A bill to raise the driving age to 18.

Counterarguments: 1. Society without the driving age of 18 Institute researchers have compiled decades worth of data from New Jersey, the only state that issues licenses at 17. The overall rate of teens killed in crashes in New Jersey has been consistently lower than in some nearby states according to various studies. Even though the driving age is not 18, it is one year higher than 17. One study from the 1990s found that the rate of crash-related deaths among 16- and 17-year olds were 18 per 100,000 in New Jersey, compared with 26 per 100,000 in Connecticut. Graduated licensing, which has become the standard across the country in the past 15 years have dropped the rates even lower. According to the National Highway Safety Administration, the rate of crashes, fatal and nonfatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59. The statistics show that raising the driving age to just one year reduces teen-related crashes. Therefore raising the driving age would reduce more teens killed in crashes like a linear equation. Source: . http://www.huffingtonpost.com... 2. Inexperience Researchers used to think that inexperience is mostly to blame for deadly crashes involving teens. However, in recent years, safety researchers have noticed a pattern emerge — one that seems to stem more from immaturity than from inexperience. "Skills are a minor factor in most cases," says Allan Williams, former chief scientist at the insurance institute. "It's really attitudes and emotions. " NIH brain research suggests that the area that peers ahead and considers consequences called the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex remains undeveloped . And in teen after teen, the research team discovered that it's not fully mature. That means careless attitudes and rash emotions often drive teen decisions, says Jay Giedd, chief of brain imaging in the child psychiatric unit at the National Institute of Mental Health. In making decisions, teens rely more on the parts of their brain that control emotion. Indeed, that is why brain and auto safety experts think that most car crashes could be easily avoided, but are caused by teenagers showing off or been disregarding the safety of themselves and others because of their "It will never happen to me" attitude. Source: . http://www.usatoday.com... 3. Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) Teens can learn how to drive with a supervising adult in the car before they become 18. Therefore, they can get their experience without driving alone, that can lead to car accidents and deaths. GDL programs are helping to reduce teen driving deaths. Generally, the three stages of GDL are: 1. Supervised learning period. The new driver is allowed to drive only with a supervising adult in the car for a given period of time or minimum number of hours before earning an intermediate license. 2. Intermediate license. At this stage, the driver has earned a license and no longer needs supervision to drive, but is subject to restrictions. 3. Full-Privilege license. The driver meets the age and any other requirements to earn an unrestricted drivers license. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that when states had comprehensive GDL programs containing at least the following five elements in effect, there was a 20 percent reduction in fatal crashes involving 16-year old drivers: 1. A minimum age of 15 1/2 for obtaining a learner's permit 2. A waiting period after obtaining a learner's permit of at least three months before applying for an intermediate license 3. A minimum of 30 hours of supervised driving 4. Minimum age of at least 16 years for obtaining an intermediate license 5. Minimum age of at least 17 years for full licensing 6. A restriction on carrying passengers. Now imagine if we raised the minimum age of at least 18 years for full licensing. We can expect less deaths and car accidents involving 16-year-olds. Source: . http://www.rmiia.org... 4. Allowing 16-year-olds to have cars provides many benefits and cons. I agree that high school students are becoming more involved than ever. However 16 and 17-year-olds are not going to college yet. They're still only 1 or 2 years older than the 15-year-olds who can't legally drive. If "putting a demand on the parents for transportation is damaging and limits the youth and students ability to participate in the community or on a broader level," then how could 16-year-olds got to school or participate in the community the previous year? If raising the driving age limits education, work related purposes or for special family circumstances, then why shouldn't they lower the driving age? Even though raising the driving age could penalize some families in which teens need to drive to work, driver licenses should only be offered at age 16 in special circumstances where driving is actually required such as for work related purposes or for special family circumstances, proof should be required. Source: . http://wiki.answers.com... 5. Why shouldn't the age be raised to 25? People are more likely to go to college when they're 18, instead of 16. They have a generally more developed brain than 16-year-olds and will have experience when they participate in GDL programs. Statistics show that 16-year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age. Therefore, raising the driving age to 18 will reduce these teen-related car accidents and deaths. Raising the age further than the age of majority (age of 18 in the United States) is unnecessary, because the age of majority indicates the end of adolescence and people who reach this age are regarded as adults and are held to be responsible for their actions. 6. Lower auto insurance rates Auto insurance rates would be lowered for all drivers. Since teens are high-risk drivers, a family's insurance rates double when a teenage girl is added, to policy rates triple when a teenage boy is added The insurance for a family's insurance plan can range from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars with a teen driver. Car insurance rates will jump for 50% to 200% the minute a teenage driver is added to their parent's policy. Source: . http://write.teachingmatters.org... 7. Possible temporarily solution to global warming Less cars on the road, less air pollution, might slow down global warming. It was just a thought though. It may need elaboration later. 8. Cost of crashes AAA calls for improved graduated driver licensing to counter nearly one million crashes involving 15- to 17-year olds annually. Applying the GDL and raising the driving age to 18 would decrease the cost associated with untrained drives on the road. However, teenagers are more immature than adults, because they have undeveloped dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. A first-ever analysis from AAA finds that crashes involving teen drivers ages 15 to 17 cost American society more than $34 billion annually in medical expenses, lost work, property damage, quality of life loss and other related costs in 2006. But if teenagers can't legally drive under the age of 18, then these cost would disappear resulting in a better society with $34 billion dollars not wasted because of immaturity or inexperience. Source: . http://aaanewsroom.net... Conclusion: Research shows raising the legal driving age would help lower the number of teenage driving deaths and make the roads safer for the rest of the drivers. Places like New Jersey have lower teen crash death rates because of raising the driving age. Auto insurance rates would also be lowered for all drivers.