<p><a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-03-02-teens-cars-main-usat_x.htm[/url]”>http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-03-02-teens-cars-main-usat_x.htm</a></p>
<p>…bicycle?? 
just kidding. It says “car”</p>
<p>I read the article and really mulled it over. My seventeen year old drives one of the recommended cars and I felt good about that but my sixteen year old may be driving too small a car. I am honestly considering trading in his car and getting a slightly larger one with side airbags after reading that article.</p>
<p>My neighbors thought I was being silly giving my S the new car of the family to drive. Before that he was driving a big full-size pickup truck. But the car he’s driving now has front/rear side curtain airbags, is heavy, and gets 5 stars on the collision tests for both driver/passenger, front/rear passengers, front/side impacts. I feel so much better with him driving that vehicle. He’s 18 now, but we wouldn’t let him drive other teens around for a while and made sure that he learned how not to overcompensate when his car begins losing control.</p>
<p>But his mom and I never go to sleep until he’s home from wherever he’s been that night. We still worry. Does that ever go away?</p>
<p>Does that ever go away? Never. Not even when they are away from home. Not even when they’ve moved out. Not even when they are married and have their own kids to worry about. My mother still calls me when she hasn’t heard anything for a day or two.</p>
<p>Boysmom, lol – My mom still tells me to “stop and look both ways” at one particular intersection in the town where she lives. </p>
<p>The speed limit there is 20 mph, and in the time it takes a car to pass through, I could read the NY Times and have myself a grande mochachina. To get into a wreck at that intersection, I’d actually have to call somebody ahead of time and arrange it. ;)</p>
<p>at my house you begin working when youre 14, and by the time youre 16 (from my observations) you are more mature than the other 16 year olds, and can handle the responsibility of owning a car… because you bought that car yourself, and you pay your own insurance… and kids that pay for their own cars and insurance tend to drive them safer, as they realize it’s their money… not just something mommy and daddy will buy them another one if they crash into something… Just my two cents. I was 17 by the time I saved up enough money for my car, and my cousin was 17 too. I believe my sister will be about 17 as well.</p>
<p>I was just in Florida, and the one girl dropped her digital camera (that her parents bought her) and she called them and said that it was broken, and they said Don’t worry, we’ll buy you another one… I think it’s the same thing with cars… Parents buy their kids cars, they crash them, and then the parents feel the need to get them a new one… of my roommates, two of then bought their own cars, and have never been in any major accidents, and the two whose parents bought them cars have either giant dents or have totalled their cars… and their parents paid and got them another car. i’m sure it’s not as simple as what i’m describing, but that’s just how i see it in my eyes…</p>
<p>If you live in a rural area and have multiple cars, then a driver without passengers might be okay at low rates of speed. I trust kids but also am aware of their limits, their brains have not yet developed an adult risk filter. I will get a lot of flack on this but I think controls on things like driving hours, radio volume and passenger age should be in place for the first year anyone drives. We need better public transportation and fewer cars. I also think there is a correlation between high school drop out rates and the number of years left in high school when you get your licence.</p>