Kids and getting the driver's license....I just don't get it

[devilgear]

Yeah i tend to do that alot...haa

[Green71R/T]

Both my girls got their learners permits @ 14. Got driving lessons for their 16th birthday($600 lesson saves over $1000 per year on insurance).Each bought and insured their own cars before they were 17.They are good drivers and I have no problem riding with them.Around here if you want a good job you better have a licence.It shows you can be responsible and be able to get to work.My neighbors son is 23 and has no interest in driving.He wonders why he can't get a decent job.

[chargergirl]

Around here if you want a good job you better have a licence.It shows you can be responsible and be able to get to work.My neighbors son is 23 and has no interest in driving.He wonders why he can't get a decent job.
[/quote]
First good for your girls! Where you are having your license kinda does the same thing as finishing high school. It proves that you can stick with something and finish it even if it isn't your favorite thing. Every read want ads in which you can tell what happened to the last person...must be dependable, must have dependable transportation, must be on time and work without constant supervision. Just read an ad on Craigslist in the Pensacola area...it stated if you like to send funny emails, chat with your friends online, and have to be supervised constantly this is not the job for you!

[Mike DC]

  
Maybe teenage kids would want a license again if we didn't restrict all the social usefulness out of it until they're damn near 20.

Lots of states have so many additional rules on teens that the license is nothing but a choir.  They can't drive unsupervised, they can't drive with friends in the car, they can't drive after curfew, etc.  If the license is piled under all those rules then it essentially becomes nothing but a reason to have to get a job and taxi around younger siblings.  In a state like this, teens are allowed to use the driving privelige when it's useful to the adult world but not when it's useful to themselves.  



There is also more & more restriction against kids just BEING anywhere these days.  At least being anywhere that some business isn't making money off them.  They can't be in public areas/parks after dark, they get stopped by cops in a lot of places just for being on foot, etc.  There's not a lot of incentive to be "free" with a drivers license if you still can't go anywhere that your parents wouldn't drive you to anyway. 

 

And let's not even go into how crappy modern cars are.  Everything about them is cheap & crummy except the maintinence & repair bills.


   

[bordin34]

In NJ you get your learners permit at 16. But to get the permit you must pass the test and pay a driving school about $300 for six hours and all you do is randomly drive around, never really learning anything but the state says you have to. You then must be 17 and have had a permit for at least six months. When you are 17 the restrictions used to be that you could only have one non-household family member in the car and have to be off the road by twelve at night. On May 1st it was changed to one other person period, you have to be off the road by eleven at night, and you need these big red stickers on your license plate so the cops can easily identify and pull you over. When you are 18 you finally get a real license and can do anything.

[69DodgeCharger]

Man I guess times have changed. I drove my 69 Ford pickup to drivers ed and my buddy drove his 76 Duster. We were both in the same group of three students along wiht some girl who probably shuoldn't have been behind the wheel....ever. The instructor didn't like us driving to his classes but what could he do? Back then (June '81) the classes were still offered through the school at no charge. I think we were required to have 6 hours behind the wheel, although it might have been 8. Finished the classes got my permit and was mobile, at least with a parent until 16. I was so used to driving and being able to get around my small town I didn't get my license for about 2-3 weeks after turning 16. Work and school and everybody I hung out with were within walking distance.