Raising The Driving Age Essay

Raise Legal Driving Age With all of the recent teenage fatalities due to automobile accidents, there has been an ongoing debate on whether or not we should raise the driving age. Of course, teens have been very against this idea because they want that right of passage of getting their license at sixteen, getting their first car, and being able to go whenever and wherever they please. Although they protest, is it really worth the heartbreak of losing a child due to an automobile accident? We should raise the legal driving age to 18 because it could reduce fatalities, give teenager more time to learn, and promote more environmentally friendly alternatives. The leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds is auto accidents. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they state, “In 2014, 2,270 teens in the United States ages 16–19 were killed and 221,313 were

“If young people are not permitted to drive, they would effectively be forced into looking for alternatives to get about” (CBSNEWS). This may mean that they are encouraged to use greener alternatives such as public transport, cycling, and walking. Instilling this idea at a young age could mean that they think about the environment more in the future. Another article states, “Transportation is a major contributor in global climate change. It accounts for almost 23% of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion” (10 Reasons Why). Twenty percent of carbon monoxide emissions would be saved if one in five Americans rode public transportation daily; the savings would be greater than the combined emissions from all chemical manufacturing and metal processing industries. 21.2 million, or 6.9 percent, of Americans are in the 15 to 19 age range. If we raised the driving age to 18, we would have millions of teens finding other ways to get about, which would save the