Raising The Driving Age Essay

Should U.S. States Raise the Driving Age?

Teenagers worldwide view the privilege of driving as a coming of age ritual. Recently, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has called upon states to raise the driving age from sixteen to seventeen, or possibly even eighteen years old. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, is a research group funded by the auto insurance industry. Research by the IIHS has shown that car crashes are the leading cause of death amongst teenagers. This group firmly believes that their evidence proves that raising the driving age will save many young lives. The statistics are alarming. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Traffic Safety Association, approximately one-third of all deaths for people fifteen to twenty years old have occurred from motor vehicle crashes. The vehicle crash rate for sixteen year old drivers is fifteen times that of drivers ages twenty to twenty-four. In 2007 alone, over six thousand young people, ages fifteen to twenty, died in motor vehicle related crashes (“The Facts: Graduated Licensing”). In the U.S., state licensing ages were established long ago. Many state’s laws
pertaining to minimum licensing ages back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Over the past few years, bills have been passed and laws have been made in order to better protect our young drivers. The Graduated Drivers Licensing Law has gradually gone into effect state by state. Currently, forty-four out of fifty states have some type of graduated licensing system. The GDL is a program designed to ease young, novice drivers into experienced motorists by gradually exposing them to increasingly demanding driving experiences. This program ensures that teens spend one year proving themselves as responsible drivers before they can receive an unrestricted driver’s license (The Facts: Graduated Licensing”). There are three stages of a graduated licensing system, each including specific components and restrictions to gradually introduce driving privileges to new drivers. Teenage drivers must demonstrate responsible driving behavior in each licensing stage before they can advance to the next phase of the system. Stage one is the learner’s permit which is generally obtained at fifteen years of age. Secondly is the initial licensing phase at approximately sixteen to seventeen years old. Lastly is the full licensing phase occurring at about eighteen years old. Each state may have their own individual provisions to the law, but the GDL is essentially the same across the United States (“The Facts: Graduated Licensing”). New Jersey is the only state in which a minimum age of seventeen is required to get a driver’s license. A report compiled by the IIHS cited that the teen motor vehicle related crash rate was significantly higher than that of Connecticut, whose minimum driver’s license age is sixteen years and four months (“Put Off Driver Licensure to Save Lives”). IIHS research has shown that the teenage brain, particularly the frontal lobe, does not fully mature until a person is in their twenties. The frontal lobe controls impulses, judgment, decision making, and coordination (Gregory). This is also partially their argument as to why the driving age should be raised. Do we, as a country, need to raise the driving age to better protect our youth?
There are mixed reactions from teenagers and parents alike. Most teens that have been posed with this possibility have had the same reaction as a whole. They are against it. By the age of sixteen, every teenager looks forward to being able to drive. Such a privilege is a milestone in a young person’s life. Driving a car seems to represent freedom and a new sense of responsibility. It is the view of these teenagers that age does not matter as much as practice and experience. Teens say that they need their own way to get around. They no longer want to have to rely on their busy parents for a ride to or from a job or school activity (“Auto Safety Group: States Should Raise Driving
Age”). Many parents seem to agree with their children. By this time in their kid’s lives they are also looking forward to a new sense of freedom; freedom from the daily task of chauffeuring their around. Parents say that they shouldn’t have to drive their kids from place to place until they are college age. The argument is that if we keep teens from driving, they will only be less responsible. Some states have recently revised their GDLs. The new revisions include doubling the number of adult supervised hours required behind the wheel in order to get a driver’s license and tripling the length of the time that a new driver must possess a learner’s permit. It seems to be the opinion of most adults, with the improved Graduated Licensing Laws in place, it is not necessary to raise the driving age (“Auto Safety Group: States Should Raise Driving Age”). It needs to be decided what the bigger risk is associated with young drivers: age or experience. If the bigger risk is immaturity behind the wheel, then it may be wise to delay licensing until a later age. If the problem is more a question of experience, then keeping the age requirements for a driver’s license as they are and keeping strict adherence to the GDLs may be enough. Anne McCartt, IIHS senior vice president for research, put it best when she said, “Apart from the effects of age or experience, delaying licensure reduces crash rates by reducing the amount young people drive” (“Put Off Driver Licensure to Save Lives”).