More teens are waiting to get driver licenses
The Washington Post

Updated: 01/25/2010 06:57:13 AM MST


Washington » The quest to get a driver license at 16 -- long an American rite of passage -- is on the wane among the digital generation, which no longer sees the family car as the end-all of social life.

The holdouts include Kat Velkoff, who turned 17 in Chantilly, Va., without a license. Focused on tough classes, the debate team, dance and color guard, she turned 18 without taking the wheel. Then 19.

"It just wasn't a priority," said Velkoff, who got her license last year at 20. "It was just never the next thing that needed to get done in my life."

Federal data released Friday underscore a striking national shift: 30.7 percent of 16-year-olds got their licenses in 2008, compared with 44.7 percent in 1988.

"Driving is real important to a lot of the kids in the culture, but it is not the central focus like it was 25 years ago," said Tom Pecoraro, owner of I Drive Smart, a Washington area drivers' education program, who added that plenty of his students are older teens. "They have so many other things to do now," he said, and, with years of being shuttled to sports, lessons and play dates, "kids are used to being driven."

A generation consumed by Facebook and text-messaging, Xbox Live and smartphones no longer needs to climb into a car to connect with friends. And although many teens are still eager to drive, new laws make getting a license far more time-consuming, requiring as many as

60 supervised driving practice hours with an adult.

Rob Foss, director of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers at the University of North Carolina, and others suggest that these "graduated" state licensing systems -- which have created new requirements for learner's permits, supervised practice hours, night driving and passengers in the car -- are responsible for much of the decline in the number of licensed 16-year-olds. At the same time, drivers' education has been cut back in some public schools, so families must scrounge up money -- often $300 to $600 -- for private driving schools.

Then there is car insurance and gas, expenses that make driving too costly for some families and a stretch for others.

"In this economy, if my daughter were to drive, just the insurance would be $1,200 a year or more, and that's a lot of money," said Elizabeth Walker, the mother of a reluctant driver in Rockville, Md. Plenty of parents don't want their children driving at 16, given the congestion and peril of the roads and the fact that car crashes are the leading cause of teen deaths.

^ I do not have the money to buy one of these anytime soon.
I drive but I do not have my drivers license yet.
So until then...
I walk. I take the bus. I take the metro. I catch a ride with friends.
I call a cab. Ride in the car with my parents.

I havent used my skateboard for a while now.
I let one of my friends borrow it and he never returned it.

To "FAIRFAX COUNTYS MASTER OF METAL"

Did anyone ever teach you what an apostrophe is?

FUNdamental Wrote:
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> To "FAIRFAX COUNTYS MASTER OF METAL"
>
> Did anyone ever teach you what an apostrophe is?


C'mon now, he's the Master of Metal, the only punctuation he should be using is an umlaut.

^ If I had the money right now to buy one of these I would defintely make it a point to have a drivers license by this afternoon ASAP.

Who wants to be seen in the 1990 mini-can? its all I can afford for my kids to drive...

I have no problem with less kids on the road. I support their mature and responsible decision to wait.

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13 4826 0948 82695 25847. Yes.

Duchess Wrote:
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> Who wants to be seen in the 1990 mini-can? its all
> I can afford for my kids to drive...

Your kids should be happy with whatever they get, especially if they don't purchase it themselves. Did I look cool with a 1986 Isuzu I-Mark? Fuck no, but it got me around.

__________________________________
That's not a ladybug, that's a cannapiller.

Warhawk Wrote:
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> Duchess Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Who wants to be seen in the 1990 mini-can? its
> all
> > I can afford for my kids to drive...
>
> Your kids should be happy with whatever they get,
> especially if they don't purchase it themselves.
> Did I look cool with a 1986 Isuzu I-Mark? Fuck
> no, but it got me around.

Fuck that. Try being 18 and picking up a girl you met on Craigslist in the family minivan. The tacky golden tan minivan.

Although, it did come in rather handy at the drive-in one time...

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13 4826 0948 82695 25847. Yes.

MrMephisto Wrote:
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> Fuck that. Try being 18 and picking up a girl you
> met on Craigslist in the family minivan. The
> tacky golden tan minivan.
>
> Although, it did come in rather handy at the
> drive-in one time...


How did you find room with all of your pages of haiku and poetry littering the back of it? :-)

__________________________________
That's not a ladybug, that's a cannapiller.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2010 03:00PM by Warhawk.

My parents had a car like this once.
They sold it beore I was born though.
$500.00
Too bad I was not alive yet. I would have kept it.

Warhawk Wrote:
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> MrMephisto Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Fuck that. Try being 18 and picking up a girl
> you
> > met on Craigslist in the family minivan. The
> > tacky golden tan minivan.
> >
> > Although, it did come in rather handy at the
> > drive-in one time...
>
>
> How did you find room with all of your pages of
> haiku and poetry littering the back of it? :-)

What do you think we used as a mattress?

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13 4826 0948 82695 25847. Yes.

Well, I must be old since I can't relate to any teen who does not want his license the day he becomes old enough.

I began working at 15, saved my money, bought a car and it was waiting for me on the day I turned 16. Paid for my car, insurance, gas, beer, etc. by working for it.

Apparently kids would rather play video games than have the freedom that comes with drivng...

can't relate Wrote:
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> Apparently kids would rather play video games than
> have the freedom that comes with drivng...

can't relate Wrote:
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> Well, I must be old since I can't relate to any
> teen who does not want his license the day he
> becomes old enough.
>
> I began working at 15, saved my money, bought a
> car and it was waiting for me on the day I turned
> 16. Paid for my car, insurance, gas, beer, etc.
> by working for it.
>
> Apparently kids would rather play video games than
> have the freedom that comes with drivng...

Times have changed.
I got long hair just like you all did back in the day though.

With all the insurance, state training and restrictions, it's wonder that a 16 yr old can even get a license in VA.

One more thing - if a kid gets hauled into Juvenile Court these days (not as hard to happen as it was when I was a kid - you really had to screw up and commit a crime but now its like sneeze and you are there) AND The first thing they do is yank your drivers license.

It does not matter you were not driving or anywhere near a car when your crime occured - but if a Juvenile is involved in drugs, alcohol or even smoking -- or around anyone who was---bye bye license.

They also just passed a law about skipping school - miss so many days unexcused and lose your license. You may think this is a no brainer, but try dealing with the automated attendance system at the High Schools. Its nearly impossible to get an error corrected and they do make errors that they will refuse to acknowlege.

One of my kid's teachers marked the whole class absent one time. And when I had no children enrolled at that school - I still got automated attendance calls telling me my child was absent that day.

"Then there is car insurance and gas, expenses that make driving too costly for some families and a stretch for others."
Not really when you use your imagination.
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I'm 22 and don't have a license. No big deal.

I once went 27 years without having sex...and then I slept until 3pm today. THe point is, a driver's license isn't such a big deal.

Cheer up, Mr. Misery! Craig David wasn't always the ladies' man that he is today!
[whisper]The secret is in the pencil-thin Fu Manchu[/whisper]

My thing is I get tired of taking them wherever they want to go when I have 4 little ones I have to take with me whenever they just want "dropped off". Plus, they're pregnant and almost 20 years old. I don't mind helping people out but there comes a time when they need to grow up.

I didn't get mine till I was 20. I liked to party a lot, saw my friends losing their licenses and getting big fines, so I waited. I knew I'd lose mine within a month. One of my few smart decisions then. Now, many years later, I can say I never had a DUI.

TheMeeper Wrote:
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> C'mon now, he's the Master of Metal, the only
> punctuation he should be using is an umlaut.

An umlaut isn't punctuation. It's a diacritical mark.

?????????????????????????????

there is car insurance and gas, expenses that make driving too costly

that's funny , the county spends millions on luxury family size condos to give to illegal immigrants, buys asian cars, and are putting even illegals in luxury homes, while as back door payouts they are building mc'mansions

NO GAS ?

kid. old people lie like shit. any many don't care if you die.

???????????????????????????

there are some of us who'd give them exactly what they deserve if given the chance
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no gas. an likely your parents are helicopters that stomp out any chance of your progress (unless its money coming their way). and fx co already is developing a shit list on you they'll later use against you if they get the chance.

i warned you

That shit happens.

My son turned 17 in Sept and has yet to get his license. He has a job 15 hrs a week, gets excellent grades and will fulfill all but 2 courses required to graduate HS with honors by the end of this, his junior year. Lazy? nope - he just is in no rush. His work is a mile away so he walks. Why the judgement? Of course by his age Id nearly killed myself and others driving several times but hey