One reason 18-year-old drivers have fewer accidents than 16-year-olds is that they have two years of practice behind them. They aren’t more coordinated or even that much wiser than they were two years earlier; they are just more experienced. And they have had these two years of experience while living at home and still under our supervision and still under curfew. When are they to learn to drive when so many of our children leave our homes at 18 to attend university? Where are they to learn to drive if they can’t learn in high school? How are they to learn to drive if they are no longer at home so that we can teach them, to accompany them on their 25 hours of training?
I am relieved that we sent our son away to college as an experienced driver.
Raise the training requirements. Double the number of hours of accompanied driving from 25 to 50. Forbid more than two teens in a car. Enforce the curfews. But don’t lower the driving age. You’ll just end up with older but unsupervised and inexperienced new drivers on our highways.
