Switched-On Magazine

Becoming a motorist at any age can be an accomplishment chocked full of dangerous possibilities; so, why should teens take the brunt of the restrictions? Is it because numbers state that teens are more likely to be reckless and have proved to be so? Or is it because teens have a reputation of being irresponsible, practicing reckless behaviors on the road? Be that as it may, who's to say which adults aren't still teens at heart? A driver's license should be something liberating, something that provides us with that first baby step into adulthood. It doesn't always have to lead to a drunken crash, nor is every crash a drunken one. The punishments that teens receive before even having set out for the road ignore this distinction. 

You know the cliché paradox, the one that says how you can't get a job without experience but you need a job to get experience? Car insurance is just a manifestation of it. The majority of insurance companies up insurance rates for teens, making it harder for them to afford it. Really, who wants to support an age group in which about 400,000 drivers will be injured in crashes? That is a lot to cover. Yet, this lack of coverage doesn't necessarily lower the risks that teens take while driving: if adults can drive without insurance and get away with it there's no doubt that teens have tried it as well. The nuance seems to be that it's about getting caught doing something you shouldn't be doing, no matter the age. Even then, to generalize across ages, even across a single age group shouldn't be done. Not all teens take the same risks. 

Still, regulations and restrictions should be maintained. Their aim is to deter the occurrence of risk-filled situations while driving, and to an extent they are effective at this. They're also effective at persuading teens to bend the law too. You can know a law and still choose to disobey it. These restrictions encourage teens to practice safe driving skills though at the same time they promote the same reckless behavior that they try to prevent. True as this may be, having restrictions and punishments generalized over all teens seems to be the necessary route, for now anyway. Instead of trying to change people's behavior behind the wheel, why not try to show them the right thing to do and have faith that they'll do it?