Now or Later: Learner’s permits should be allowed at the age of fourteen.

         There is a rite of passage for when you turn sixteen, and that is getting behind the wheel of your first new-old car and driving. A learner’s permit is defined as “A document that allows a person to learn how to drive a car” (Britannica Encyclopedia). A learner’s permit is a requirement to obtain a driver’s license. When growing up in Nebraska all my friends and family anticipated the day we would turn fourteen, because that is when we could get our learners permit and be one step closer to driving on our own. The age of which a teen should be allowed to get their learners permit is a topic that states cannot agree on. The earliest age that a state has to for a requirement to get learner’s permit is fourteen years old. In some of the states where you get a learners permit at younger ages; you can get a permit where you can drive on your own without having a driving adult supervisor in the car with you. Now having lived in two states that have different rules about when teens should be able to start driving, I’m on the side that you should be allowed to get your learner’s permit at the age of fourteen.  

         Living in rural America, and having to travel more than fifteen minutes to school was always a must for my friends and I. If that meant riding the bus for a minimum of forty-five minutes or having to have our parents leave work early to come and pick us up from school. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2021 71.2% of mothers with children under the age of eighteen were a part of the workforce, and 92.5% of fathers with children under the age of eighteen were a part of the workforce, either working full time or part time. So, with living in the rural area and with most parent being a part of the workforce some states have come up with a permit that a teen can drive themselves around without a driving adult supervisor along in the car, as long as they have passed drivers education, behind the wheel, and completed the mandatory driving practice hours just like the other states have set up to get a driver’s licenses and or taken the behind the wheel test at the DMV. The permit is called different things in different states and have different age restrictions on when you can obtain that certain permit.

         In the state of Nebraska, the permits title is a school permit, and you must have had your learners permit for a minimum of two months before being allowed to get a school permit and the earliest you can get the permit if fourteen and two months old, and you can only drive to school and school events with just family members in the car (Driver’s). With that you also have to live in a city of 5,000 people or less, or your school has to be located in a city of 5,000 people or less. A very similar way Iowa also calls it a school permit, but you have had to hold your learners permit for six months before getting your school permit. As well as that you have to live a mile or more from the school you are enrolled at (Under). Another state that allows teens to get a school permit is North Dakota. North Dakota calls the permit a minor’s driver license or a provisional license restriction. To qualify for a minor’s license, you have to be at least fifteen, and have completed drivers ed and fifty hours of practice driving time successfully; you also will have had to have held your instructions permit from age fourteen to age fifteen (Apply). Likewise, to North Dakota, South Dakota has the same requirements to get the restricted minor’s permit.

         The state of Minnesota has the age requirement for getting your learner’s permit at fifteen and there is no permit that allows a teen to drive on their own before turning sixteen, but there is only one exception to that rule, and it is a farm work license also known as a farmer’s permit. A farmer’s permit has the same requirements as getting a driver’s license at the age of sixteen or later. But unlike school permits, a farmer’s license is restricted to only farm work during daylight hours and as long as it is within the forty-mile radius of the farm. So, with states having permits available that let teens start driving before turning sixteen, helps relieve the stress of parents in the struggle to figure out ways to get their children home.

         When looking at the average from the last ten years from South Dakota of the reported traffic accidents it averaged out to be 17,900 reported accidents each year (Annual). As well when looking at the Nebraska reported traffic accidents for 2020 there were 29,418 reported accidents (Nebraska). One thing to note is that Both Nebraska and South Dakota are states that allow teens to drive unsupervised with some sort of restricted permit before turning sixteen. Then when you compare Minnesota’s reported traffic accidents for the year 2020 was 57,127 reported accidents. Which is almost double of the reported accidents of the states that allow driving unsupervised with some sort of restricted permit.

         With now knowing some of those statistics I think it also helps show that getting a learners permit at a younger age helps prepare drivers to get out on the road and when they are fully released to drive where they please they are ready for all road conditions. People do agree that we should be taking more time to learn to drive before getting a driver’s license, but instead of lowering the age to fourteen, they think that the age should be raised to eighteen. In an editorial from Post-Bulletin titled Delay in teens driving isn’t necessarily a bad trend, says “Studies in the past decade have revealed that areas of the brain involved in rendering judgments and making decisions aren’t fully developed until age 25 — which points to the likelihood that many cellphone-owning 16-year-olds simply aren’t mature enough to make always make the smart choice when they hear that “ding.””, Which is talking about how that teens are distracted very easily and when we get the notifications from out phone when have the temptation to look at our phone and get distracted taking our attention away from the road.

         In an article Should The Driving Age Be Raised To 18? from the National Motorists Association Blog, it says “Will raising the age to 17 or 18 give a kid more experience — or less? Maybe the age at which we begin to train kids to drive should be lowered, not raised. Does it make more — or less — sense to toss a kid with zero hours behind the wheel a set of car keys at 17 or 18, when he is inches away from being legally free of any parental oversight whatsoever?” (Peters). It poses the question of whether it makes sense to give keys to a teen that is about to become a legal adult that has almost zero driving experience, and the answer to that is no. It is not that age at which we should be allowed to drive but the amount of experience a person has behind the wheel and on the road. So instead of raising the driving age to then lower the age to get a learner’s permit, so then more time is being spent on learning and gaining experience so when it comes time to drive on our own that we are ready and prepared for most situations that come our way.

         Another thing the article Should The Driving Age Be Raised To 18? from the National Motorists Association Blog about is that having our parents teach us how to drive is a part of the reason that the traffic accident rate has gone up in the 2000’s. It talks about how we should start learning how to drive at fourteen and fifteen and gradually introduce it so then when we hit the age of seventeen and eighteen we are ready. “That’s actually the way it used to be done, until public institutions such as public schools took over from parents and the whole process became bureaucratized and officialized — but with less than stellar results” (Peters). This refers to how drivers’ education used to be. Nowadays in some states parents can teach their kid on their own without having to take a driver’s education which just required more practice behind the wheel drive time with parents. Whereas drivers’ education used to be a class in high school that everyone would have to take, and it produced great results. It produced great results because kids were being taught good driving habits from professionals who taught the class. Rather than when parents teach their own kids to drive it yields poorer results that is because “Many parents set poor examples — or are simply ill-equipped to properly instruct their kids in safe/competent driving” (Peters).  I have not been in an accident myself but some of my family members have been in a car accident, and luckily there were no major or minor injuries. But if they had more time to get experience behind the wheel and gotten to learn how to drive from professionals to learn good habits there may have not been an accident at all. 

With all of the supporting information I believe that the age to get a learner’s permit should be lowered to fourteen. With the traffic accident rate for Minnesota being almost double then some of the states that have a lower age requirement for learner’s permit. As well as that there is a topic of argument that the age to get a driver’s license should be raised up to eighteen, but in reality, you should start learning sooner than later. There is a rite of passage for when you turn sixteen, and that is getting behind the wheel of your first new car, an old car and driving. A learner’s permit is a requirement to obtain a driver’s license. The age of which a teen should be allowed to get their learners permit is a topic that states cannot agree on. The earliest age that a state has to meet the requirements to get a learner’s permit is fourteen years old. I side with being able to obtain a learner’s permit at the age of fourteen and I hope that soon others can be persuaded to think that too.