The question has been asked," Should Virginia increase its legal driving age to 18, up from age 16?" As a teenager having many friends whose ages fall within the stated age range and because I am well aware of how my peers act, including myself, I totally agree that the legal age for driving should be increased to age 18. I believe that the typical teenager is not mature or responsible enough to handle the demands of safe and defensive driving. My grandmother and her friends often brag about having their licenses when they were 16 and while in the 10th grade. Then, as my mother has told me, other than walking, driving was the only way to travel in her small town. Driving was viewed as a crossover to maturity, a prerequisite of adulthood …show more content…
Driving at age 16 is no longer considered a passage to getting away from home, meeting and communicating with others. Driving is now like a dinosaur and social media is the newly found creature creating and demanding far too much attention. With that being said, I further my position that all states should impose a driving restriction until age 18 simply due to the preoccupation that today's teenagers have. Truly social media and is related technology have already proven to interfere with safe driving. Teenagers are attached to cell phones like babies attach to their marsupial mothers. The use of cell phones presents itself as a hazard while driving and we all know that teenagers are "always" on their phones regardless of where they are or what they are doing. The practice of cell phone use while driving has killed many and will continue to do so until old habits die out. Indeed, a 16 year old teenager is more preoccupied with his or her phone more than anything in the world; this attachment interferes with their daily functioning within the home, at school, at church and unfortunately, even while driving. Statistics show that most teenage driving offenses are now due to cell phone use more so than alcohol and illicit drug use The argument that counters my outlook is that the age of 16 has always been the legal driving
Young drivers should have to wait until they are 18 years old to get their license because 16 year olds are more likely to get in an accident than an older driver. One author said, “Sixteen-year-old drivers are the most likely to crash, so raising the age at which teens could get their license would save many lives…” (Rubin). Rubin gives a valid reason to why the minimum driving age should be raised from 16 to 18. If the driving age is raised, there would be less people involved in wrecks, which would help the world out as a whole. Even though 16 year olds are more accident prone than other drivers, taking 16 year olds off of the road would save the lives of everyone on the road. However, there are people who believe that the minimum driving age should not be raised because of various reasons. One article states that, “If they have to wait until they are 17 or 18, they remain dependent on parents practically until they are ready to go off to college, join the military or take a
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
Firstly, studies have shown that many of the crashes recent regulations for 16 year olds have prevented actually only happen two years later when there are no restrictions. As stated in the article Teenage Driving Laws May Just Delay Deadly Crashes by Anahad O’Connor, “there have been 1348 fewer deadly crashes involving 16-year-old drivers. But at the same time, there have been 1,086 more fatal crashes that involved 18-year-olds. The net difference is still an improvement, Dr. Masten said, but not quite the effect that many had assumed.” This shows that drivers are simply waiting to become 18 in order to skip the restrictions placed on the younger drivers. Knowing this, we ought to make regulations that encourage drivers to learn to drive while under these heavier regulations, so that they can get real on-the-road experience while not being in as much risk of
I understand that individuals want the driving age to be raised. Sixteen-year-olds can be very irresponsible and immature. There are also the safety concerns that can happen, for example, car crashes. However, I believe that the age requirement to drive should stay the same. Teens get the freedom they have been wanting. Teens are able to get jobs to help save up for college. Teens can also learn the responsibilities that come with driving or owning a vehicle. Therefore, what I am trying to say is sixteen-year-olds are responsible enough to
In the article “Raise driving age to 18 when teens are more responsible” by Alexander he talked about how roads would be a lot safer if we raised the driving age. It would give the kids s chance to learn more about driving safety and rules of the road. The issue of freedom for teens are not gone, they can easily take bus to school or have somebody older to them to school or work with no problem.
The achievement of a driver’s license is a rite of passage for a large number of adolescents and young adults in the United States. Societally, the driver’s license is representative of a key to the outside world, and, in some ways, it is also thought of as being one of the first steps into adulthood. This perceived importance leads numerous fifteen and sixteen-year-olds to obtain their license as quickly as they possibly can which can be dangerous. According to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS), drivers who are between sixteen to nineteen years old are at the greatest risk of being involved in a fatal crash, and sixteen and seventeen year olds also are at nearly twice the risk of eighteen and nineteen year olds. This has led some experts to call for a raise to the minimum driving age. While this is an understandable conclusion to come to, this is not necessarily the best course of action. There are other programs which can decrease the fatal crash rate, which can alleviate the crash concern. Otherwise, the ability to drive is, as stated above, an important step towards adulthood, and it provides maturity. Additionally, due to the lack of public transport or other safe ways to travel from place to place, the ability to drive provides younger Americans with mobility so that they can work, go to school, and also be with friends. For these reasons, the minimum driving age must stay at sixteen.
The legal age for driving is a constant debate that remains unsettled. Should the legal age to drive be higher than sixteen? If so, how high should it be raised? Would it really save lives? The simple answer is yes. Raising the legal driving age to twenty one would not only bring benefits like less congestion on highways, it would also prevent nearly thirteen million teen deaths each year. Currently, most states allow teens to acquire a driver’s license at the young age of sixteen. At this age, people do not possess the ability to properly handle a vehicle. The driving age should be legally changed to twenty one because teens are too irresponsible to drive, receive too much freedom and lack the proper instruction to be fully prepared to operate a vehicle.
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 driving age should resume to stay at 16, because high school is the time you need to start learning how to be independent as a young adult. This teaches the young adults at an early age, really big responsibilities that they will need to learn also in the long run. There will be times that you won't have anyone to drive you to a certain place that you need to be based on circumstances. By the time you are 18, you are considered an adult by then. If you are just learning to drive, how are you suppose to be comfortable going places without being afraid to be in an accident or cause an accident, because you never drove before? Raising the driving age won't save lives. It's inexperience, not age, that causes accidents. Raising the driving
With sixteen year olds driving there is a higher risk of accidents. Even though some sixteen year olds drive safe there is a big amount that does not. Therefore the driving age limit should be raised just by 2 years.
Some people may say that 16 year olds are to immature to drive. But if you think about it there are adults that can't drive. People like to say that teens like to text and drive or use apps. Well that is true but so do adults. And changing the age to 18 instead of 16 won't make that big of a difference. Honestly if the government would really think about it then they would see that 2 years really isn't going to make a difference. No matter how old you are you're still going to text and drive.
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.
Most states have developed a graduated licensing program which has proven to be successful it helps the young teens the importance of driving safely. Why is it important learning to drive is the first step of stepping into adulthood. (B) Instead of raising the driving age we should continue to implement programs which slowly gives more driving privileges to prove they’re safe trustworthy drivers. (C) It’s also been proven that zero tolerance cell phone use and driving curfew laws have also proven to be successful. If young teens are the ultimate cause of car accidents how come there are recent studies that say elderly drivers are the ultimate #1 cause of car accidents involving fatalities?.If teens have no how’re they going to get to there work on time also how’re they going to get to school on time to get there education and are not eligible to receive special busing privileges?. Teens should be eligible to receive their license so they can get to wherever they’re going on time.Also young teen drivers have to understand how dangerous driving can be and not only do they make it that way it’s the other drivers they have watch out for,Basically they have to watch thereself and the other
Although many auto safety experts assume most teenagers are immature to handle driving. Those teenagers are lack responsibility. Many high school teen drivers certainly concerned about popularity than safety. The state legislature should rise the age sixteen to eighteen because teens are more distracted easily by cellphone and other communication devices, increasing the driving age could less car accidents and rising the age of driving could save many tragic lives.
I believe, that the state legislature should raise the legal keep the legal driving age as it is. It would fully allow the said person to take on responsibility at the age of sixteen, and the experience of driving is with the driver before they are out on their own; either being with a job, or moving on to college. At sixteen, teenagers should be allowed to drive.