Originally Posted by jimmuter
I think the real push back would come from the parents who are tired of carting their teens to soccer, football, and other school activities. I hear it's a big relief to a lot of parents when the kids can take themselves.
And there's the rub: Unlike some other countries, the transportaion network in most of this country is very automobile-dependent. In many places here, there aren't really any other viable alternatives (such as mass transit) for getting around, nor is our (often sprawling and disconnected) development patterned in ways that support anything but car travel. If there were better alternatives to making those trips by car, more people might use these options. As it is, though, kids are dependent on their parents for getting around until they get their driver's licenses; and they're driving around with little actual experience or practice once they get them.
I realize the irony of posting this on a bike commuting forum (to be read by a group of people who are biking as an alternative to car travel); but if we built more walkable, bikeable, inter-connected communities where there are easy and viable alternatives (walking, biking, reliable transit) to car travel, we might have fewer kids driving around and causing accidents. Another positive offshoot of this is that kids might develop better exercise habits and be in better shape (lowering health care costs, among other things), too.
Of course, if it weren't so easy to get driver's licenses, we'd probably have less of a problem with dangerous driving, as well. I really like the idea of a graduated licensing system, with expanded priveledges attached to driving experience and other milestones, so that we get better-trained drivers. A higher driving age in places where that would work (e.g. cities with viable transportation alternatives) might not be a bad thing, either.