Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Should driving age be raised to 21
Driving age raised
Reasons for driving age not to be raised to 21
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Should driving age be raised to 21
It is no secret that teenagers, on average, are terrible drivers. A recent article by, The NewsWheel, explains why they believe that the minimum driving age should be changed. Though thousands of teens are killed every year due to car accidents, and many thousand more are injured, many people fear the repercussions of changing the driving age. In the same way citizens wonder how effective changing the minimum age will be at preventing future car crashes.
Arguments Condoning raising the legal driving age.
Arguments Condemning raising the legal driving age.
Raising the legal driving age to 18 would constitute less crashes and safer drivers.
Raising the legal driving age is too burdensome to society to be expected to be carried out.
CDC research
studies show that, “For every mile driven, teen between the ages of 16 and 19 are four times as likely to be involved in a car crash.” Raising this legal age would prevent half of this age category from driving. ethos Many parents depend on older children to assist in taking care of their siblings, this includes driving them to school and sports which kids would not be able to do otherwise due to their parent not having time. logos, pathos Brains of teenagers are underdeveloped. The frontal lobe is not fully formed resulting in it being accessed slower and having inefficient communication with the rest of the brain. logos Allowing 16 years olds the ability to drive allows them to learn responsibility, it teaches them important skills like taking care of a car, or simply paying for gas. logos Most teens do not have jobs or steady incomes. Thus, the responsibility of paying for maintenance and and car crashes is put on the parents. As a result, young drivers have trouble truly understanding the consequences of bad driving. pathos At younger ages such as 15 and 16 new drivers have an array of teachers who are able to properly teach them to drive. At 18, many people are in college and don’t have time or resources to be concerned with learning how to drive. logos
If people want to save lives by raising the driving age, then how about saving lives by allowing only women to drive? Except raising the driving age won't save lives. Studies show that it is inexperience, not age, that causes accidents. Raising the driving age will just create inexperienced, accident-prone drivers at 18 instead of 16. Teens need the ability to drive just as much as anyone else—to get to school,
...year, raising the minimum driving age to 16 seems hopeful in making safer roads for society. In doing so we all should strongly encourage our teenage drivers to be more mature, to pay more attention, to be more confident in their driving, and to not think that they are so invincible to accidents.
Driving is something people do everyday. Although many people do it well, some do not, that being said the legal age to drive should be raised to twenty one years of age. The driving age should be raised because teens at the ages of fourteen through twenty should not be behind the wheel for the simple fact that they are just too young and too inexperienced to drive, also someone of that age can get more distracted than a person who is twenty-one or older and has had some time to mature and become responsible enough to operate a motor vehicle. “In the United States, 16–19-year-olds have the highest incidence of motor vehicle deaths among licensed drivers and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 15–20-year-olds.” (Haggerty
In the 21st century, our nation is facing a major issue, causing teenagers to lose their lives at the hand of the wheel due to inexperienced driving. “Teen drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to be involved in an automobile crash,” and statistics show. Automobile accidents are the number one cause of teen deaths. Driving regulations are in high need to be changed in order for teenagers to gain more experience with driving before taking the driving test, which could help save countless adolescence’s lives.
Teens need to be taught that driving is a task that is complex and demanding. Parents know how much experience a young driver has, and they know exactly how inconvenient it is when they have to drive with their teen everywhere while they have their permit. Teens tend to cause most traffic accidents in adults’ eyes. They are not experienced yet, and often fail to pay attention to others on the road. They often think of a car as being some type of toy, but they do not know how powerful it really is. The driver education programs must be strengthened in order to make sure that students really have safer habits, behind the wheel experience, and by having a better understanding of all the laws on the road.
In recent years, the legal driving age has become a topic of heated debate. There are many supporters that advocate for raising the legal driving age to eighteen or twenty-one. However, raising the driving age would cause some major problems. Sixteen should remain the legal driving age in most states and areas because the economic burden would be extremely large and the problems related to young drivers would not be adequately solved by simply rising the legal driving age. This essay will outline the reasons why the legal driving age should not be raised and what some of the better choices are instead.
Teens only make up seventeen percent of the population today, but almost twenty percent of fatal crashes are due to teenagers behind the wheel. Growing numbers suggest changing the driving age to eighteen and some even believe that changing it to twenty-one may save even more lives. With a sixteen year old behind the wheel, accidents are even more likely to occur when compared to a seventeen year old (Boulard). With so much new technology in today’s society there are more distractions on the road than ever before; therefore the legal driving age should be raised to save more lives. If we do not act quickly, then more lives will be lost.
Engines roaring and cars flying down the highway recklessly, racing to the finish. This is a stereotyped outlook on teen drivers. This however, is not the case. Teens don’t drive to race down the road. They drive for freedom. They drive to get where they need to be on their own. The driving age should not be raised to 18 because it takes away their feeling of freedom, Denies the access to needed transportation, denies experience, It puts additional stress on parents, and they need to be learning the driving skill while they’re young.
More than 5,000 teenagers die while driving each year in the United States (Gregory). In my opinion this is due to three different, yet equally important factors. The first factor is that the teenage mind is yet to be fully developed, causing them to make irresponsible and sometimes reckless decisions. The second factor is that the experience of driving has evolved since the original driving age was established in the early 20th century. The third and final aspect to take into consideration would be that driving is the lowest minimum age of any adult restricted activity in the United States. Although, it can be one of the more harmful, not only to the perspective driver but his or her surroundings as well. Taking all three of these factors into account I believe the minimum driving age should be raised to 18 to decrease the accident rate amongst teenagers.
As expected, most if not all teens will disagree with that. But there are some safe teen drivers that are thrown into the bad teen driving category just because they are a teenager that drives. If there are some good teen drivers, then do all teens really need more drivers education? Samantha Williams is a senior at Winchester Community High School that has an answer to this question. “I do consider myself to be a safe driver. I’m always aware of my surroundings when I’m driving, and I always stay away from any distractions” (Question 1). She is intentionally aware of her surroundings and stays focused while driving. The government should not make more regulations and rules for all teen drivers when there are many teen drivers like Samantha on the roads. There are even some adults that believe not all teen drivers are bad drivers. Gregory explains, “ The teen driving issues are not about age and maturity as they are about making good choices and demonstrating exceptional behavior, whether they start that driving experience at 16, 17, or 18” (1). Many teens and parents seem to think the government has not made the best decisions recently when it comes to
One big debate that people have had, is whether the driving age should or should not be raised. However, the minimum driving age should not be raised because it prevents later crashes, gives the younger kids early self-driving experience, and the drivers are not as confident. Driving at an earlier age prevents crashes in the future. A nationwide study provided this following, "A nationwide study shows that tougher licensing laws for teenage drivers have reduced deadly accidents among 16-year-olds; but with an unintended consequence: increasing the fatal crash rate among 18-year-olds" (O'Connor 1-4). The study showed that a kid who took longer to start driving, had a higher risk of crashing to years later, usually around 18 years old.
And experience is at the heart of the matter. What’s the point of raising the driving age if going into it, nothing much will really have changed. What’s not great about raising the driving age is that at 18, the new drivers are getting ready to go to college and start their lives on their own. If the driving age is raised to 18, they will be unexperienced with the laws of driving and with driving in general. They will lose two critically important years of learning how to be a good driver and preparing to go out on their own.
Many people think about wanting to change the driving age. Doing this would not be a good idea because lowering it would put irresponsible people behind the wheel of a dangerous vehicle. Driving is one of the most dangerous things that most people don’t even think about, but they do it every day. In many senses the driving age should get higher. Many drivers are not responsible or mature enough to operate a vehicle.
Works Cited Gerdes, Louise I. -. The Driving Age Should Not Be Increased. Teen Driving. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2008. 83-85.
I am sure that we all know that having a driver license is a big compromise to drive safe. Then why make the roads more hazardous by raising the driving age to 18? If the driving age is raised there will be more drunk drivers, unemployed New Zealanders and Kiwi’s that don’t have an interest in getting their license anymore. Is this what New Zealand wants?