The Importance Of Graduated Driver's License

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

Maturity and rationalization is not yet achieved or experienced by teenagers. In the era of technology there are several distractions for drivers of any age to maneuver. Parents can play an educational role by enrolling their teen into a driver’s educational program. Some states require students to complete a comprehensive graduated drivers licensing (GDL) program prior to receiving their license. The brain function is still developing in teenagers and may impede the quick thinking process necessary to become a responsible driver. For the safety and welfare of teenagers the age requirement in Arizona for a driver’s license should be increased from 16 to 18 years of age.

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

In 2013, more than 2,500 teenagers died in the United States from motor vehicle crash injuries. Such injuries are by far the leading public health problem for young people 13-19 years old (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety [IIHS], 2014). Drivers are not the only ones at risk. Teenagers who are passengers in others vehicles make up a startling 87% of the fatality statistic. Lack of driving experience, disregard for traffic laws, and quick access to full driving privileges contribute to teen death. To reduce teen driving fatalities, successful completion of driver education classes provided by public and private schools should be mandatory for all teenagers prior to receiving their driving permit.

The driving age should stay at 16 because it gives teens freedom. It gives teens freedom because if they don't want to be around there parents they can just leave and go hang out with there friends. If the

We have implemented many ways in our society to decrease the amount of car accidents teens get into. Two of these ways are that you have to wait until you are 18 to drive and the other is the graduated license program. These are both effective ways to decrease the amount of teen car accidents, but they both have their pros and cons. Some people may prefer that you should wait until your 18 to drive, and others think the graduated license program is better. I personally think the GDL program is better than waiting until you are 18.

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.

Boo!yay! People are siding with GDLS or raising the age to get a drivers licence. First of all, studies show that raising the driving age doesn’t help prevent accidents because the teens don’t have experience when they first drive. Getting GDLS helps teens be more responsible with the cars and on the road. Raising the driving age could benefit parents and teens letting them know they are more mature.

“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.

Turning sixteen is a major turning point in a teenager’s life, you’re finally at the age where you are given much more responsibility and freedom than before. And the biggest responsibility is being able to get your license and drive. And being given the keys to a car means a teenager can move on from depending on their parents. That’s why raising the driving age from sixteen will cause much more harm than good to many teen’s lives. The legal driving age should not be raised, despite the many efforts by the government. There is no need to raise it, the positive effects will not come close to the negatives that come’s along with it, additionally teens need to get prepared for the real world, need to drive to get around, and most of the time car crashes are not even their fault. If push comes to shove their needs to be better driver education and standards to help teens to be more prepared to drive and improving graduating driver licensing. Graduating driver licensing(GDL) or restrictive licensing is a way that states regulate what a teen can do when they first get their license to limit the amount of crashes they get into and to keep them safe. Although the age differs from state to state the same general restrictions still apply. Which include determining whether a new driver can drive with passengers, and even having a curfew set for driving times. In Florida sixteen-year old cannot drive between 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Keeping them off the streets at night. They however cannot

How do we drop the number of teen driving accidents? Many people have asked this question, and some say that we should simply raise the driving age to 18. However, many people, including me, believe we should use a graduated licensing program (GLP). There is even proof showing that this method works. For example, one Current Events article reported that many states that have adopted this program have noticed a sizable decrease in teen car accidents. Also, while changing the driving age to 18 just changes the age of the inexperienced drivers, GLPs help drivers learn at a good rate. Finally, since most GLP programs require parent involvement , the parents can keep them safe while they in the middle of earning their license.

Raising the age was not an idea based on opinions. Over the years many people and organizations have recorded facts and statistics to support their claims. An example shown on CBS News, shows that “More than 5,000 U.S. teens die each year in car crashes. The rate of crashes, fatal and nonfatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59, according to the National Highway Safety Administration” (CBS NEWS). One huge influence on the topic was the Insurance Institutes for Highway Safety, they created a seventeen page memo filled with statistics and examples of how raising the age is a necessity. This is not the first attempt to use statistics to support the appeal to raise the age. The Seattle Times states, “The example the institute uses most prominently is New Jersey, the only state with a minimum driver's license age of 17. The report cited a study from 1992-96 in which the rate of crash-related deaths among 16- and 17-year-olds was 18 per 100,000 in New Jersey, compared with 26 per 100,000 in Connecticut, which had a minimum driver's license age of 16 and 4 months” (Willette). Overall the argument that raising the age will result in less teen deaths while driving is highly justified. There are frequent examples and a huge amount of research that proves that younger drivers are more likely to cause harm or damage than an older, more experienced driver.

Teens need to be taught that driving is a task that is complex and demanding. Parents know how much experience a young driver has, and they know exactly how inconvenient it is when they have to drive with their teen everywhere while they have their permit. Teens tend to cause most traffic accidents in adults’ eyes. They are not experienced yet, and often fail to pay attention to others on the road. They often think of a car as being some type of toy, but they do not know how powerful it really is. The driver education programs must be strengthened in order to make sure that students really have safer habits, behind the wheel experience, and by having a better understanding of all the laws on the road.

     The government has recently said that ever since graduated licensing started, there have been fewer accidents involving young drivers. Looking at it another way, it costs consumers less money, beacause fewer cars need to be repair. By having graduated licensing , there are fewer unexperienced young drivers on our roads. Also, insurance companies are a lot happier because they don¡¦t suffer too much by having to pay out claims. If there are