Driving Age Raised to 18

Raising the Minimum Driving Age

I strongly and firmly believe that raising the minimum driving age would have dire consequences, and as such believe that raising the driving age must be prevented. I would like to discuss with you today why we should keep this tradition of having teenagers be able to obtain their licenses on their 16th birthday.

The current driving age takes a huge burden off parents who would otherwise be forced to take their kids from place to place. If the people who would like to enact this legislation had teenagers, I think that they might change their mind. If many of the people were required to haul their kids back and forth to school, sports practice, clubs, appointments, jobs and other activities, I believe they might have a different outlook if they themselves had to move their teens around for hours every day. I would also like to bring up the argument of single parents. The opposition have shown no plans on how to deal with single parents. Single parents often already have to do twice the work of a parent in a traditional family, and then to tell a single parent that they must drive their teen around for two extra years is ridiculous. Raising the driving age would just cause more problems and work for an already overwhelmed single parent.

The next reason for maintaining the current driving age is that teens need to learn to drive while still under the watchful eye of their parents. Raising the driving age to 18 would put many teens in college when they begin to drive. This would also put them in a time where they have no supervision in their lives, and this leads them to experiment with drugs and alcohol. It is a recipe for disaster to make brand new drivers with no supervision, and then to put them in a time when they are experimenting with drugs is asking for trouble. Yet "safety" is the #1 reason why many proponents want to make their idea a law. Yet another reason not to raise the driving age is that it will prevent teens from getting involved in many after school activities such as sports, clubs, and jobs. Not only are the above necessary for many college applications, they also help build character, and self-esteem, which are very necessary at this point in teenagers' lives.

I would now like to focus on the argument that safer driving has to do with age and not experience. This is a ridiculous argument. If this argument were true then why should we not raise the driving age to 45. If being older really makes you a better driver, then there is absolutely no reason why we should not raise it to 45 years old. Experience behind the wheel and education are what makes people better drivers. Notice that many insurance companies give discounts to who have had a driver's education course. This is because they have fewer accidents. This is just one of the many examples that shows drivers get better with experience and education-not from just