Should Driver’s License Requirements Be Changed?

Zoë Damessous

Driver Ed Online

Drivers Ed Essay Contest

31 July 2021

Should Driver’s License Requirements Be Changed?

There is no doubt that our primary mode of transportation, driving, is very dangerous. In the United States alone, driving claimed 28,190 lives in the first nine months of 2020 (“Early Estimates of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities”). Even so, many of us mindlessly coast on the highway, not consciously thinking about the legitimate dangers when trying to rush to a meeting or a date. Indisputably, with a lack of precaution and vigilance comes more risk of making negligent errors. With the increase of accidents in the past year, shouldn’t we be more careful? Taking the numerous fatalities of the past year into account, increasing permit and driver’s license requirements would promote safety and reduce the number of motor vehicle accidents.

Raising the minimum permit and driver’s license age would prevent many accidents. This is primarily true considering it would decrease the number of motorists occupying the street at a given time, but there are also factors associated with adolescent brain development (Romer). Teenagers in most states, bearing in mind they have a permit, can begin driving at the ripe age of fifteen (“Graduated Driver’s Licensing”). At the age of fifteen, during adolescence, the part of the brain responsible for judgment and decision making, the prefrontal cortex, is not yet fully developed. Specifically, teenagers particularly lack skill when it comes to assessing risks and their consequences appropriately. Scientists, Adriana Galvan and BJ Casey, believe this is the reason that teenagers often engage in risk-taking behaviors. Regarding driving, these risks can manifest in various ways, including, but not limited to, texting while driving, driving under the influence, and general naivety of the hazards of driving. Although some teenagers are more careful than others, the lack of development of the prefrontal cortex is present in all teens, therefore, all adolescents on average cannot assess risks as well as a person whose prefrontal cortex has fully developed. The prefrontal cortex fully develops at around age twenty-five (Romer). If lawmakers wanted to proceed with utmost caution then the legal permit age should be changed to twenty-five; however, this is not realistic since many would object considering that it’s ten years over the current permit age. Raising the permit age to twenty-one would be more feasible in terms of citizens’ compliance bearing in mind that it’s closer to the current age. Additionally, the familiarity of the age twenty-one could contribute to compliance since it’s the age that inhabitants of the United States can legally engage in other risky activities, such as smoking and drinking.

Making the written permit test and road test more challenging would also prevent accidents, thus fewer incompetent drivers would occupy the road. As it is now, the process of acquiring a permit and/or license is simple. In Mississippi, the written test consists of thirty multiple-choice questions regarding rules of the road and safety guidelines. Most people can select the correct answer by simply using common sense, if not aided by a quick Quizlet study session, and still pass. Although many people have some practice driving before getting their permit, whether it’s from driving in a parking lot or around their neighborhood, Mississippi DMVs do not require proof of skill (Department of Public Safety Driver Service Bureau). While it is not likely, this means just passing a simple quiz allows a person as young as fifteen the right to operate a vehicle that they need not have experience operating before, as long as someone twenty-one years or older accompanies and (hopefully) supervises them. To increase road safety, DMVs should at least require that the future motorist take a semblance of a road test or proof that they have taken a Driver’s Ed class in addition to the written test. Thus, every driver with a permit would have adequately proven their skill. Additionally, in Mississippi the road test typically only asks the driver to exhibit his/her ability to safely back up, signal, turn, and park (“The Ultimate Guide to Passing Your Mississippi Road Test”). Considering that a motorist with a license can drive independently, this method of testing does not require nearly enough to prove that they are capable of doing so. Instead, it should be mandatory that the test consists of several everyday driving skills in addition to the aforementioned skills, including, but not limited to, merging, yielding, and parallel parking. Doing so would prove each licensed motorist as responsible to appropriately maneuver through most situations while driving independently.

There will always be some aspect of danger to driving, but that does not mean that we should not constantly aim to make it safer. It’s important to remember how deadly it can be even though it is necessary. While permit and license requirements vary across the United States, the majority of them have minimal requirements. If we hope to decrease the number of annual motor vehicle fatalities, we need to make logical changes based on statistics and research. If the only purpose of the tests is to prove a driver’s readiness, then shouldn’t they do just that to the best of their ability?

Works Cited:

Department of Public Safety Driver Service Bureau. www.driverservicebureau.dps.ms.gov/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2021.

Early Estimates of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities – Publication Topic – CrashStats – NHTSA – DOT. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/#!/PublicationList/51. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021.

“Graduated Driver’s Licensing.” AAA Digest of Motor Laws, https://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/graduated-drivers-licensing/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2021.

Romer, Daniel. “Adolescent Risk Taking, Impulsivity, and Brain Development: Implications for Prevention.” Developmental Psychobiology, vol. 52, no. 3, Apr. 2010, pp. 263–76. PubMed Central, doi:10.1002/dev.20442.

“The Ultimate Guide to Passing Your Mississippi Road Test.” YoGov, https://yogov.org/dmv/mississippi/ultimate-guide-to-mississippi-road-test/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2021.