Name: Steven Glenn Hildreth
From: Fowler, Colorado
Votes: 0
Legality
and Reality
There
are many opinions on the current legal driving age in the United
States, there are two sides to this topic; the pro’s and con’s
which are argued upon and have many great reasons to support each
other. There are many people that believe the only reason why there
are accidents on the road are because of teenage drivers, but
actually most of the accidents that have been recorded are from the
elderly. There are many reasons as to why teens should be able to
drive at a younger age, for example; getting to school, going to
work, or even a family emergency. Everyone agrees that driving is a
huge responsibility and should only be a privilege to certain people,
but there are others that think that teenagers should be given the
choice to drive at a young age because the responsibility will start
showing in their daily lives and not only when on the road. The
driving age in each state in the United States should be lowered to
sis-teen because the experience that a six-teen year old has, will be
the same as an eight-teen year old driver. There are teenagers that
are inexperienced from the very start and will still get into
accidents and create bad experiences for more experienced drivers.
There are many other reasons why there should be younger drivers, for
Many
teenagers have had experience with driving under parental
supervision. Experienced drivers say that there is no reason why a
teenager should drive at such a young age because all teens are
irresponsible, although this is an opinion, there are some that have
an opinion based on facts, for example; “The bottom line is that
when we look at the research, raising the driving age saves lives.”
This shows prior knowledge to the matter, rather than being biased
towards teenagers because of what they hear from others.
Based
on recent statistics there are more parents that would rather have
their children being able to drive at a young age because it is a
stage of maturity. “Do we really want our kids dependent upon
parents for virtually everything until they go to college, can vote
and serve their country?” Learning how to drive is a huge
responsibility and is something that everyone needs to take serious,
whether you’re a teenager or an adult.
Driving
is the next big step in maturing and becoming an adult. Among other
things, institute researchers have compiled decade’s worth of data
from New Jersey, the only state that issues licenses at 17. Various
studies have shown that the overall rate of teens killed in crashes
in New Jersey has been consistently lower than in some nearby states.
Researchers have said, that the death rates for teens have dropped
even further since both states have started using graduated driver’s
license programs. Graduated licensing is a program that has become
the standard across the country in the past 15 years which, requires
teens to spend more time driving with a parent or other responsible
adult before they go on the road by themselves. Although these rules
are sometimes difficult to enforce, many states are using these
standards to help lower teen accident rates across the United States.
Lowering the legal driving age to six-teen would be useful for
teenagers because, not only will this grant teenagers to learn the
rules of the road earlier, it will teach them responsibility at an
early age and they will fully benefit from this alteration in the
law.
American
teens have age markers for important times in their lives, and two of
the most celebrated are when they begin to drive and when they reach
twenty-one. Driving is most commonly seen as a privilege that is
given to teenagers at eight-teen but at this age you will most likely
be out of high school and ready to start your life at college. At
six-teen there are many important things that students have to deal
with, such as; driving to school, going to work, running errands, or
having to deal with a family emergency. A car always comes in handy
to make daily tasks easier for the entire family. Everyone was a
teenager at one point in their lives and they also wanted to drive at
an early age. “Getting the highest of the high-risk drivers away
from the wheel probably isn’t a bad idea,”.
Recent
studies have shown that the main reason why teens get into accidents
in the first place is because they are inexperienced and do not know
how to drive. With the help of parents, teenagers are able to learn
the basics of driving and with practice these accidents can come to a
halt altogether. With the use of graduating licensing teenagers are
able to show that they have matured and are responsible enough to
show that they can drive on their own.
There
are many opinions on the current legal age for driving in the United
States, there are people that want the age increased and there are
others that want the age to be decreased. Driving comes with two
parts that need to be dealt with; maturity and responsibility. These
two are very similar because in order to be mature, you have to have
some level of responsibility. Once you are behind the wheel, you have
to take two things into consideration, there are scenarios that can
happen where your life can be lost or you can take someone else’s
life because you are driving recklessly and without a care. Although
there are teenagers that are neither responsible nor mature, there
are some that care about what happens in their lives. Many teenagers
learn how to drive with help from their parents or elders; this can
lead to teen accident rates decreasing across the United States.
There are many reasons why the driving age should be increased, and
there are reasons why the driving age should be decreased. The
driving age in each state in the United States should be lowered to
sis-teen because the experience that a six-teen year old has, will be
the same as an eight-teen year old driver. There are teenagers that
are inexperienced from the very start and will still get into
accidents and create bad experiences for more experienced drivers.
Accidents happen, and driving is an opportunity for a teenager to
become mature and be more responsible, provided they think about
their actions and what may happen.
