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| Debatabase Junior Topic |
| Summary: Should the age at which you can legally drive be raised to 18? |
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Author:Alastair Endersby ( United Kingdom )
Alastair learnt to debate at the Cambridge Union but discovered his real talents lay in coaching when he started teaching. He has twice coached England teams in the World Schools Debating Championships. Alastair currently teaches History and Politics at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury, England. He is the Editor of Debatabase.
Created: Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 31, 2008
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The age at which you can legally drive varies from country to country, but in many places it is lower than 18. In some American states it is 15 or younger. Usually you are allowed to take a driving test a year or more before you can vote or drink alcohol. As young drivers are the ones most likely to have accidents, from time to time there are calls to raise the driving age. In the past two years lawmakers in the US states of Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Massachusetts have debated raising their driving age, although each attempt was defeated. The British government has also recently considered lifting the driving age in the UK from 17 to 18, although it seems unlikely to go ahead with this change.
This topic assumes that the age should be raised to 18, but the arguments will still work for any number higher than the present legal driving age in your state. Many European countries already have a driving age of 18, so they might debate raising it to 21. Most of the arguments will also work for a debate on limiting how young people can drive – for example, banning them from carrying passengers or from driving age night. |
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| Human life is precious and we must do everything reasonable to prevent deaths. Raising the driving age will cut the number of accidents on the roads. Teenage drivers are much more likely to have accidents than older drivers. In the USA there were over 30 000 deaths in crashes involving 15-17 year old drivers between 1995 and 2004. Raising the driving age by a year or two will greatly reduce these accidents and deaths. |
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Young drivers do have more accidents, but that is because they are not very experienced, not simply because they are under 18. If we raise the driving age, it will be 18-19 year old new drivers having more accidents instead of 16-17 year olds. After all, men are 77% more likely than women to kill someone while at the wheel, so if we went just by statistics we would ban all male drivers. |
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| Few countries think 16 and 17 year olds are grown up enough to vote, drink alcohol or smoke. Yet most allow them to get behind the wheel of a car, even though it is a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands. Society usually sees 18 as the age at which young people become adults. Shouldn’t driving be one of the privileges ad responsibilities of adulthood? |
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Many teens are safe and careful drivers, and almost all adult drivers today started before they were 18. It would be unfair to punish all 16 and 17 year olds for the bad behaviour of a few. Instead of a blanket measure like raising the driving age, there are other steps we could take to make the roads safer. We could make the driving test tougher. We could require a retest after compulsory retraining for any new driver caught driving badly. And we could make it so that parents decide if their child is responsible enough to take a driving test. |
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| Teenage drivers are particularly dangerous, so delaying when they get a license will make the roads much safer for everyone. Young people (especially boys) have a different attitude to driving compared to older ones. For example, they can be fearless and thrill-seeking, taking risks that older drivers would not do. They see good driving as about being able to control their car at high speeds. They are also more influenced by peer pressure and more competitive, both of which make risky behaviour more likely. |
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Studies of young drivers show that risky behaviour affects men in their twenties as well as 16-17 year olds. Should we ban all young men from driving before they turn 25? No, because most young men do drive safely already. The few who don’t are the ones who are likely to break the law and drive underage without a license anyway. So raising the age will punish everyone apart from the troublemakers. For most young people learning to drive is an important part of learning responsibility and taking up adult values. If we keep delaying when kids become adult, then young people will never learn responsibility. |
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| Raising the driving age will mean that fewer cars will be driven. Having fewer vehicles on the road (maybe 2% less) will benefit society as a whole. Firstly, it will reduce overcrowding on the roads, easing congestion and allowing the remaining traffic to flow more freely. Secondly cars are a major source of pollution and especially pump out a lot of carbon which contributes to climate change. Any measure which reduces car use should therefore be supported. |
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In our modern society driving is essential – mobility has to be regarded as a right you gain in your mid-teens. 16 and 17 year olds need to drive to get to school or work. Many live in areas with few buses or trains, and you cannot expect parents to drive them around for ever. Most of the activities that teach young people about the world, like sport, school clubs, bands, and part-time jobs, can only be done if teens can drive themselves. All these things are about gaining autonomy – making personal choices and beginning to find your own way in life as you become independent from Mom and Dad. Mobility is needed to make those choices - this explains why parents are just as opposed to raising the driving age as teenagers are. |
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| Over the past ten years many countries and most US states have already brought in graduated driver licensing (GDL). This means that new drivers have to go through two or more stages of restrictions before they earn a full license. Figures show that GDL has helped to reduce accidents and deaths, but these are still too high. Where GDL works it is because young drivers cannot go solo (without an older adult driver in the car with them) for 12 months after they start. So in effect, GDL is really raising the legal driving age by a year already and that is why accident rates are down. But adding another year or two to this actual solo driving age would cut deaths even more. And GDL on its own is weak because it is hard to check that its rules about accompanied driving are being followed. It would be best to have GDL and a higher driving age. |
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Rather than raise the driving age, states should introduce graduated driver licensing (GDL). This makes sure that new drivers gain experience under the eye of an experienced older driver (usually a parent) before they can take the wheel on their own. Some schemes also limit new drivers to the hours of daylight, or stop them going on the fastest roads. Only once a new driver (of whatever age) has gained experience under these restrictions and proved they are safe on the road, do they get a full license. GDL doesn’t fit with raising the driving age, because it assumes that new drivers are still at home with their parents. If you change the age so that learners cannot drive until they have mostly left home, then there is no one to go out with them. |
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| Raising the driving age would also help us tackle obesity. Lack of exercise is a major reason why many people are hugely overweight. Obesity leads to ill health for the individual, and society suffers through higher taxes to pay for the extra healthcare spending, as well as from lower economic output. Many teens are obese and raising the driving age would force them to walk instead of riding, giving them much-needed exercise. 16-18 is also a time when people develop habits that will stick with them for life. This means that raising the driving age will have a wider impact as people will grow up less dependent on their cars. |
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The roots of obesity are in early childhood, not the teenage years, so this measure won’t make a difference. But society will pay if the driving age is raised, as many young workers won’t be able to take the jobs they are offered. This will make our labour market less flexible, raising the costs of doing business and making youth unemployment an even bigger problem. We could, of course, lay on much more public transport, but that would also be very expensive. |
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| | This House would raise the driving age
This House believes 16 is too young
That we should raise the legal driving age to 18
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ewrwer
Member
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Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 02:00 am
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ewrwer
Member
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Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 01:58 am
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FionaTTJB
Member
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Posted: Sun Mar 7, 2010 11:30 am
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i think the age should remain at 17 , i know im only 16 but its only a minority of people who drive wrecklessly but i do think that the driving test should be slightly more strict , and when people are my age 16 give them presentations on wreckless driving ect and maybe they will see the dangers |
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