I think raising the driving age will become, or now is, a bad idea

[Rossiya]

In the United Kindom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the driving age is currently 17 years of age. However, there is current debate as to whether a driving age of 18 years would be more suitable.

 

[Cutlass]

The average mileage per year in this country (as per insurance quotes) is around 12,000. Would take over 8 years to become "good" by those standards!

It's closer to 15,000 now IIRC. And yes, it takes many years of actual driving to be "good" as opposed to "basically competent".

Driving well is trained reflexes. Not book learning and not a few hours of training and not "thinking about each move". 60 miles per hour covers a lot of ground every second. You need training in the basics. But you need to actually do it, and a lot of it, to be good at it.


Actually these days we could build realistic simulators and require 2000 hours or so in sim before the license.

 

[Gecko1]

It's closer to 15,000 now IIRC. And yes, it takes many years of actual driving to be "good" as opposed to "basically competent".

Driving well is trained reflexes. Not book learning and not a few hours of training and not "thinking about each move". 60 miles per hour covers a lot of ground every second. You need training in the basics. But you need to actually do it, and a lot of it, to be good at it.


Actually these days we could build realistic simulators and require 2000 hours or so in sim before the license.

Ok, how about playing underground racing 2 for about 100 hours, is that good enough?

 

[LucyDuke]

You must be joking. Two thousand hours is fifty weeks of forty hours. Do pilots even receive that much training?

 

[Abaddon]

If you can pass the test, you should be allowed to drive.

We should retest old people to ensure ther arn't a danger

 

[Cutlass]

You must be joking. Two thousand hours is fifty weeks of forty hours. Do pilots even receive that much training?

There's a lot more to hit on the ground. Pilots have very extensive ground training before they get on the road. Maybe 2000 is too much. But 200 is certainly not enough.

 

[Shadylookin]

in Indiana if you take drivers training you get a permit at 15 which lets you drive with your instructor or parents, take a written exam after 16, and can take a driving exam at 16years 1month and 1 day. After you pass the driving exam you get a license that prohibits driving with any passengers for 90 days. Then after 90 days you have the same rights as any other driver.

if you don't take drivers training you can get a permit at 16 which lets you drive with your parents. then at 16 and 6 months you can take your written and driving exams. If you pass you have to wait 90 days before you can have passengers.

However if you are under 18 and you drop out of school you lose your license until you are 18.

I think our law is reasonable. At 16 and 17 I did a bunch of after school activities and it would have been rather inconvenient for both me and my parents if they had to drag me around everywhere. If we pushed all this up to 18 I wouldn't have gotten a real license until 19 which just isn't acceptable given the large amount of inconvenience it would be on me and my parents just having to be driven back and forth everywhere.

 

[Cutlass]

Another thing, the penalties for drivers under 18 who break the road rules should be increased. As in if they get a major ticket, suspend the license till they are 18.

 

[lutzj]

The average mileage per year in this country (as per insurance quotes) is around 12,000. Would take over 8 years to become "good" by those standards!

Exactly. That's why drivers need to start learning as early as possible so that they can become experienced by the time they have children to drive around.