Auto Boston

Driving age news.
Paul Ritchie posted in News on March 26th, 2006

Ok, so I lied about calling it a day at the end of the last entry. Only because a final check of emails found the late edition of The Boston Globe leading with the story of raising the minimum age for the holding of a driver’s license to 17 1/2 years.

Where I’m from, it’s 18. And even then they’re on pretty stringent restrictions for the first 2 years. One passenger maximum, unless accompanied by a fully licensed driver, zero blood alcohol content for the first two years, demerit points for speeding are doubled, and there is a maximum power-to-weight ratio allowed which, if breeched, can lead to the confiscation of the vehicle.

This is a personal bug-bear with me. Having seen many kids grow up and show off their new wheels to me over the years, I remind them, as any responsible adult would, to be careful on the road. They assure me they’re good drivers - as any teenager thinks they are. That’s when I tell them most earnestly, they could be the best driver on the face of the planet, but it’s those 4 million idiots out there whose sole purpose in life is to wipe you out - they’re the one’s of whom you have to be careful.

Lately, I’ve started telling them that all road builders are the ultimate in slack lazy toerags. They lay a bit of bitumen and think the job’s done. You onlyhave to look at all the car-scarred trees at the sides of those roads to realize that the bit of bitumen to which you’re entrusting your pride and joy - not to mention your life - is scarcely fit for a goat track.

Teenagers think they’re indestructible, if only they thought of themselves as indispensible, politicians might not have to be falling all over themselves imposing driving limitations. One method of tackling the problem which has been adopted in my burg is the concept of driver education before a kid even gets a licence.

Previously, all you had to do was know the road rules and prove you could control a car. Now you have to know what to do in an emergency situation, whether that’s when some duffer pulls out in front of you without looking or how to assist injured persons if you are involved in a stack.

Previously, you could apply for your learner’s permit at 17 years, 9 months and you only had to have your Ls for a minimum of 3 months and have had a minimum number of driving lessons in that time. Now you can get your learner’s permit at 17 but you can’t drive without a fully licensed driver in the vehicle and you have to have had your Ls for 12 months before you can go for your probationery license.

Harsh?

Humbug. Take them for a walk through any hospital trauma ward and see how many times you hear the words “I didn’t think it could happen to me.” Then come back and tell me what’s harsh and what’s just a bit inconvenient.

This is the sort of driver education campaign we’ve had in my neck of the woods for more than a decade:

TAC Media releases

These ads are quite often made by high school drama classes. Trust me, they work.