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MA Lawmakers Draft Bill to Increase Driving Age to Highest Level in the Nation
By Mechlogs.com
Pennsylvania
Published: Tue, Apr 18, 2006
On the road to adulthood and being a contributing citizen, there are three
rites of passage that are key, employment, driving and voting. The learners
permit is a key step in becoming an active, self-sufficient citizen, while there
may be employers within walking or bicycle distance, most people gainfully employed
in the United States have a commute that averages 22 minutes one way. Many teens
find themselves at their first job in the restaurant and service industry. Where
I come from, a large percentage find their first job at the area's largest supermarket.
My first 'real' job was seven miles from my home, at a restaurant. This would
not have been your average bike ride. At least two miles are what seems to be
straight up hill, with traffic whizzing by at 55 mph. A few years ago, Pennsylvania changed the age that driver's may be licensed from 16 to 16 1/2, later citing a 40% reduction in fatalities among 16 year olds. This is faulty logic to present the success of a program. If 16 year olds are spending half the
amount of time driving as they did before, anything less than a 50% decrease
in fatalities would actually be a statistical increase in the frequency of deaths.
In this case, a 20% increase, the exact opposite of the goal, this was only a six month increase, whereas the MA bill would increase the age by another year. Safety is a great concern, and very understandable. The majority of accidents
involving teens can be put in two categories, inexperience and immaturity. We've
all met people well into their 20s or 30s who are still very immature. Unfortunately,
there's little the state can do to regulate maturity. Inexperience can easily
be addressed however. If this bill concerns you, please write your senator or representative to express your concern.
Lawmakers in Massachusetts are considering raising the age for a permit from
16 1/2 to 17 1/2. At the time of this writing, we do not have the actual text
of the bill, but the most descriptive information is available from the Holbrook
Sun. We understand lawmakers, insurance companies and citizen's concerns
with 'new' drivers. But raising the age for a permit is the wrong way about
it.
Doing so limits soon-to-be adults opportunities for work, school and extra-curricular
activities. Boston has a good mass transit system, on-par with it's larger neighbor,
New York. However, outside of Boston, the system is lacking, some places, finding
a cab is a chore, not to mention expensive. Even if the entire state had a top-notch
mass transit system, many young people will move out of state to attend school,
find work and live their lives. Why stunt the growth of the vast majority of
future citizens?
Our solution could best be labeled a tiered system based on experience, where driver's
get their permits earlier to gain more experience and as they gain experience, they gain opportunity for experience. Just as parents give their
children more responsibility as they age to teach them responsibility, we should
reward experience with greater privilege.
A driver in his first year for instance, may only be allowed to drive during good-weather seasons, in daylight and only with an experienced driver (preferably a parent) in the front passenger's seat.
After a set number of logged hours driving and meeting the first year requirement, the student driver should be allowed to drive under more demanding situations, such as rain and at night.
Perhaps six months and even more logged hours later, the junior driver should be permitted to drive under even poorer conditions, to gain experience in those type of conditions.
Once those goals are met, then and only then could the junior driver apply to take the full driver's exam.
After passing a more stringent test than is currently given, the junior driver would have a full driver's license with the possibility of one final restriction, until the age of majority, 18 for most states, the number of passengers who are not related to the driver. In the mean time, this driver has at least two years of driving experience under their belt and should be easily capable of handling a 3000 lb vehicle.
Using this strategy, we could produce more experienced drivers, hence safer drivers without reducing their opportunities to become productive citizens.
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