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This morning the radio had this blurb about teenage drinking and driving during prom time and how car crashes are a serious source of death for teenagers. It reminded me of a friend's take on the media hype and how that might foster car free living among the young. Raise the driving age to 21 and drop the drinking age to 16. That way the responsible ones learn to moderate their alcohol before they learn to drive. It will get cars- with aparently more dangerous drivers off the road and people will learn through direct experience how to live car free. Whats not to like?
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Until the country has some better public transportation infrastructure to offer, I could not support a driving age over 18. If a 30yr old lives in a town with no public transportation, I blame that individual for not moving. If an 18yr old lives in a town with no transportation, it just means their parents were care-addicted. How do you expect this person to get to work for the next three years? - assuming not everyone goes to college.
As far as the drinking age... I don't think there should be one at all.
Until the country has some better public transportation infrastructure to offer, I could not support a driving age over 18. If a 30yr old lives in a town with no public transportation, I blame that individual for not moving. If an 18yr old lives in a town with no transportation, it just means their parents were care-addicted. How do you expect this person to get to work for the next three years? - assuming not everyone goes to college.
As far as the drinking age... I don't think there should be one at all.
By driving age I meant driving automobiles. I lived car free in a rural area, I walked to the farms where
I worked and my employers drove me to remote fields. I walked to the town for supplies. No public transportation. It wasn't such a bad life. The kids who lived on the dairy farms didn't like having to work 7 days per week they thought the hired help had more freedom. If the 16 to drink and 21 to drive scheme went into effect there would be instant demand for better public transport, with the increased demand would come better service right?
^^ as well as a huge capitol investment in some of the least able-to-pay-for-mass-public-project areas of the country^^
Raise the driving age to 21 and drop the drinking age to 16.
This is a joke isn't it?
This is a joke isn't it?
Not on my part. It seems easier to keep a teenager from driving than to keep a teenager from
drinking. The problem mentioned on the radio was teenage drinking and driving. The teenager
has to cross more barriers to drive. The added benefit is that people will learn car free living skills
at a young age. The way things are now, many people grow up thinking of cars as necessities, just
read some of the ignorant posts on this forum where people post that they need cars to haul pet food or that car free people are too stupid to call an ambulance or call a cab or can't travel far. Of course the car manufacturers would rather suck people into the car dependent lifestyle at a young age.
I can almost see the wisdom in this... Most teenagers already have experience with alcohol long before they reach the legal drinking age. I know I did. By the time I turned 21, the allure to drink was no longer there. And I think that's the key - the allure is the big attraction not the "drunk feeling".
If they can't drive, fantastic! They will figure out some other way to get back to home base, teenagers being somewhat resourceful and all. Just some thoughts...
The added benefit is that people will learn car free living skills
at a young age. The way things are now, many people grow up thinking of cars as necessities, just
read some of the ignorant posts on this forum where people post that they need cars to haul pet food or that car free people are too stupid to call an ambulance or call a cab or can't travel far. Of course the car manufacturers would rather suck people into the car dependent lifestyle at a young age.
This is a good point. Young people need to gain experience. If all they know is having to get a job to get a car to get to work, their experience of life has to suffer. For many of them, the car is really just a type of shackle, just to make sure they stay on the job.
Plus... have you every been in a high school parking lot when school lets out...? scary!
A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25, a finding with implications for a host of policies, including the nation's driving laws.
The findings imply that many life choices -- college and career, marriage and military service -- often are made before the brain's decision-making center comes fully online. But for young adults, "dying on a highway is the biggest risk out there," Giedd said. "What if we could predict earlier in life what could happen later?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52687-2005Jan31_2.html
The biggest problem with having the driving age cranked up to 21 would be for those people who travel hundreds of miles to get to college each year. That's my main need for a car: to go these very long distances (I am nowhere near fit enough to be doing several hundred kilometer trips by bicycle... it has a certain allure to me, but at this point in time, I'm not ready). Granted, students can go to colleges and universities that are closer, but there are some (such as myself) who find that any college that they want to attend is still several hundred (or more) kilometers away.
I am fortunate, however, to have parents who are willing to drive me and my stuff to college at the beginning of the year, and then back at the end. Not everyone is that fortunate. As a result, I was able to leave my car at home this year, and only used it over Christmas break. (I actually plan on doing this again next year, so that I won't have a car to tempt me to drive into the city on a whim. I think that because of this, it will be cheaper for me to bus it home for Christmas than to live with a car).
I'm not saying that I don't advocate car free living (believe me, I do). I'm just trying to point out some of the logistical problems with cranking up the age of driving like that. If this were to happen, a lot of other things would have to change in North America (I'm assuming that this is where we are talking about) in order to compensate for youths sudden lack of easy, long distance mobility: Schools would have to be required to train their students in safe cycling and bike repair (I think) so that cycling would be seen as a viable option -greater emphasis would have to be placed on physical health/education so that kids would be in better shape and be capable of traveling greater distances by bicycle -Intercity (between city) mass transit would have to come down in price and be made more readily available (particularly between large city centers and small towns) and so fourth.
Since so much has been built upon driving in this way, I don't believe that you could suddenly change the driving age up to 21 without there being some serious consequences. Yes, it would likely help with the problem of teens killed in drinking and driving incidents. But such a change would have to be gradually implemented for society to be able to adapt.
It's not a bad idea on the whole, it just could not be implemented on the spur of the moment.
Just my 3.14159 cents (CDN) worth.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52687-2005Jan31_2.html
I was thinking about the quotes the other day.
There was a horriffic accident reported on Long Island where two teenage boys driving a new BMW were killed while speeding at 100 miles per hour! The car split in two and both boys were killed instantly. It seems like these accidents happen each year.
http://www.1010wins.com/pages/397470.php
~snip~
Since so much has been built upon driving in this way, I don't believe that you could suddenly change the driving age up to 21 without there being some serious consequences. Yes, it would likely help with the problem of teens killed in drinking and driving incidents. But such a change would have to be gradually implemented for society to be able to adapt.
It's not a bad idea on the whole, it just could not be implemented on the spur of the moment.
Just my 3.14159 cents (CDN) worth.
I agree but it could be stepped in over a period of say 5 years? But it would have to be national in scope. I can recall many years back every state had different licensing laws. At one time I could legally drive at 14 on an Iowa "hicks" license. It was good only during daylight hours and I had to be driving a tagged farm truck.
I seem to recall the stepped in raising the drinking age from 18-21 over a 3 year period.
FWIW my son is car free at a major university in NC. We do make sure he gets his stuff and himself back and forth as necessary. My daughter is at a very remote school in NC and has a car, but normally only drives it when coming home during the holidays and once a month or so into the nearest big city.
Mass Tranist in this country sucks and until it is made viable we are going to continue to have issues with too many automotive deaths and DUI's.
Aaron:)
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