More teens are choosing to wait to get driver's licenses By Donna St. George Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, January 24, 2010 "The quest to get a driver's license at 16 -- long an American rite of passage -- is on the wane among the digital generation, which no longer sees the family car as the end-all of social life. "Federal data released Friday underscore a striking national shift: 30.7 percent of 16-year-olds got their licenses in 2008, compared with 44.7 percent in 1988. The difference is even sharper in Virginia and Maryland, state figures show. Numbers from the District, which go back to 2003, show a decline in the past two years. photo: Ted Johnson/Creative Commons via flickr "A generation consumed by Facebook and text-messaging, by Xbox Live and smartphones, no longer needs to climb into a car to connect with friends. And although many teens are still eager to drive, new laws make getting a license far more time-consuming, requiring as many as 60 supervised driving practice hours with an adult. "Rob Foss, director of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers at the University of North Carolina, and others suggest that these "graduated" state licensing systems -- which have created new requirements for learner's permits, supervised practice hours, night driving and passengers in the car -- are responsible for much of the decline in the number of licensed 16-year- olds. At the same time, drivers' education has been cut back in some public schools, so families must scrounge up money -- often $300 to $600 -- for private driving schools." Best quote; "the new BMW; Bike, Walk, Metro." Full article: washingtonpost.com (Requires free sign in.)
Those driving exam dudes won't let me text while taking my test! It's totally unfair! How do they expect me to go a whole 15 minutes without texting?
I know when i turned 16, there wasn't a real big rush to get my license. It was until i was 18 that i actually got my own car, so I was still reliant on the parents. My group of friends consisted of mostly people my own age in my neighborhood (aka i could easily walk or bike to their place, which i still did after i got my own car) and a few older friends who would do all the driving anyways. So no real pressure to get it the moment i turned 16. I want to say i waited a good 6 months before taking the test.
Must be a generation thing. In the Dark Ages when I was a teen having a license and a car (even access to the family car) was an ABSOLUTE MUST. In Oklahoma they offered a license for small motorcycles at age 14. I had the motorcycle for a year before being legal age and learned to ride by circling our 2 acres over and over. The day of my birthday I was in line to get the license before they opened. When I turned 16, I already had the car and was first to take the drivers test on the day of my birthday. Waiting even a day was simply not an option! Kids who turned 16 on Sunday were impossible to live with until the DMV opened the next day. I am mystified by the difference today. A friend of mine has a step-son who was 18 before he got his license, and then only reluctantly. And this kid had a brand new Mustang waiting in the garage from his father. It sat for 2 years before the kid was even interested enough to get the license. Granted, when he did get one he sold the new 6 cylinder automatic Mustang and bought a used 5-speed V8 GT, so that might explain some of it.
I'm a weirdo - I didn't get my license until after I had graduated college AND had been working for a few months. On the up side that allowed me to save up enough money to get my first (and only other) car - my beloved used Camry. Actually, come to think of it, I didn't even learn to drive until after college as well.
Grandpa didn't get his license until age 45. As a teacher in various isolated Alaskan villages, there was no need. When he moved back to the lower 48 and had the need, DMV did not believe that he had never been licensed, and wondered what he was trying to hide.
I didn't get my license until I was 20. It helped having a girlfriend at the time who wasn't within walking distance.
My two are 16 and 21, and neither one has shown any real interest in getting their licence. Nor have most of their friends, who pretty much all have transit passes - not to mention parents who still drive them places. I know quite a few people, some of them senior citizens, who have never had a licence or a car.
I'm stunned, Hyo. Just stunned. Maybe even when I was a kid there were those in my school who didn't bother to get a license. But we were True Gearheads and were building engines and riding mini-bikes in Middle (Junior High) School, so I guess that explains it.
