Should teens be allowed to drive?

That's not confidence, that's arrogance. There is a difference. I'm all for pulling the licenses of old people as well. As a matter of fact, I have told my mother that I will pull her keys if necessary but I won't let her drive if I see that it is impaired. Guess what? She agrees with me. No one wants to be on the road with an unsafe driver, whether that driver is 16 or 86. Neither should be permitted to drive.

i just was reading our sunday paper this week, and they list the driving violations for the month. 90% of the drunk drivers were over 30! and most of them were on their 3rd or 4th tickets! teenagers are not allowed to drink (of course some will-not all), so the higher percentage of drunk drivers on the road are not teens. I know you must not have a teenager yet,. but ive had 3, and none of mine got any tickets for speeding or otherwise., but i will say that a drunk driver (over 40) killed one of our best friends several years ago.. so when your kids are teens-maybe you will have a different opinion. I also see many moms in mini vans, driving and talking on their cell phones..so there are many drivers out there besides teens to look out for. just an opinion, not an argument.

It doesn't matter whether or not I have a teenager yet. I have to share the road with them, that makes it everyone's problem. You may be lucky in that your children have never had a ticket or accident, that is not the case with every teenage driver out there. I, personally, would rather teens not be allowed on the road (just like the older folks I mentioned earlier in this line and those who chat on phone in another line farther down this page). There are a lot of problem drivers out there. Make it a law, no cell phones while driving, no driving if you can't pass the drivers test when you are 65/70/75/insert age here, and no driving before you are 18. Simple, make those dangerous thing illegal. You want to get mad about the drunk drivers, join MADD, contact your local police department, insist on more officers out on the road to stop the drunk drivers. There are consequences for driving under the influence. So far, there are no consequences for driving underage because there aren't laws prohibiting it.

Fine, everyone needs to start somewhere, let them start after age 18. There is no reason a teenager under 18 needs to be driving. There are school buses to get to and from school. Then, there's always a bike or your feet. I lived a mile outside of town, if I wanted to do anything I had to go a mile or more (even at that, it was 10 miles to the other side of town where the movie theater and all the good places were). I used my bike to get around. I didn't need a car. Cars are simply a status symbol to teenagers, that is the mindset of a teenager. Wait until a car is a necessary and then, just maybe, they will have learned to treat it with some respect. Until they can prove they respect what a moving vehicle can do, they have no business getting behind the wheel.

A car is not a status symbol for every teen. In my family, I needed to be able to get myself places. I needed to get myself back and forth to school. Because I did debate I had practices after school, so buses weren't an option. And in my town, it's hard to walk/bike places--everything is too spread out. My parent's schedules were so crazy that I needed to get myself to work, doctor's appointments, strings practice--you name it. I had an old car, but a reliable car. The trick is for parents to not give into their kids' stupid whims. Make the kids earn it. We got our cars at 16 because we had always made good grades and never caused trouble. We proved to our parents that we were responsible for a car. But simply changing the driving age won't make kids more responsible--that's up to the parents.

Teenagers are not known for concentrating on just one thing. LOL I know that some states have banned cell phones while driving but, unfortunately, TN is not one of them. The number of times I am out doing errands and I see/hear the teens in the car next to me, music blasting, talking on the cell phone, eating a cheesebuger and fixing their hair (usually all at once, LOL) is ridiculous. I won't talk on the phone while I'm driving. We don't use the drive-thru. I keep the music down (why burden others with my music?). And if I didn't have my hair done when I left the house, doing it in the car isn't going to help. LOL Most teenagers think of the drivers license as a right of passage. I believe the best thing we can do for our teens, is keep the lisence out of their hands and improve our public transportation systems. They do still have school buses that go to the local high schools right? Great, no need for a car there!

Thank you so much! That is a really great response. I agree. Thank you!

My mom made me learn so much about cars before I was allowed to drive. I had to know how to check the oil, change the oil, check the tire pressure, add air to the tires, change a tire, and check all the other fluids. Once I got my learners permit I was also required to keep up with the maintenance (I had to make sure that it got in for oil changes and tune-ups and such, my mother in the seat beside me as I drove us there, but remembering when it needed to be done was my responsibility). Also, once I did have my license and my mom's auto insurance sky-rocketed, I had to pay the difference, in other words, I paid my portion of the increase in her insurance (that was $900 for a 6 month policy). For me, a broke college student, that was tough to come up with, but I tutored to get the money. Luckily, my mom was nice, she paid it in full and let me pay in monthly increments. Also, I had the choice, a new used car or my mom's old car. If I chose the new used car, then I had to make the monthly car payments. If I chose my mom's old, paid off car, then I just had to make sure to keep it maintained (oil changes, tune-ups, etc). Needless to say, I chose to take my mom's old car. LOL I was careful after I got my license, I had to work too hard just to keep driving, I wasn't about to do anything to make me have to pay more. Guess what? It worked. Now, 10 years after I got my license, I haven't had a single speeding ticket or moving violation of any kind and the only accident I've been in was not even my fault, I was rear-ended by a teenager who was yaking on the cell phone and didn't see me stopped at the stop sign. Wonder what her insurance looks like now?