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Yeah that works until you live in an area without any useful public transit. I live in BC and in my town you can't go anywhere without a car, and I have to driv

Yeah that works until you live in an area without any useful public transit. I live in BC and in my town you can't go anywhere without a car, and I have to drive 40km to the next town for some of my university classes and there is NO bus route at all to get to those classes. I'm only 21, how would you propose I get to class if I didn't have my drivers license? The problem in North America is that a lot of places do not have public transportation so you have to drive and not everyone's parents can drive them _everywhere_ _all the time_. Aside from that, all of your anecdotes could happen to anyone at any age if they don't have any experience driving, hell your first anecdote could have happened to a 40 year old if they didn't know how to drive. I disagree that age makes that much of a difference in driving, inexperience is the problem and you can't avoid that.

UberMouse 13y ago
Under his rules you would be able to drive by yourself from 19, so you would be fine.
- aceofspades19 13y ago
  Yes but what about people starting university where I live at 18? You kinda missed my main point
  - sukuriant 13y ago
    Or 17 if they had a birthday right before that age cut-off for grades.
BruceIV 13y ago
It's a lot harder to learn how to drive once you move out of your parents' and can't borrow their car (and their presence as a licenced tutor), and in rural areas (I grew up in one too), you need a car to get anywhere. That said, city dwellers can get by for most of their trips with public transit, bicycle, or on foot, and by the time I have kids and am teaching them to drive I fully expect autonomous cars - the current generation may be the last one that learns how to drive themselves.
- aceofspades19 13y ago
  Yeah thats exactly my point, waiting until 19025 to get a license is pretty harsh if you don't live in a big city
Derbasti 13y ago
Please note that just about all of Europe requires you to be 18 ro get a drivers license. And no, the US is not different. In many places, public transportation in rural areas is just as bad as in the US. You know what people do if they can't drive 40 miles to college every day? They move.
- aceofspades19 13y ago
  Not everyone can afford to move, for me its cheaper to stay where I am and drive to school then to move. If I were to move I would have to work more and go into debt more, school is not cheap in North America. Even if I did move, I still would not be able to see friends and family living in the city I'm in without a lot of hassle.
namdnay 13y ago
Just to play devil's advocate: maybe you should factor in public transportation infrastructure when choosing where you live?
- bane 13y ago
  "choosing where you live" Taking his side in this, very few people at 21 have chosen where to live. Their parents picked that location for them.
Tichy 13y ago
move?
userulluipeste 13y ago
The fact that almost anyone has a car is a strong reason NOT to establish a line of public transportation in a rural area. This is kind of a chicken-and-egg problem. Also, there are solutions for covering 40 km without having a car driver licence. If a few hours of biking is too much of an effort, there are small-capacity cylinder motor-bikes like scooters or mopeds that have either low-requirement licence or require no driving licence at all.
bane 13y ago
I hear ya, like I said I grew up super rural as well. For example, using Google's directions from where I grew up to the nearest big city using public transit has me start the trip with a half hour drive/taxi ride. I'm just trying to fix dead young drivers, but I totally agree that it screws up the world for people under 25. all of your anecdotes could happen to anyone at any age if they don't have any experience driving Actually, I'll go one further, I know of quite a few drivers with plenty of experience, decades even, who struggle to control their vehicle on a day-to-day basis. It's like they're just incapable of learning the skill. My father-in-law, for example, has probably 40 years of experience behind the wheel and drives so poorly that I pretty much refuse to ride in or near a vehicle he's driving. One of my wife's former bosses drives perpetually 15 miles under the speed limit and goes into a near panic attack if she has to drive slowly and look at house numbers at the same time when trying to find a new place. I honestly don't know how to solve that outside of autonomous vehicles and significantly harder licensing.
- aceofspades19 13y ago
  I think we will just have to live with the fact that driving 2000 lbs of steel is going to be dangerous no matter how you slice it. We can definitely try to make it safer but there is still going to be some risk to it.

UberMouse 13y ago

Under his rules you would be able to drive by yourself from 19, so you would be fine.

aceofspades19 13y ago
Yes but what about people starting university where I live at 18? You kinda missed my main point
- sukuriant 13y ago
  Or 17 if they had a birthday right before that age cut-off for grades.

BruceIV 13y ago

It's a lot harder to learn how to drive once you move out of your parents' and can't borrow their car (and their presence as a licenced tutor), and in rural areas (I grew up in one too), you need a car to get anywhere. That said, city dwellers can get by for most of their trips with public transit, bicycle, or on foot, and by the time I have kids and am teaching them to drive I fully expect autonomous cars - the current generation may be the last one that learns how to drive themselves.

aceofspades19 13y ago
Yeah thats exactly my point, waiting until 19025 to get a license is pretty harsh if you don't live in a big city

Derbasti 13y ago

Please note that just about all of Europe requires you to be 18 ro get a drivers license. And no, the US is not different. In many places, public transportation in rural areas is just as bad as in the US. You know what people do if they can't drive 40 miles to college every day? They move.

aceofspades19 13y ago
Not everyone can afford to move, for me its cheaper to stay where I am and drive to school then to move. If I were to move I would have to work more and go into debt more, school is not cheap in North America. Even if I did move, I still would not be able to see friends and family living in the city I'm in without a lot of hassle.

namdnay 13y ago

Just to play devil's advocate: maybe you should factor in public transportation infrastructure when choosing where you live?

bane 13y ago
"choosing where you live" Taking his side in this, very few people at 21 have chosen where to live. Their parents picked that location for them.

Tichy 13y ago

move?

userulluipeste 13y ago

The fact that almost anyone has a car is a strong reason NOT to establish a line of public transportation in a rural area. This is kind of a chicken-and-egg problem. Also, there are solutions for covering 40 km without having a car driver licence. If a few hours of biking is too much of an effort, there are small-capacity cylinder motor-bikes like scooters or mopeds that have either low-requirement licence or require no driving licence at all.

bane 13y ago

I hear ya, like I said I grew up super rural as well. For example, using Google's directions from where I grew up to the nearest big city using public transit has me start the trip with a half hour drive/taxi ride. I'm just trying to fix dead young drivers, but I totally agree that it screws up the world for people under 25. all of your anecdotes could happen to anyone at any age if they don't have any experience driving Actually, I'll go one further, I know of quite a few drivers with plenty of experience, decades even, who struggle to control their vehicle on a day-to-day basis. It's like they're just incapable of learning the skill. My father-in-law, for example, has probably 40 years of experience behind the wheel and drives so poorly that I pretty much refuse to ride in or near a vehicle he's driving. One of my wife's former bosses drives perpetually 15 miles under the speed limit and goes into a near panic attack if she has to drive slowly and look at house numbers at the same time when trying to find a new place. I honestly don't know how to solve that outside of autonomous vehicles and significantly harder licensing.

aceofspades19 13y ago
I think we will just have to live with the fact that driving 2000 lbs of steel is going to be dangerous no matter how you slice it. We can definitely try to make it safer but there is still going to be some risk to it.