At 16, Henry Stock doesn’t see many reasons to get a driver’s license.
He can walk to stores near his home in Hollywood, Florida. Many of his friends are fellow gamers he can talk to online. And he can use a mobile ride-sharing app to get a ride when he needs one.
So while Stock has a learner’s permit, he hasn’t yet made much of a dent in the 50 hours of supervised driving he needs to get a full license in Florida.
“It’s more time and effort than I want to put into something that won’t benefit me a lot right now,” Stock said.
Other teens see things the same way. The share of high school seniors across the country who have a driver’s license dropped from 85.3 percent in 1996 to a record low 71.5 percent in 2015, according to data from the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey.
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17 comments:
No jobs to be on time for yet, at least ones that will cover the costs of payments, insurance & gas.
Thanks, Democrats!
Gimme gimme. -libs
Momma's boy forever.
Maybe it has to do with the cost of the mandatory over-priced insurance???
It's called being lazy!
From the day I was born right here in the county of Wicomico (redneck), my only goal was to turn 16 so I could get a license to drive a vehicle. Note I said vehicle, didn't matter if it were a piece of junk I put together, the family sedan or a farm truck.
My son's both have drivers licenses, but most of their friends and college friends don't. For ten dollars each way, they can call uber for a ride. Cheaper than having the expense of a car and upkeep with car payments, maintenance and insurance. You can also get a moped to get around without a license as well. I think the convenience of uber and the fact most of this younger generation is content to live at home, they rather have their gadgets than have the expense of a vehicle. Cars are no longer the status symbols they used to be. My elderly mother is the same way. She could not afford the upkeep and insurance on her car so she now calls a taxi or me, if she needs to go somewhere. Times are definitely changing and not for the better.
If it was as hard to get when I was 16, as it is today, I might not have been so eager to get a license. The cost of the required training (mine was school provided), the lengthy provisional period, all the restrictions on the hours you can drive and the people that you can have in the car with you, and the cost of insurance, makes it really difficult AND expensive to get a license. As the teen in the post says, he has other ways of getting around, without all the hassle and expense of being licensed. Its a different world today, and teens in metropolitan areas may very well choose (wisely) not to get a license, or ever own a car.
9:04, You are correct. The examine just to get the 90 day card is not easy. You can study the book, and still fail it. It took both my sons more than two tries just to pass the written exam. Then there is the cost of enrolling both of them in a driving school because public school in Maryland no longer offers Drivers Ed but they sure tax us a hell of a lot in this state and county!!!!
I had to pay out of pocket for the courses and drive them there. The drive time is limited so, once they finish the class, you have to over two hundred hours of drive time with a registered driver (parent). It was for me a pain and inconvenience. Had to take time off from work to get him to the classes, and then set aside time end the evenings and weekends for drive time. It wasn't as all this hard when I got my 90 day card at 15 and then my license at 16. Hours were logged at school and didn't have to go through so many hoops. Because of this, my sons did not get their licenses until they had graduated from high school. I gave them my old car and bought my other son a late model 2005 Ford Taurus. The insurance alone cost a fortune! 100 per month for each of my sons aged 20 and 23. Not counting what I have to pay for me and my wife. Luckily both boys work part time, so they pay the insurance under my name to help get the high rates down a bit. If you wonder what so many young people don't drive or have licenses, this is the reason. I know I am not alone and other parents are in the same boat.
you don't need a license to travel, only to drive
from what I have seen of young (and old) drivers, this is a blessing in disguise. Less inexperienced drivers on the road and when they do get on the road hopefully they are more mature than 16 years old.
March 10, 2017 at 11:55 AM:
And were YOU licensed under all the new rules and restrictions? From your comment, I doubt it. If you weren't licensed under the new rules, then you were an unsafe driver when you got your license? Somehow, I doubt you feel that way, and that would make you a hypocrite.
I wouldn't let mine get one till eighteen it's too dangerous for some kids.my son has ADD and we live near a lot of backroads too scary for me to let him drive so young.and alot of the twenty year olds driving near the colleges practically kill people with thier texting and looking everywhere but the road, most of them can't drive eithier.Then add in all the drunks and herion heads driving around and I'm afraid for my life as well.
I was also a "gamer" when I was a teenager. after school it was football, basketball and baseball. on a lot of occasions, it was all in the same day
2:03 Sounds like you are raising a snowflake. Are you going share a dorm room with him at college?
When I was a teenager we worked for what we wanted. I worked farm work all summer to make enough money to pay for my own car insurance. I got my drivers license had my insurance money to pay my dad for my portion of the insurance bill. Then a senior in high school I purchased a car from a person in our neighborhood. I was going to school and still working a part time job at nights. The car was ten years old and I paid the guy fifty dollars down and twenty dollars a week until I had paid the full amount. It was an old Buick and it left me on the side of the road so many times I can't count them all. This is all true facts but if you wanted anything in this life we were taught you had to work to get it. It's just to bad parents today never taught that lesson to their snowflake kids.
My son lives on his own and he can drive..just don't think sixteen year olds are responsible enough.
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