Let teens drive before their 18 birthday, would it be a good idea?

United States
October 2, 2011 8:48pm CST
I just don't know whether it is a good idea let those teens drive before their 18 birthday, even though with parents supervision in the car. In our state, teens can apply for driver's permit at the age of 16, and they must be under the supervision of a custodian, or parents in the car. Or when they reach their 18 birthday, they can drive on their own, independently. But what I think is, even though they are reached their 18 years old, they still are immature at some point, and they are still less experience on the road. So, even though they are allow to drive at age 16, they still need to drive on the road to see what it is really like, to experience the danger of it, and to know how to avoid unnecessary accident. Even though some people oppose the legal driving age at 16, it might be the same for the age 18.
8 responses
@inertia4 (27961)
• United States
8 Oct 11
I think that getting your permit at 16 and having a licensed driver in the car with you is very good experience. I feel that doing it that way is great so by the time they are 18, they will feel much more comfortable behind the wheel. I know some people that are in their 40's and 50's that are lousy drivers. So, I think 18 is a good age as long as they have those few years experience.
@anklesmash (1412)
5 Oct 11
In the UK we can start driving at 17 and once we have passed our driving test we are allowed to drive alone before you can only drive with someone over the age of 21 who as been qualified for 3 or more years.So dependent on how long it takes them to learn they can drive alone before they turn 18.I drove alone before i was 18 i understand your point about under 18s lack of experience but i only started to become experienced was when i passed my test and started to drive alone.
@GemmaR (8517)
3 Oct 11
I live in the UK, and people are allowed to drive from the age of 17 here which I think is simply far too young. Seeing as young people now have to remain in state education until the age of 18 (up from 16) there is no reason at all for people to need to learn how to drive before they reach that age. So many crashes are caused by new drivers who just get too excited, and there would be a lot less pollution in our atmosphere if we were able to reduce the number of people who are on the roads these days. Public transport links should be made better so that people don't need to shell out that amount of money on a car.
• United States
3 Oct 11
My son got his permit at 16 and kept it over a year but didn't go for his license he was just not motivated. He had to renew and is now 18 and just got his license. He is happy but wants a car but I can not afford and he does not have a job because he is in college. 16 is ok but it has to be a responsible 16 year old.
3 Oct 11
In my case, I drove way back 2006. Now I'm 17 years old. I started on a manual transmission then we sell the car and bought a automatic transmission, coz its much easier than the other one. I really enjoy that experience, passing grown ups on the highways and getting really pissed on heavy traffic and I never been caught by cops or any highway patrol. But on the other end its kinda an achievement to try something when its not yet meant do be done on that time.
@Ayeth22 (66)
• Philippines
3 Oct 11
Hi Kingparker Underage such 16 years old usually are not advisable to drive with out the provision of the parents. Usually here in my country 16 years old are released by a student driver license means they can drive through the profession driver. Yes they can still drive as long as there is someone to be with them to guide them. Because 16 yrs old we consider it as a beginner and as a begging they knowledge is not enough to know everything about driving. And better to alert than late.
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
3 Oct 11
I think it is okay to let them drive at 16 if they are mature and responsible enough to be a good driver.
@safety69 (592)
• Taiwan
3 Oct 11
I think that they can learn to drive at an early age , but , they should be more than 18 years old to apply for a driver license. It is good for them to learn how to drive so in some cases of need they could do it , for example my son is 9 years old and he is getting curious about how to drive ,when we gets in the car he likes to on the car and asks me questions about driving , thats good I like that actitud from him, but , I dont think I would let him drive by himself so early.