Changing The Driving Age To 18 Essay

For many teenagers in the United States their 16th birthday is an important milestone. This is the age that teenagers begin to integrate more into society as they begin to drive and experience new levels of freedom. As 16 is the usual minimum age for employment in most industries some teens even get jobs for personal reason or to benefit their household. The minimum age to acquire a driver's licence should not increase to 18 as younger teens will not be able to help provide for their families with current public transportation methods in the United States.

Every day teens are given access to automobiles. Every day these young people go to their jobs, classes, and athletic practices. Do they all abuse their driving privileges? No. Then why restrict all teens, including the law-abiding and mature, by raising the driving age? This debate reaches all across the nation, to all levels of government, and many related laws and propositions can be found. If the driving age is increased, teenagers will have more difficulty getting jobs and gaining experience. On the other hand, if the driving age is 18, new drivers will have more maturity. So the question remains, should the legal driving age be 18 years old? No, the current driving age

The big debate as to whether the legal driving age should be raised to eighteen is an ongoing issue. There are both arguments for and against this matter. Younger drivers, as well as old ones, can cause many life-threatening accidents; therefore, raising the minimum driving age could significantly reduce the number of accidents. The accident rates can be lowered considerably if the legal driving age is bumped up to eighteen. This would mean that no more kids could get hurt or worse, killed in a car accident.

"Just because of your birthdate, are you dangerous?" (Should Driving Be Raised to 18? by John D'Amico and Alex Koroknay-Palicz). Lawmakers and state legislators are considering raising the age for legal drivers from sixteen to eighteen. But doing so will bring more harm than good. First, cars are essential for transportation, and teenagers today desperately need that transportation.

As teenagers are leaving their homes, cities, and in many cases, states, to attend colleges, driving has become an integral part in a teen’s life. However, many states are putting heavy restrictions on teen drivers to keep not only them safe, but the rest of the community as well. But that has not been enough- teen drivers still are a major problem on the road due partly to their lack of mental development. This has pushed some states to consider raising minimum driving age, eliminating the whole problem of inexperience in drivers. The minimum age should not raised, however, because it will not help the issue of road safety.

Statistics show that ‘in 2011, about 2,650 teens in the United States aged 16-19 were killed’ and almost 300,000 teens were severely injured from fatal crashes. Every day, 7 teens die from car crashes/injuries. Newly licensed drivers who are aged 16-19 are at a higher risk of fatal crashes than drivers aged 20 and over. As well, many of these crashes are caused by teens that text, talk, or drink and drive. Inexperienced drivers, who are many 16 -19 year olds in the United States cause higher insurance, accidents and crashes, and so, the legal driving age should be increased to 18.

Some might say that raising the driving age wouldn’t allow teens to get the experience they need to become better drivers. However, co-driving and graduated driving programs both give teens experience without compromising the safety of others. In fact, since the first graduated driver programs were instituted, there has been 1,348 fewer deadly crashes involving drivers ages 16-19. Some states have strict driving laws that require at least 70 hours of supervised driving, a minimum intermediate license age of 17, driving after 8 p.m. or a ban driving on with other teens in the vehicle. Graduated licensing programs restrict these actions until teen drivers have more experience because teens in the first few months of licensure have a high risk of crashing.

“Driving mishaps can happen to anyone, but they happen all too frequently to teenage drivers because of their lacking significant experience behind the wheel…in recent years, safety experts, elected officials, and public policy experts have focused on strengthening such state laws with the goal of making the roads safer for teens. ” (Andrews, 2) New laws should be made to keep teens and the road a safer place.  The driving age should be raised to 18 to reduce many dangers.

teens 16-18 have the highest car crash rates of any age group. Currently the government is only taking precautionary measures. Even though drivers education and written testing are good, there's more the government can do. For such a major issue the government is doing very little to prevent it. The change begins with education. Once people know about the issue then there's more support for government involvement. The government should change the driving age to 18 because politically it would unify the United States under one age and reduce car crashes.

Many teenagers cannot wait for the day they grab ahold of their licenses. They think of many new opportunities they have waiting for them behind the wheel. Teens may use this opportunity for reasons such as driving to school and work or running errands. Yet, sometimes they can get a little careless and cause a safety concern on the road with other commuters. Therefore, the age limit should be raised to the age of eighteen.

12% of distracted drivers that get involved in fatal accidents are teens.If 16 year olds could not drive then there would be less accidents on the road. 16 year olds also cannot do a lot of things that adults can, this is for a reason and driving should be one of them.16 years old is too young to get a drivers license.

Young drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 experience high collision rates on roads, And this requires the need for raising the legal driving age to not have unnecessary injuries to our future generations. No parent or loved one ever wants to lose a child to an avoidable automobile collision caused by driver inexperience, preventable error, or carelessness behind the wheel. Additionally, the volume of traffic on US roads and highways alone causes intimidation among many experienced drivers.

Busy parents, a busy young adult life, and mature teens are why the legal driving age should not be raised to the minimum age of eighteen. Sixteen is a traditional milestone in a teens life, why would one want to take that tradition away? All the opportunities sixteen year olds receive driving would be ruined if the driving age is changes to eighteen, which could also ruin a teens future. Driving is an American rite of passage and the system for it is fine just the way it is. Let’s keep the age sixteen sweet and leave the legal driving age

The legal driving age is 16 for most states in the U.S. Experts say that most fatal car crashes are caused from drivers who are too young or drunk. They say 16 year olds lack the maturity and are more likely to be distracted while driving. However, many think that teenagers should be able to have the freedom to drive themselves to the movies and to their friends house. Parents also say it would be very good for their child to get a car so they wouldn’t have to drive their child and their friends every where. Parents have to go to work, not chauffeur their child everywhere.

The current driving age of sixteen is implemented in almost every state in the United States. Most states have become accustomed to the current driving age, but recently there are certain states that believe that the legal driving age should be raised due to various reasons. The main argument for most states is that sixteen-year old’s are not mature enough and lack the preparation to handle the responsibility to drive safely. Teenagers under the age of eighteen should be required to wait longer to get their license and should be more prepared before getting their license.