Driving age laws

A lot of kids live in rural areas that don't have public transportation and don't have school buses. I live in the city and we don't have any public transportation. There are as many responsible kids at 16 as there are adults that also drive irresponsible. I see a lot of adults not using the turn signal and driving carelessly. I would rather have my 16 year old driving than riding the school bus. I do admit that some kids drive really crazy and so do some grown adults. by the way do you have a drivers licence and what age did you get it?

This would be very inconvenient for many reasons. I can understand the concerns, but there are a LOT of 16 and 17 year olds that DO need to drive. I started going to college at 16/17 and if I hadn't been able to drive then I would've been really screwed because no one was going to drive me an hour to college and back 3 times a week. Not to mention that I moved out of my house at 17 when I graduated high school and moved to a new state 800 miles away, so you can imagine how bad it would've been not being able to drive in that situation. And there are quite a few people that graduate at 17 like myself. And just because you think that a lot of 16 and 17 year olds don't work doesn't mean that you need to make it impossible for those of us that do to get jobs. It also depends where you live. I live in the back country, a small town/village, and about 1/2 of the children around here have jobs at 16 and about 3/4 have jobs by the time they're 17 or 18. And because we live in a place that's so small, there isn't any sort of public transportation except for school buses and even those don't go down all the roads that students live on. And I'll grant you that a lot of 16 year olds are immature when it comes to driving, but not all. Then again, a lot of people 18 and older are rather immature when it comes to driving, too, and I've seen more people 18 and older act stupid in cars than 16 and 17. But, then again, that might have something to do with where I am and it depends on the sort of people you're looking at. I do feel that 15 is too young, though. I think 16 is a pretty solid age. I've known people that get their license at 15 and nearly all of them are definitely not ready to have it.

Well, I'm not familiar with the minimum age for driving in other countries, but in my country, the minimum age for obtaining a license and driving is 18 years old. I will say that it really depends on each individual country, and also the mentality of the driver when they obtain the license. Some 16 years old teenagers may be mature and responsible enough to drive properly, while others may be reckless. I don't drive, but I had seen the way some of the middle aged people driving more recklessly than the younger ones. They do not follow the traffic rules, and speed on the road, and also switch lanes without giving any signal... They sometimes even like to tailgate other people's cars. In my opinion, these people are even more dangerous than the younger drivers. For my country, I do believe that the minimum age is justifiable, given our public transport system, and small country. However, for United States, I had read others' comments that teenagers entering the college at 16 / 17 will need cars as a mode of transport during their college years. Well, I guess as long as they do know their responsibility on the road, and extensive testing is enforced before they can get their license, there's no need to change the law. However, I think it will be better to standardize all to the age of 16 years old...

Hi meandmy3! Can we make this law you are proposing worldwide? Globalized? I absolutely agree that teens are not supposed to take the wheel. Driving requires a certain maturity. Teens tend to drive for the pleasure, speeding through the streets. They do not understand yet that driving is done only to get one to his destination and back. There are, however, mature 18 year olds. You are correct again in requiring rigid exams for a license.

hai mylotters the age for driving should be increased as a 16 year old youth are driving the vehicle with speed which cause accidents and creates pollution by emitting smokes when the vehicle is ridden with high speeds