not a good idea, especially when it's not just the child's life on the line but also that of other motorists, other families. Yes, no two people are the same and this is something that would be case by case as to determine weather or not they should drive, but as a generalization, no it's not a good idea.

Edit: P.S. Why do people need this at 16? Where the hell are you gonna drive to at age 16??

 

[thenoblitt]

in idaho you can get your permit at 14 and your license at 14 and a half

 

[Chelsizzle]

It's not just 16 year olds who do stupid things on the road. A little unfair assumption there.

I'm 17 and take classes at the local community college. In all honesty, I need my license if I'm to get to class on time. I don't want to make other people drive me around.

 

[Jacco]

I would like to point out a glaring fault in your thought process. If she did hit you when she swerved the collision would have been about as much as a 5 mph collision. A dented fender maybe broken lights but thats about it. She may have lost control completly due to her not holding the steering wheel and inexperiance but you wouldve been fine. even if the speed traveled was 35 or even 65. reason is both of you were traveling in the same direction at the same relative speed so the only amount of speed between the 2 was the speed she made when she swerved and that would be about 5 mph at most.

How the hell do you figure that? The speed limit was 40mph where this happened. If she had collided with me, we would have both lost control of our respective vehicles. She would have spun into on coming traffic and I would have jumped the curb and wound up in a ditch. The actual collision wouldn't have been bad, its what that collision would have caused afterward that would have.

 

[orangeban]

Well, I think it makes sense to give them licenses before they start drinking, I mean, imagine a bunch of kids excited about being able to drink and being able to drive. Absolute CAR-nage (see what I did there?)

 

[infohippie]

I've long believed that the difficulty of the driving test should be greatly increased, and the chances of losing your license for driving badly should also be increased, to the point where there are only about half as many people driving as there are now. I also think there should be a mandatory re-test every few years. This would, of course, need to go hand-in-hand with improvements to public transport. Driving is a privilege, not a right, and every day on the freeway I see ample evidence that a lot of people (probably around half) should not ever get behind the wheel.
This would have the pleasant benefits of lower pollution, fewer accidents, reduced requirement for land to be set aside for parking and cheaper fuel as it would be less in demand.
I know this point of view will not be popular, but I really think it would be worthwhile.

 

[SeriousIssues]

Really? A much more reasonable line of thinking would be to make the tests stricter.
It's really fine though.

 

[Tomster595]

Ok, well, this is sort of misleading. I live in the US and the driving laws differ in each state. In my state, New Jersey, we have some of the strictest driving laws in the country. First, at 16 you can get a permit, which allows you to drive with 2 passengers so long as one of the passengers is a licensed driver over the age of 21. Keep in mind you can only get this permit if you have the money for driving lessons. Then at 17 you can get a provisional licence which allows you to drive, however you can only have one passenger, you can only drive between 6AM and 11PM, and you must wear a red decal on your licence plates. You only get a full unrestricted licence when you're 18. Personally I believe these laws, especially the ones regarding the 17 year old licence are excessive if anything. They definitely don't need to be stricter.

 

[mrdude2010]

i think there are responsible 16 year olds who can drive (i was a pretty good driver, for example), but yea, there are plenty of retarded fucknuggets who should never be allowed behind the wheel, especially no if they have a cell phone


edit: OMG I HAD NO IDEA THAT MANILLA MADE LIFE EASIER THANK YOU ESCAPIST FOR MAKING ME AWARE OF THIS AWESOME CORPORATION

 

[Loner Jo Jo]

Yes, 16 may be too young to drive, but there are really no other options for students.

Taxi, busses, trains, walking, bikes.

Where I live and in many other suburban areas in Virginia, there are no taxis, buses or trains. Like I said, no public transportation. Walking would not be possible for many students. For one, schools won't let you walk home at all, even with parental consent, if you live too far away. (I think they allow for a couple miles or something like that.) Also, it takes me 20 minutes to get home from my high school by car going 45 MPH all the way there. For many students, since our high schools have specialty programs, they live across the county. (To put this in perspective, my county has 13 high schools.) Also, there are virtually no sidewalks or bike lanes where I live either, and I'm certainly not biking down the main through-fair without either of those options. I meant it when I said there are literally no other options. Carpooling, I guess could be one, but that would still involve trying to find a parent who can drive to be free.

 

[C95J]

No, 16 is not too young. I hope to be driving this time next year, I am 16 now. I think I am responsible enough to learn how to drive.

 

[Urgh76]

I agree entirely.

I even had an essay written on this subject

 

[Senrab]

I've seen idiot drivers at the age of 30 or higher. Age doesn't affect stupidity.

 

[Denamic]

At 16, you're an immature moron.
They're overconfident, inconsiderate, stupid and rash and should not be allowed the responsibility of driving a vehicle heavier than a moped.

I've seen idiot drivers at the age of 30 or higher. Age doesn't affect stupidity.

It certainly does.
When you're younger, you are much less intelligent, biologically, than you are at a more mature age, say post 25 years old.
That an older person is an idiot just means he was even more of an idiot when he was younger.
Young people are just stupid.
Some are smart for their age, but most aren't.