Kids today ... License to Drive

Thank goodness. No one should be allowed to drive until they are at least 21. Damn kids and their lead feet and loud stereos.

 

My older daughter, now 20, wasn't in a very big hurry to get her license, but she did right before her 17th birthday. My son, who turns 17 in a few weeks, still doesn't have his. Both my wife and I are amazed at this dynamic ... when we were teens one could have a daytime-only license within 10 days of one's 15th birthday (you could get your learner's permit on your 15th birthday, which we both did, and then after a 10-day wait you could try for your main license).

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that being homebound (relatively speaking) isn't REMOTELY as bad now as it was when my wife and I were kids. My kids have cable, the internet, video games, etc. Plus, it is a much bigger pain to get a license now than it was back then.

 

I got my license in Pennsylvania back when they didn't require one second of actual road driving to pass.

The "road course" I was tested on was an absolute joke. So was the written test.

That explains a lot, actually.

 

90 percent of my friends got their license (or tried and failed) within a week of turning 16.

The exceptions were kids who got in trouble all the time whose parents wouldn't let them get their license, or people who couldn't get their license until they got a certain GPA. There were a few others (usually girls) who didn't want to get their license because they liked being driven around.

 

I got my learner's permit on my 16th birthday (first day you could in NY) and my license a few months later. Back then, your license was a restricted one until you turned 18, unless you took driver's ed, in which case your license became unrestricted at 17. My two closest friends didn't get their licenses until after we all turned 18, which was a pain for me, because that meant I was always getting hit up for rides. They both have said they were in no hurry because they didn't want the responsibility of driving.

 

In my state you can get a permit at 15 and a restricted license at 16. My son got his license at 16 and a couple months. He's a good driver. Of course he is inexperienced and we worry but it is nice not to have to cart him all over town anymore. I do think 15 is too young to drive.

Growing up in NYS, like Dyno, got my permit sometime after my 16th and then got my license just after turning 17, and I'd already had driver's ed so I could drive at night, etc., right away. I wasn't in that big of a hurry.

My Sheriff's Card, now that was different. I went right into the Erie County Courthouse the day I turned 18. That was a real priority!

 

What was that for? To buy beer?

 

I'm just joshing.
I went to school in California PA and had friends at both Wheeling and WVU. I visited WV many times during my college years.
And I was not pro-NJ when I was that age.


Next question, if you're recruiting people, do you know of any WV college's looking to fill an open PR/marketing director position?
I'd move to WV.
I'm not sure the wife wants to, though.

 

IN MYYYYYY DAYYYY -- gulp, just about exactly 40 years ago -- you could take Driver's Ed (an officially-sponsored high school class for credit) in the semester following your 15 1/2th birthday.

While you were enrolled in driver's ed, you got a learner's permit which, as I recall, allowed you to drive with a parent in the car OR an adult over 21.

Driver's ed was not a blowoff class -- we actually had sessions in basic maintenance (ie. how to check oil, change tires, etc) and driving-range time in addition to road practice, PLUS some book-learning stuff on the process of buying a car and all the hidden costs.

OK, anyway, once you passed the class and turned 16, you could take the state road test and get your real license. I don't recall there were any driving restrictions, but they continually drummed into us if you got ANY moving violations in the first two years, your license could be yanked until age 18, and any personal-injury accident, age 21 (in practice this rarely happened).

OK enough of memory lane back in the Seventies; fast forward to today. My nephew is currently 15 and taking driver's ed. Under current laws, you can begin taking driver's ed (no longer offered by school districts) at age 14.8 (not 15.6) but now there are all sorts of restrictions on the learning permit .

Michigan now has a graduated license system which is too hard to explain in any decently short synopsis, so here's the link:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Michigans_Graduated_Licensing_System_153498_7.pdf

 

That graduated license crap seems like as bunch of hooey.

I don't know how they run it in NJ anymore, but driver's ed. was a class we had in high school.
I went to a Catholic school, and we had driver's ed. junior year. I had a lot of friends in public school, and they had driver's ed. junior year.
I think it was a half-year class.
You passed the driver's ed. exam mid-year, you got your permit.
I was year ahead, so I took the class as a junior, passed the exam but couldn't get a permit.

I got my permit that summer, I think.
Then I got my license halfway through senior year.

 

When I was coming thru the system in Mississippi (late 80s), you could get a permit on your 15th birthday and your license a month later. If you were taking driver's ed, you could get the permit at 14 and your license on your 15th birthday.

I think they've tightened it up a little bit since then.

 

No offense taken.
If you can't laugh at yourself, you are not entitled to make fun of others (I say).