Number of Teen Drivers is In Decline

This is great. And hopefully when they DO earn their license they're responsible and buy a hybrid!

 

Those driving exam dudes won't let me text while taking my test! It's totally unfair! How do they expect me to go a whole 15 minutes without texting?

 

I know when i turned 16, there wasn't a real big rush to get my license. It was until i was 18 that i actually got my own car, so I was still reliant on the parents. My group of friends consisted of mostly people my own age in my neighborhood (aka i could easily walk or bike to their place, which i still did after i got my own car) and a few older friends who would do all the driving anyways. So no real pressure to get it the moment i turned 16. I want to say i waited a good 6 months before taking the test.

 

Must be a generation thing. In the Dark Ages when I was a teen having a license and a car (even access to the family car) was an ABSOLUTE MUST. In Oklahoma they offered a license for small motorcycles at age 14. I had the motorcycle for a year before being legal age and learned to ride by circling our 2 acres over and over. The day of my birthday I was in line to get the license before they opened. When I turned 16, I already had the car and was first to take the drivers test on the day of my birthday. Waiting even a day was simply not an option! Kids who turned 16 on Sunday were impossible to live with until the DMV opened the next day.

I am mystified by the difference today. A friend of mine has a step-son who was 18 before he got his license, and then only reluctantly. And this kid had a brand new Mustang waiting in the garage from his father. It sat for 2 years before the kid was even interested enough to get the license. Granted, when he did get one he sold the new 6 cylinder automatic Mustang and bought a used 5-speed V8 GT, so that might explain some of it.

 

I'm a weirdo - I didn't get my license until after I had graduated college AND had been working for a few months. On the up side that allowed me to save up enough money to get my first (and only other) car - my beloved used Camry. Actually, come to think of it, I didn't even learn to drive until after college as well.

 

Grandpa didn't get his license until age 45. As a teacher in various isolated Alaskan villages, there was no need.

When he moved back to the lower 48 and had the need, DMV did not believe that he had never been licensed, and wondered what he was trying to hide.

 

I didn't get my license until I was 20. It helped having a girlfriend at the time who wasn't within walking distance.

 

My two are 16 and 21, and neither one has shown any real interest in getting their licence. Nor have most of their friends, who pretty much all have transit passes - not to mention parents who still drive them places. I know quite a few people, some of them senior citizens, who have never had a licence or a car.

 

I'm stunned, Hyo. Just stunned.

Maybe even when I was a kid there were those in my school who didn't bother to get a license. But we were True Gearheads and were building engines and riding mini-bikes in Middle (Junior High) School, so I guess that explains it.

 

Anyone point out that there are fewer teens in general?

Tom