Should the driving age be raised to 18?

"Should the driving age be raised to 18?" is something that has been long debated in many countries with a lower driving age, including the U.K. Some even suggest that raising the age you can get a full driving licence to 21 would be even more effective at cutting down the number of driving related accidents. But how will raising the age you can legally learn to drive affect young people? Below, we"ll take a look at some of the reasons people use in debates relating to "Should the driving age be raised to 18?"

Why should the driving age be raised to 18?

Research suggests that the death toll for driving related incidents among people in the U.K is attributed to the 17-25 age group. Research suggests that the most accidents also occur within the 17-18 range.

Most newly qualified drivers fall within the 17-18 catergory and teens are considered more likely to cave in to peer pressure and drive in ways that are considered dangerous e.g. at excessive speeds. Some young people are under the impression that being able to drive a car at high speeds makes them cool and more interesting. Young people are likelier to overestimate their own driving abilityand thus more likely to cause accidents. Waiting until 17-18 years olds are more mature could lower the number of RTAs (Road Traffic Accidents).

Increasing the driving age to 18 will cut the amount of road congestion since there will be less young people driving at an early age. In a climate where a lot of people are concerned about emissions and the environment, increasing the driving age is a good thing. There will be less pollution created as there will be less cars on the road, and traffic already on the road will be able to move better.

Should the driving age be raised to 18, how will this affect young drivers?

Strangely enough, a lot of countries allow people to learn to drive before they are legally allowed to do many other thing e.g. drink alcohol or vote. Perhaps this is because in modern societies, mobility is essential. For a lot of young people, access to their own transport is required, especially if they live in rural areas within the U.K. It would be unfair to force those with very few other means of travelling to put off learning to drive and making them wait for a full licence. For young people to feel like they are fully indepedent, they need to be as unreliant on their parents as possible. Being able to get yourself places without parents help goes a long way to getting the independance that a lot of teenagers seek.

When discussing the topic "should the driving age be raised to 18?", we should consider the use of something called graduated driver licences (also referred to as GDL). Perhaps, instead of increasing the age which people can learn to drive, the U.K. could use GDL as a viable option to reduce all the bad things associated with younger drivers. This form of licencing, which is already available in some U.S. states, means that young drivers cannot drive a car alone for the first 12 months. New/younger drivers will have certain restrictions imposed that could help to reduce the number of accidents, without taking away the use of cars to those young people who really need it.