kids...

[MattWCU]

I cannot express how much I hate 16-17 year olds with their tricked out Civics and Celicas. I'm driving on the PA turnpike today and some kid and his friend are driving like they are Jeff Gordan. Swerving in and out of traffic and doing it at ungodly speeds. I'm no saint on the road but you can tell how inexperienced they are. He switched lanes and obviously did not check his blind spot because he just missed hitting a car. I'm only 20 so i'm no adult but I seriously would not be opposed to a law making kids wait untill they are 18 to get their license. I'm guilty of doing dumb stuff on the road but this kid was just being totally ridicoulous.

[Tygerr]

agreed.. but i did my fair share of stupid stuff as well. honestly.. just getting your drivers license is like.. the most awesome thing in the world. MOST people gain a lot of knowledge and experience when they've been driving for 3 or 4 years though.

[stunna]

i don't really understand the logic behind pushing the driver's license age back 2 years...i think the result would be so insignificant, that it'd be hardly worth the hassle of having the teens drove around for 2 years by someone older..would you have wanted your parents driving you around to dates/dances/etc when you were a sophomore/junior/senior in highschool?...i think that's a pretty vital time during your life that shouldn't be removed...whenever someone suddenly has the privelege to do something that they've never done before, (driving, drinking, etc..) it's kind of human nature to push the limits a little bit...eventually, alot of people mellow out sometime after they get a ticket or have a hangover...if people start getting licensed at 18, alot of them will just be leaving their households to start their adult life (a time when they decide the majority of the rules)...so wouldn't it be better for people to have their licenses at 16 so their parents can make the rules and punish them accordingly?

[gyger]

Without a license at 16 how would you hold a job on the weekends and after school.

I do agree though I hate 16-17 year old drivers I have never seen or met one that
was a responsible driver.

[LostRacer]

What difference do you think that 2 years is really going to make? The mentality will not have changed that drastically. Being new drivers its just going to take them the extra time to still get use to the driving experience. You're just postponing the inevitable.

[CougarKid2004]

all you are doing is keeping them off the roads, kinda dumb if they need the experience dont ya think?

[Fett]

It isn't a matter of two years....it is a matter of WHICH two years. Some will argue that the difference between a 16 year old and an 18 year old is not that significant...but I think it is. Not because of the 2 year difference, but the mindset of the two ages.

At 16 you are much more easily swayed by peer pressure...where as an 18 year old has typically found their place and is less likely to do something stupid to impress someone.

However, I agree 100% that simply raising the age limit will do nothing to make roads safer. I do believe some laws should be put in effect though.

At 16 you car get your learners permit, where you can only drive during daylight hours, and ONLY with a licenced adult at least 25 years of age. You can NOT drive alone.

At 17, IF you have had your permit for a year, you can get your restricted licence. You can drive up until 10pm at night, and you may drive alone....but you can NOT drive with other teenagers in the car. Meaning you can drive yourself to school and work, but you can not take a friend along. ALL passengers must be 25 years of age.

At 18 and WITH a high school diploma or GED, AND two years driving experience, you can get your unrestricted licence.

That makes more sense to me, because it gives kids freedoms....but it keeps them safer. A 17 year old kid is less likely to get into a race if he is alone....where as if he has a car full of friends he is trying to impress, he is more likely to do something stupid. How many times have you read some sad story about some 17 year old kid who dies in a car he is driving with no passengers because he was doing something stupid? Not nearly as often as you hear about some 17 year old kid wiping out five of his friends who were crammed in the back of his Civic....as he was doing something stupid.

[J-Man]

Originally posted by: gyger
Without a license at 16 how would you hold a job on the weekends and after school.

I do agree though I hate 16-17 year old drivers I have never seen or met one that
was a responsible driver.

i like to think that i am a responsible driver. my driving record is completely clean, i have not even been pulled over once.

while most "kids" my age are irresponsible, there is a select group who are actually respectable in their driving abilities.

[Fett]

To any teenagers out there reading this....yes, I implied that you are stupid. Not in a bad sense.....we were ALL stupid at that age. I think back on my teen years and I did a TON of stupid things in my car. We all do it, it's not like we mean to....we just don't know any better. And at 17 years of age, I would have been against ANY restrictions on my driving.

But somewhere between 17 and 32....you start seeing the world differently. :)

[Fett]

Originally posted by: j99coug

Originally posted by: gyger
Without a license at 16 how would you hold a job on the weekends and after school.

I do agree though I hate 16-17 year old drivers I have never seen or met one that
was a responsible driver.

i like to think that i am a responsible driver. my driving record is completely clean, i have not even been pulled over once.

while most "kids" my age are irresponsible, there is a select group who are actually respectable in their driving abilities.

Don't take anything in this thread personally.....nothing said is directed at any one person. Rather the collective teenager in America.

Of course there are teenagers out there that are much wiser than many adults. But typically and generally, there are a ton of problems with young, inexperienced driveres out there today.

[J-Man]

fett i didnt take anything personally. i actually agree with you, because you are right. drivers in my age bracket generally suck.

i was just pointing out that not all of us suck.

[whiteboy477]

Just to get my 2 cents in, Yea kinda that are 16 and 17 are stupid as hell and I am 17 so I think that I would know but making us wait 2 years to five would make life hell. I think that at the age of 15 you should get your permit like it is right now. At 16 your should be able to get a restrictive license that says you can not drive past 12:00 and you can only have 1 passenger in the car with you. at 17 it should be that you can have passengers in the car and you can not drive from 1 till 5. at 18 you get your full license

[Meoww]

$.02 In my old state they made you wait two years with a permit before getting your licence. you got the permit at 16 and lisence at 18

[OJE]

I dont really think there is a point to raising the age either. I think it all has to do with experience. I didnt start driving until a few months before i was 18, i still did my fair share of stupid stuff and i dont feel i was any better/worse of a driver than any 16 year old out there.

[EricF]

Its all the parents fault.
Parents and other adults put it on the state to make up silly
laws that would otherwise be
unnecessary if parents would do the parenting

[MrPoo]

I think it does vary from person to person. IMO though I hate most teen aged guys in general. Every thing is a pissing contest to them. Gives the .03% of non-[censored]s a bad name. Where I live it usually continues into the mid/late 20s. I'm only 21, but i've felt this way for several years now. I also am married with 2 little boys. Am I saying I'm an adult? Well, legally yes, but being married with kids didn't make me that way. I just think most young guys need to stop thinking with the litlte head.

[Hytu]

You know honestly, Ive been hit by more elderly people than younger kids. But 90% of the time you will see highschool aged kids doing the reckless driving.

In fact my wife got hit by another 60+ woman the other week. then the elderly woman complained that she was going to miss her hair appointment.

I have even done dumb stuff when i was younger like back into a light pole with my truck trying to be a stunna.

[J-Man]

i love when old people pull out in front of me causing me to lock up my brakes, and hear that oh so awful noise of squealing tires.[no abs] when this happens it just makes my day.:rolleyes:

[99LazerRedMD]

Originally posted by: whiteboy477
Just to get my 2 cents in, Yea kinda that are 16 and 17 are stupid as hell and I am 17 so I think that I would know but making us wait 2 years to five would make life hell. I think that at the age of 15 you should get your permit like it is right now. At 16 your should be able to get a restrictive license that says you can not drive past 12:00 and you can only have 1 passenger in the car with you. at 17 it should be that you can have passengers in the car and you can not drive from 1 till 5. at 18 you get your full license


IN Maryland we have that restriction...but I know that me as well as my friends didn't care about the restriction. But when it was passed 12 we watched are butts because we always had that fear of getting caught and having to start our provisional over.

I think that after a year with a newly licensed driver then they should have the privledge to have someone under the age of 25 in the car. A teenager will learn how to drive more responsibly by themselves rather then the peer pressure from their friends.

[ice992]

Originally posted by: Fett
It isn't a matter of two years....it is a matter of WHICH two years. Some will argue that the difference between a 16 year old and an 18 year old is not that significant...but I think it is. Not because of the 2 year difference, but the mindset of the two ages.

At 16 you are much more easily swayed by peer pressure...where as an 18 year old has typically found their place and is less likely to do something stupid to impress someone.

However, I agree 100% that simply raising the age limit will do nothing to make roads safer. I do believe some laws should be put in effect though.

At 16 you car get your learners permit, where you can only drive during daylight hours, and ONLY with a licenced adult at least 25 years of age. You can NOT drive alone.

At 17, IF you have had your permit for a year, you can get your restricted licence. You can drive up until 10pm at night, and you may drive alone....but you can NOT drive with other teenagers in the car. Meaning you can drive yourself to school and work, but you can not take a friend along. ALL passengers must be 25 years of age.

At 18 and WITH a high school diploma or GED, AND two years driving experience, you can get your unrestricted licence.

That makes more sense to me, because it gives kids freedoms....but it keeps them safer. A 17 year old kid is less likely to get into a race if he is alone....where as if he has a car full of friends he is trying to impress, he is more likely to do something stupid. How many times have you read some sad story about some 17 year old kid who dies in a car he is driving with no passengers because he was doing something stupid? Not nearly as often as you hear about some 17 year old kid wiping out five of his friends who were crammed in the back of his Civic....as he was doing something stupid.



Thats like NJ law to the tee lol...

[99CouGSweetRide]

isn't the driving age in Europe like, 14? Also I've read somewhere that you learn how to drive manual tranny cars first in driving school.

Mike

[theandysho]

18 here, so in the crossfire...

Yes i know people who are idiots, and share your feelings. I have also seen 80 year olds who do 30 mph on the freeway. There are standards and exceptions to the rules on both sides, so we'll never have a "perfect system".

There are 20yr. old kids in ricers that act like morons. There are 30 yr. old women on cellphones in SUVs that are a foot taller than they are. There are 40 year old business guys who drive bat-out-of-hell on the freeway in a BMW with 30-day tags. There are 50 year old blue-collar steel-mill guys in Escorts, so they can provide for family. There are 60 year old retirees in new Corvettes and Mustangs. There are 70 year old grandpas in Lincolns and Cadillacs.

It's an imperfect world. Let's try to make the best of it.