A few days ago, we ran this story where the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has recommended that the minimum age to receive a drivers license be raised to 17 or 18. That teenage drivers are teenagers is only part of the problem.
The IIHS is basing this recommendation on the disproportionate number of auto fatalities involving young drivers. For instance, in New Jersey, the only state that sets the minimum driving age at 17, the crash rate of 16 and 17-year olds is 16 per 100,000. In neighboring Connecticut, where 16-year-olds can get licenses, the rate is 26 per 100,000. Nationally, there are ten times as many crashes involving 16-year-old drivers as there are for drivers 30-59.
The numbers might be news, but the trends shouldn't be. We all remember how badly we wanted to drive ourselves and have the independence that having a car brings. We also remember how much more expensive it was for mom and dad to insure us, and how some of us couldn't get our licenses until we paid for the increased premiums ourselves.
Adolescent psychology explains the dynamics of teenage driving very well. Teenagers are experiencing early adulthood. They are generally fully grown, have physical strength and social drives they didn't have as children, and feel as though they're ready to take on the world. They have an intense desire to be their own person and define themselves separately from their parents. This longing is frustrated by parents, laws and social customs that limit their options and freedom.
A car is not only a symbol of independence. It provides an environment that gives the driver almost total control, and magnifies their power. A little pressure on the gas pedal allows them to go as fast and as far as they want. The heater and A/C provide for almost any range of comfort settings. The world is shut out, and between the options of AM, FM, and satellite radio, MP3 and DVD players, cell phones, and sound systems that are capable of causing your kidneys to hemorrhage, they can have any entertainment option they like. Who doesn't have a collection–literally or figuratively– of their favorite road music? I'm still partial to Running on Empty by Jackson Browne and China Grove by The Doobie Brothers, but I'm sure there are more recent tunes that are at least equally popular.
And let's not forget how a car can lend isolation and privacy to things the 'rents would never allow in one's bedroom at home. There are some very strong incentives for teenagers to want to drive a car.
A police officer's view of teenage drivers is distorted, because he will encounter far more reckless drivers than careful ones. Because of those adolescent processes I just described, that subset of young drivers is likely to be more defiant of authority figures than the rest. They're difficult to handle in the field. In the rare cases where the officer has the opportunity to meet the parents, he will find them either unbelieving that their child could have done what the officer said they did, or defensive that the officer was just picking on the kid. Once in a very great while, a parent will thank the officer for stepping in before their offspring could do some real damage, but one can get to retirement and never have that experience.
A judge I worked for had a teenage daughter. She would come to the courthouse frequently to see her dad, and she was well-known and liked by all of the staff. One day, the judge mentioned that his daughter was going to "the dance" that night, as she did every weekend. Having been a street officer in the same city, I knew that area high schools held dances now and again, and generally dreaded them because of the number of kids that would say they were going to the dance, but find other, less-supervised activities that would come to our attention. Fortunately, these didn't take place every weekend.
The judge's family belonged to the LDS (Mormon) church. The dance he was referring to was a function that moved from one congregation to another in a regular circuit, nearly every week of the year. He told me there were usually 100-200 teens in attendance, and that this had been going on as long as he could remember.
I was astounded. Here was a recreational gathering of teenagers that had been occurring regularly the entire time I worked the street there, and I never knew about it. I knew about the keggers in the boonies and the my-parents-are-gone-for the-weekend parties that always got out of control and the bacchanals that went with graduation every year, but this one had gotten past me. Then it occurred to me: I had never gotten involved in any of these because the kids attending them didn't do anything to get my attention. They came, they danced, they had fun, they went home, all with the knowledge and/or active complicity of their parents.
This is not a commercial for the LDS church, or any other. I've never been a member of the church, and I have no plans to join. I do, however, admire their emphasis on the family and traditional values. They daily demonstrate that it is possible in the modern era to raise children who enjoy life, generally stay out of trouble, and are unashamed of obeying the law and being responsible citizens. I know I am speaking as if this was always the case with Mormons, and I know it isn't. Having one's parents involved in one's life doesn't do any good if the parents are irresponsible themselves, but it's generally better to have the parents involved in teenagers' lives than not.
This is what I think is a much better basis than simply age for granting drivers licenses. Parents generally have to sign permission forms before their underage kinds can get licenses. Take this a few steps further: if the kid gets a ticket, make the parents come to court and explain why they didn't know what Junior was up to, and what they're going to do about it in the household. Remind the parents they can rescind their consent for the license at any time, and give them some incentive to do so if there are subsequent violations. If the kid becomes uninsurable or the premiums to insure him are prohibitive, require the parent to show proof of responsibility as long as they are endorsing their child's drivers license. In short, compel those parents who aren't involved in their children's lives to become involved as long as their kid has a license.
For the teen drivers, shorten the leash. On the first low-end moving violation, impose a fine and traffic school, and pull their license until both are completed. For the second mover, or any alcohol-related or criminal charge, or dropping out of high school, no license until they're 18 and responsible for themselves.
The drivers license is one of the most highly valued possessions of a young adult. There's no reason not to use that as a method of social control, holding it hostage to compel them to take responsibility for their own behavior.