The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: Do you think the driving age should be raised to 18?
Talk about it.
Yes! Let the kids mature a tad bit more and let the parents save more money/find a used car.
No! Teaching kids responsibly is how to ensure their safety, and the safety of all. By 16, young adults can help out the family, drive to school, and to a job. I was driving our farm equipment at 14!
Lower it, I started driving at 14 on public streets and have never been in any auto related incidents.
Raise to 18 is stupid, but California leads the nation with stupid laws and ideas but I suppose with so many illegals flooding into CA they need to stop them from driving or prolong their getting a license.
Seems like with some parents I know; their kids are 18+ and still without a license.
Also, the price of getting a car and insurance is playing a role.
At 16 some kids are responsible enough to get parttime job, so driving might be in order.
No …speaking as a DMV Examiner – just as many seniors fail as young kids… younger kids wanting their license try really hard to study and practice a lot (this is also to say that more and more kids don’t want a license and parents are pressuring them to get one to help with family driving duties. In these cases the kids could care less if they pass or fail). Seniors try really hard to keep their licenses – so they usually do quite well. The biggest area of failure are the middle aged that have the attitude of “I’ve been driving for years – don’t tell me what to do”. Male or female makes no difference – equal fail / pass rates. But for those immigrants coming from countries that have no or lax driving laws – the failure rate is usually over 90% …. this is all based on experience as an Examiner.
I’m not sure 18 year olds are a lot better drivers than 16 years old. In Denmark and I think most European countries it is 18, however our public transportation is very good and you can pretty much get anywhere almost anytime. Not the case here, if live in a city like New York or San Francisco you can get around on public transportation, in the suburbs you can’t. So for that reason I think it should be kept to 16. When I lived in New York I didn’t own a car and only knew a few people that did. I remember taking the bus at 4 a.m. after being out on a friday or saturday.
Where I grew up in Denmark, I had to ride my bike for a few miles to the train station, we had buses that went right by my house, but they didn’t run every day or at night. If we took the train into Copenhagen to go to a club there would be a train at 1 a.m. but then not another one until 4 a.m. Starting at 6 a.m. or a little later on weekends, there would be more regular service.Since clubs and bars stayed open to late 3 a.m. in many cases it wasn’t a problem.
Alternatively, restore DRIVER EDUCATION in schools.
Bingo.
…. and drivers training!
In Denmark and most European country you can only get a driver license after taking lessons from a certified instructor. It is fairly expensive, and you have to know something about the car itself, engine etc. Which I think is going overboard. I learned to drive from my au pair family, and when I took the test I was very nervous, my English was still not that great, I had been here less than a year, but I passed. The DMV guy had me just drive around a small town in Ct. for about 15 minutes, if I remember correctly, and he was very interested where my accent was from.
Bingo! bring some discipline back. Kids are good when they have bounds and someone (instructor) not simply paid for likes on a social credit score will generally be better for them.
Some kids mature faster than their peers, but on the whole, there isn’t much of a difference between 16 and 18 when it comes to maturity and responsibility. So they may as well keep it at 16. The insurance industry says drivers between 16 and 19, are involved in too many accidents, but is that because they are not as mature, or is it because at such a young age they have less driving experience? Will raising the age to 18 miraculously make them a better driver, even though they will still be lacking in experience? It only means they will be older when they learn how to drive, and even older by the time they get the experience needed to become a better driver. There are 16 year olds living in rural areas that need a car to drive to school or to work, or to help run family errands. Sixteen year olds are young, and inexperienced, but owning their own car, paying for insurance, gas, and maintenance can be beneficial in teaching them responsibility. Even if they do not own their car, and use the family car, they should contribute to the cost.
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I’d rather have the voting age raised to 21.
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Then they should not serve in armed forces, that’s why it was changed. When US had the draft someone could get drafted and send to Vietnam, but they couldn’t vote.
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Lower it to 14, but they have to be working. Will have all kinds of impacts.
Impacts – guess where my head went!
No.
If parental guidance & conditions are provided, 16 is fine.
If that happened for drivers to raise from 16 years old to 18 years old then the high schools can get rid of the student sparking lot.
I believe it would help I heard a story that to our parents not letting their kids to get their driver’s license until 18 because of their reckless driver at a16 for instant they do not follow the traffic law some will just go on the carpool lane even just for a single person.
My sister would not like her son drive a car until he’s 18 and right now he’s in a process of learning how to drive a car right now.
Raising the age to 18 probably not a bad idea
If that happened for drivers to raise from 16 years old to 18 years old then the high schools can get rid of the student parking lot.
I believe it would help I heard a story that to our parents not letting their kids to get their driver’s license until 18 because of their reckless driver at a16 for instant they do not follow the traffic law some will just go on the carpool lane even just for a single person.
My sister would not like her son drive a car until he’s 18 and right now he’s in a process of learning how to drive a car right now.
Raising the age to 18 probably not a bad idea
Not many people realize that the Driver Education and Driver Training classes that we used to obtain through public school education are GONE- kids today learn by watching their parents, adults drive (with their bad habits) and then paying to take their driver training hours through a commercial business to get their license.
The Driver Ed classes we used to get taught rules of the road, common hazards, road courtesy and driving techniques… enough to prepare to you to get behind the wheel for driver training. Bring those classes back to our schools.
With all of the responsibilities put on the schools for courses that HAVE to be offered, it is no wonder Driver Ed and Driver Training are no longer offered. Let’s offer those classes again AND raise the driving age to 17
No, but uninsured motorists should have their license revoked until they can show proof of coverage.