Raising the Legal Driving Age

Everyone has felt that feeling where they cannot wait to learn how to drive and to get behind the wheel. Little do they know, driving causes a number of deaths every year. Teen drivers are involved in more car-related accidents than any other drivers. The minimum driving age should be raised from 16 to 18 because 16 year olds are more accident prone, 18 year olds are more experienced, and a 16 year old’s brain is not as developed as it is at 18 years old.

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

With a graduated license, teens will earn the experience they need to become skilled drivers. According to the text, “Studies show that it is inexperience, not age, that causes accidents.” Think about it: could changing the age from 16 to 18 really prevent accidents or just put more inexperienced adults on the roads? Teens make up 7 percent of all drivers, but are involved in 20 percent of all accidents. The reason being is that many teens do not have the road experience necessary to make safe driving decisions.

Teenagers are more likely to speed than older drivers because people have less developed brains at the ages of 16 or 17 than at 21 or 22. As a result, one in four teenagers are aggressive drivers and almost twenty percent of teenagers admit that they enjoy speeding, as stated in the New York Times. Drunk driving is a recent problem even among adults. Although drinking and driving is illegal, and drinking under the age of twenty one is illegal, twenty-five percent of all fatal car crashes caused by teens involve an underage drunk driver. Teenagers also have the lowest rate of seat belt use, and seat belts are the most effective way of reducing accidents. In addition, texting while driving is the number one cause of car accidents among teenagers due to the development of social media. This causes teens to drive while looking down at their phones, which can eventually put them in the hospital. Therefore, raising the driving age to 21 will prevent teens from dying due to car accidents-- the number one cause of teen deaths in 2013, according to the CDC Injury

Putting teens on the road at a young age as low as 15-16-years-old allows them to gain experience that will help them become more accustomed to the road when they get their driving licences at 18. As stated in the article, Teenage Driving Laws May Just Delay Deadly Crashes, it says “Many teenagers, rather than deal with the extra restrictions for 16-17 -year-olds, are simply waiting until they turn 18, and skipping the restrictions altogether. As a result, a greater proportion of inexperienced drivers hit the road” (40). This proves that teens who do not drive at 16 are more likely to get into car crashes, because they wait til 18 to avoid being restricted like the 16- 17- year-olds. Teens who skip the 16 -17-year-old restrictions are just starving themselves from gaining the early knowledge on driving that is needed to prevent fatal crashes. The same article also says that, “There have been 1,348 fewer deadly crashes involving 16-year-old

The article, "States Urged to Raise the Driving Age" says, "We are worrying too much about teen drivers and not enough about others who cause serious problems on the road. The intense focus on teens diverts our attention from the real threats to public saftey". Some of these threats include drunk driving, speeding, carjacking and texting while driving. There is too much emphesis on teen accidents while these threats are just as dangerous. Therefore, raising the legal driving age will not

Many people believe that 16 is much too young of an age for people to receive their driving license. While it is true that younger drivers are generally more dangerous on the road than other age groups, raising the age limit to obtain a driver's license will not assist in solving that issue. There are several things that teenagers do that require them being able to drive in order to do them. Kids being able to drive at the age of 16 may take some immediate stress off their parents shoulders by giving them some quiet time, and is it also an incentive for teenagers to be more social. Many teenagers also have jobs at the age of 16, and some go straight into the workforce after graduating at 17 or 18 years of age.

In 2014, 2,270 teens in the U.S. ages 16-19 were killed and 221,313 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes. State legislature should raise minimum driving age from 16 to 18 because of the immaturity level of 16 year olds, responsibility, and they would be older and have more experience. If driving age was moved up it would make the roads a much safer place to be.

“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.

Raising the driving age will cause more death to the older teen by them waiting until their 18 because if they wait they wouldn't have to go through the hoops young teen had to go through. Aubrey’s article states, “ 18 year old drivers increased, and they were behind the wheel and 1,086 more fatal accidents including 18 year olds.” Although scientist have found that 16- year olds have more fatal car crashes. 16 year olds have better experience then 18 year olds because some 16 year olds go through

At the age of sixteen driving is a coming of age- a transition from childhood to adulthood. With many things the older a child gets the more prepared they are but with driving it is not dependent to a certain age but rather experience. To many American families teen driving is undeniably a privilege. To receive a license as a developing 16 year old one needs guardian permission. If such activity is a privilege to begin with it should come with certain requirements and regulations.

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers today. Motor vehicle crashes kill between five to six thousand teenagers a

A few people may say that it is not fair to let adults determine if teens should drive, however, many teens actually agree with raising the driving age. A seventeen-year-old from Nashville, Liza Darwin, agrees that raising the driving age would benefit the public (Davis, p.249). Not only do teens support raising the driving age, so do many adults. A Gallup Poll found that sixty-one percent of people say that sixteen is too young to drive and only thirty-seven percent oppose raising the driving age (Davis, p.248). With almost two-thirds of society agreeing sixteen is too young to drive, it only makes sense to move the driving age and save a ton of lives which benefits

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.