Many parents fear the day when their children are old enough to drive and not just because they will face high auto insurance costs. Seeing you child behind the wheel and thinking of the dangers ahead is a natural concern. But what age is the right age?

Many of us with teenagers desperate to learn to drive did not face the same challenges learning to drive that young people face today. Farmers’ children especially seldom needed lessons as they had been driving tractors and riding motorbikes on the farm from the age of twelve.

However, just because that was the way it was done in the past does not mean it is the way it should be done today. Plenty has changed.

It is true that many you people still learn to drive at a young age on farms and I often see kids driving quad bikes for fun. That doesn’t mean that they have the sense and control of the vehicle to mess with fast moving traffic.

I know adults that love to ride quad bikes, but they have the sense to bash around on them in isolated rural areas where there is no traffic at all. I even know one man who came bouncing over a sand dune in his quad only to plow into his own SUV which was sitting quietly where he had parked it. At least he was well away from traffic and other people’s vehicles.

At what age should we let young people loose with extremely powerful cars, amongst fast moving traffic on multi-lane highways? In some countries it is at 15 and in others it is 18. When I think about the complexity of driving, the coordination required and the speed at which traffic moves these days I wonder that anyone can learn to drive.

But, young people do seem to learn new things quickly and with relative ease. Look at how intuitively they master cell phones and computer programs. They approach driving with an enthusiasm and a confidence that is awe inspiring and terrifying. Sometimes it appears as if they do not have the imagination to encompass all the really bad things that can happen to them on the roads. And this may be a good thing.

For my money, 15 years old is too young to drive a car unaccompanied. The graduated driver license (GDL) is the start of a sensible approach to getting young people driving. When they should be allowed to start learning needs to be debated more extensively; however, I am certain that they need to be gradually assisted to become safe drivers through careful teaching and working through a series of restrictions.

The accident statistics make it clear that letting young people on the roads night and day, with passengers and other distractions is far from sensible. Young drivers are at least four times more likely to have an accident and that is why auto insurance is set so high.

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Category: Automotive
Keywords: affordable auto insurance, car insurance, cheap insurance, graduated drivers licensing