I think its an important skill to have an wouldn’t want my kids to wait too long. What if they went somewhere with someone who had too much to drink to drive home? Babysitting job where driving could come in handy? Our next step is teaching our kids to drive a stick shift so they can rent in other countries.
My NH nieces and nephews have all had licenses the minute they were old enough. And there was always an extra car or two as well. You really have very limited options if you can’t drive.
D2 has her driver’s license, but she can’t drive. Does that count?
She got her driver’s permit when she turned 16. She wrecked two cars while learning how to drive. We then moved to a country where we had a driver. The driver was ghostly white after he tried to teach D2 how to drive for the first time, so we gave it up. I “got” D2 a foreign driver’s license without taking a driver’s test while living abroad, and I was able to convert it to a legitimate driver’s license when we came back. Now we live in a city where driving is not necessary.
We live in a mid-sized city with crappy public transportation. I am amazed at how often I hear of kids here who don’t want to drive. My kids were not among them. I’m glad because we were sick of all the driving. Son got his permit at 15 and his license within a couple of weeks of turning 16. D was a a few months behind only because she had to take a couple of months off for medical reasons.
We did not allow our older DD to get her driver’s license until senior year after extra practice time. Younger DD was ready to earn it right at 16.
I have been reading that millennials are opting out of driving.
http://grist.org/cities/what-we-can-learn-from-the-millennials-who-are-opting-out-of-driving/
The school stopped offering drivers ed as a sophomore class, necessitating a private driving school. They had sports after school. Area orchestra on Saturday mornings. Other commitments in the summer. Junior year, twin 2 went abroad, and returned too late for summer classes. Twin 1 took the evening classes as junior and learned to drive. Twin 2 was too busy with college apps and sports to take drivers ed Senior year. Then she did a gap year, finally getting a permit after turning 19 abroad. It took another year to practice enough, and 3 fails of the test (they are tough in our area, and never having had the classes, her mom was not an adequate teacher). Dad had left town by that point, and was too OCD with his car when they were in HS to let the kids drive or help teach them.
Now I’m working on her learning stick so she can drive my newer car. She’d rather walk and bike, though is back in town for grad school. She lived in DC previously, and does drive zip car when needed in DC.
Interesting article @raclut. Thanks for posting.
In our state, you don’t get hit with increased insurance costs unless you actually add the child to the policy. I think there are still valid reasons to have one (as mentioned above) even if you don’t always (or even rarely) use it.
I’ll admit, though, as a parent of a 16 year-old driver…it makes you nervous sometimes. She’s been driving now for 1 1/2 years, so that anxiety is lessening. Our insurance DID double.
We live in NYC where lots of people don’t drive, as @LoveTheBard says. I have a license but I haven’t driven in years. My D will want to get a license at some point but it’s not a top priority. I don’t know what car she’d drive if she got a license since no one in the family has one.
No extra car for either kid to drive while still in high school, plus both were so busy with ECs, and we are in Indiana with lousy weather, so 6 months of the year is pretty hazardous for a new driver and neither was eager to get out there.
Agree it’s a life skill they need to have, but I didn’t feel any rush for them to convert that permit (no increase in insurance) to a license (mega increase in insurance for a teenage boy).
As a teenager (16) I went to drivers ed and had the worst instructor. He yelled so much and told me that I would never drive. He made me so anxious and I remember dreading going driving with him the next day. I would be shaking. I remember my younger sister having him as a teacher and she would come home with her eyes all red. I finally learned my senior year of college and then it became a necessity when I started working. The summer before senior year I went to this recommended instructor from AAA and he was too good. In two days of driving with him I could parallel park and make the turn around in a small area and passed the drivers test. He helped me overcome my fear of driving (after the bad experience I had at 16)
If I had my way I would get rid of my car. No more maintenance, gas, and insurance. We live close to a newly built metro station and our area is being built as a place to live, work, and shop all within walking distance or by taking the metro to the next stop. I like this concept because it would have me walking more. With buses, trains, bikes, uber, taxis, and zipcars there are so many options available now. If I wanted to go away I would just rent a car for the weekend.
We live overseas where people drive on the opposite side of the road compared to the US and while there are A LOT of cars, they tend to be smaller even though the traffic density makes things move rather slowly. My daughter did take an expensive driver education class here and got a very restricted first license at 18, but she could walk to her high school and there was no car regularly available to her, and there was not much point to drive in the restricted domain where she could legally drive for a few months. We were also afraid that she would kill herself if she got to used to driving on one side of the road than switching to the American side. And, yes another excuse, but she isn’t all that motivated to drive and hasn’t needed to yet.
Now she is in college in a state that is not our residence and we have yet to figure out how to help her to complete this task of transitioning to full time life in the US. Also, she can manage the most complicated plane, train, bus or subway schedule and map, and thinks nothing of taking a cab or walking places.
She just renewed her passport though and ordered a passport card as well so that she has an ID that can serve in place of a driver’s license.
I didn’t get my drivers license until the week before I graduated from college…back in the Stone Age.
I didn’t have a car to use. And I used public transportation.
But when I graduated, I was moving to a more rural area…and needed a car…and license. Before than…I didn’t need one.
We live in a rural area with nothing much for public transportation…only one of my D’s friends as a college freshman still has no license. I suspect it is because her parents are really cheap and have relied on everyone else to drive their daughter around.
She still hasn’t had a job yet , which is highly unusual in our area.
I had my license the day after I turned 16. My son showed little interest until his friends got theirs. I hired the same teacher his friend used. He totaled his car a year later. I don’t think he really drove until last year of college. When we vacationed together, I was amazed how good a driver he had become.
Still, when I found out he had driven to Amherst from Boston last weekend, I was worried about his driving back with the snow coming down. It was a relief to know he got home safely.
I can not imagine sending my kids out into the real world without having confidence that, if they needed to, they could drive a car.
To me it is like learning to swim. You might hate the water, not live anywhere near a pool or a lake or a beach, you might not plan on ever setting foot on a boat, but you need to be able to swim well enough to know you could handle yourself in water if you needed to. I believe my own kids needed to be confident drivers before they left for college, if for no other reason than “you never know”. I knew they could handle a car, knew how to drive in snow, knew how to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, knew how to go through a toll booth, knew what an HOV lane is…
The one thing we have not accomplished is to teach our three drivers how to drive a manual transmission. We haven’t owned a stick in years, and don’t know anyone who does, either, but I think it is a skill a person should learn.
I learned to drive in a small town and on quiet two lane highways. The first time I drove on an 8 lane freeway in rush hour traffic I was 30. My own kids drove on I-95 and the DC or Baltimore beltway with a driver’s ed instructor as part of their state required drivers ed. course. I would have been petrified to do that as a teenager, but I’m glad they learned to do it. (And glad they did it with a certified driving instructor before they did it with me!)
Since driver’s ed is no longer a part of school curriculum (it was in the '70’s) getting a drivers license is expensive and really time consuming, requiring private drivers ed. instruction and many documented hours of in-car practice. I understand why families have a hard time paying for it and fitting it in as an extra curricular, evenings and weekends task. And I understand why kids can’t fit it into their already jammed schedules.
…because he is lazy and had nowhere he wanted to go. My D’s both got their licenses as soon as they were able, but S did not until I made him get it when he was 20 just to have it (and he has not been behind the wheel since almost 4 years later). He is planning to move to the west coast from NYC, and did mention to me recently that he would need to get a car and practice driving.
D’s were busy driving to school, sports practice, out with friends, but S was content to take the bus to school and was a homebody who rarely went out. He did have a state ID before he got his license. The only good thing for him about living in New York is no need to drive.
I have to agree with this. While I have a DL, I rarely drive, since I live in an urban environment with efficient public transport. It’s good to know, however, that in a pinch I could drive if needed.
Also agreed, but then a manual transmission is the norm, not the exception, here.
I would have forced my kids to learn to drive if I’d had to.
I drove a stick until a few years ago. Son learned on that and then inherited the car. He hated it at the time but he’s glad he can now, and he wanted a manual transmission when we had to replace his car.
We weren’t able to find a good deal on a used manual transmission for D. She’s had a few lessons on her brother’s car. I’d like her to get some more practice on it.
I think that driving a stick shift forces you to pay more attention to your driving which is a good thing for teens.
My gainfully employed, 30 year old PhD grad, living in an urban area, still has no drivers license. He sees no need to drive or own a car. He did have drivers ed and practice as a teen.
I got my license at 15 and immediately was given the responsibility of transportation for all my younger siblings.