Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Driving

I think that the age for students to receive their drivers license should be younger then 17 years old. It's important to have good driving skills before you enter college and leave home. Getting your license before the age of 17 will give people more time to master their driving skills. Hopefully, this would reduce the number of accidents. When new drivers park their cars in school parking lots, there tends to be many accidents because the drivers have not been driving for a long time. By making the age to get your license younger, I believe that the effect would be positive.

- Christina Aguilera


13 comments:

  1. I agree on this issue. By allowing people to master their driving skills at a younger age, the amount of car accidents from ages 17 to the young 20s will most likely be dramatically decreased because people will already have experience. The younger you are, the more parents can restrict you so these younger drivers would be very well controlled. Many worry that having a younger driving age will result in more drinking and driving, but more 17 year olds are drinking than those younger than them in most situations. Why not allow young people to master driving before they start to get involved with alcohol? Although I am not saying this is ideal, it is still an improvement. Changing the driving rules around would definitely increase the GNH of our nation!
    -Audrey Hepburn

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  2. Excellent start!! Do you have any evidence that shows that younger drivers would be better drivers?

    I know there would be happier teenagers, but would there be more happiness throughout the nation? What about the adults? Would there happiness be increased because they had less shuttling to do, or would they be unhappy because of the anxiety of letting 16 year-olds drive?

    Nice work!

    Mrs. McCabe

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  3. I agree on this issue as well. If the age to get your license is lowered, the amount of car accidents will most likely decrease drastically. By having your license for a longer period of time, drivers will have more experience, ad be safer while on the road. I think that the nation would also be happy because of the low amount of accidents. Also, adults would probably be happier as well. If kids got their licenses earlier, parents would not need to drive their kids everywhere.

    -Madonna

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  4. I sort of agree with this issue. I believe that teenagers should get their permits at 16, but instead of getting their licenses at 17, they should get them at 18. I believe this will increase happiness for both teenagers and adults. Teenagers will be happy because they still can be behind the wheel at the age of 16 and adults will be happy because their teenagers will receive more practice. Two years of practice will guarantee less accidents and better drivers.

    -Queen Elizabeth

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  5. I also believe that lowering the driving age would increase the gross national happiness. The only way to become a better driver is to practice. If the driving age is lowered, kids will have more practice before they go off to college. Also, they have another year as an early driver with their parents monitoring them. If the driving age is lowered, people will have more practice and become more experienced drivers. This makes everybody happier because kids can drive themselves, parents don't have to drive their kids around, and everyone has a greater peace of mind about the safety of teens driving.

    -Marie Antoinette

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  6. I think the GNH will increase with a lowered driving age, because it is easier for adults to go on with their lives if they are not always the chauffeur, and kids will be happy because they can drive. I think, however, to compensate for the lowered driving age, the test should be harder (actually on the road, not in a parking lot) and the punishment should be more serious if a law is broken. That way adults can feel just as happy that their kid is not only driving, but driving safely. Also, in other states, the driving age is lower, and that is for practicality-- because many people whose families are farmers need their kids to drive. Why is it any different in New Jersey, where people still have jobs? It is a lot easier for people to work if they don't need their parents ride there and back every time. People would be happier if it is easier to make money.

    ~La Reina Sofia

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  7. This is a very interesting argument. Personally, I agree that the driving age should be lowered in many states. Hopefully this would reduce car accdients, give drivers more of a time to become familiar and experienced drivers, and promote a sense of maturity in the young American populace. However, a valid point against this argument is that maybe young adults are not mature enough or experienced enough drivers at the ages of 15 or 16 to drive in densely populated states. such as New Jersey.

    New Jersey is known for their crazy drivers and all around difficult and crowded highways and other roadways. Perhaps a solution to helping young adults begin driving earlier is to let teenagers have their first driving permit at 15 1/2 instead of 16. This would provide an extra 1/2 a year of driving and would let teenagers drive at a younger age, making them happy. The license could then be awarded at 16 1/2 or 17 depending on how good the driver is. It seems like a win-win situation. However, I do agree that driving, whether with a permit or a license, should occur with younger teenagers than it does currently.

    -Confucius

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  8. I completely agree with your stand on lowering the driving age in the U.S.A. Ultimately, I agree that teenagers starting to drive earlier will decrease the amount of car accdients, produce a more mature type of thinking in young adults, and provide more time leading to more experience in driving. Driving is an extremely important factor in life since almost every American particpates.

    However, I think that the driving age should be decided based on what state the civilian lives in. For example, New Jersey, one of the most densely populated states in the U.S.A. has extremely dangerous and overcrowded high ways and road ways. In a state like this, the driving age should be higher than that of a lesser dense state, such as Nebraska. In my opinion, states such as New Jersey should lower the age of getting your permit. Instead of 16, 15 1/2 would be a beter age of receiving your permit, after passing the written test. this extra 1/2 of a year will provide more experince and will make teenagers more happy since they are starting to drive earlier. The license would then be awarded at 16 1/2 or 17, depending on how good the driver is and if he/she passes the physical driving test.

    However, I completley agree that something must change in terms of lowering the driving age. It will only provide more experience and help in the long run!

    -Confucius

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  9. I also agree with what you had to say about lowering the driving age. Teenagers would get more practice in and more accidents could be prevented. Along with lowering the driving age, i think that the start of drivers education classes should be lowered too. You need to become familiar with how to operate a car before you actually get in one and drive away. Lowering the driving age will benefit not only the teenagers, but the parents. If their kids can drive themselves home from school and other after school activities, then the parents have more time to work and get things done at home/work.

    -Marilyn Monroe

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  10. When a student goes off to college, they experience a completely new area and new roads. With the driving age at 17 and only one year of preparation, these students are not ready to be on unfamiliar roads.

    I agree with Queen Elizabeth. I think that if people got their permit at 15 and their license at 17, accidents would be less likely to happen. Two full years of practice could really help prevent accidents. Also, if permits are given at a younger age, the law should be more strict as well as a harder driving test. A harder test would result in harder work from the teenagers, resulting in better prepared drivers. The more prepared the teenagers are, the less likely they would be to get in an accident.

    Overall, a lower driving age with two full years of practice would increase safety on the roads as well as help teenagers be more responsible. This would definitely increase Gross National Happiness.

    -Jane Austen

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  11. I agree with this issue. This is a very hard topic to argue because obviously all teenagers want the driving age to to be lowered,but most parents do not want it to be. Although it is said that getting your license at a later age prevents many accidents and is much safer, I do not agree. What makes a teenager more aware at the age of 17 than 16? If the same classes are being taken at a younger age and everything is being taught the same, it should not make a difference the age. I do not agree with Queen Elizabeth though because having a permit is very tempting to want to drive. If kids had to be restricted to only parents for 2 years, there would be many kids driving without parents on their permit which is more dangerous that just having the license. I believe that getting your license at 16 is a suitable age, espically because in other states like Georgia, kids are getting their license at 16 and their accident rate of teeagers is pretty even with ours.

    -Martha Stuart

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  12. I agree with Queen Elizabeth on the age the kids should recieve their permits but not their license. I think that kids can continue to get their licenses at 17 but not at any age younger than that. I do not think that allowing a younger driving age to recieve a license would create a better GNH for our nation. In fact, I think it would do the opposite. Kids need to gain experience to drive on the road on their own and the idea that 15 and 16 year old kids would be on the road on their own would upset the older generations. A greater GNH would be created if kids recieved as much experience as possible before driving and putting their lives and the lives of others in danger. Responsibilty and knowledge is gained with age, and I think those are two imperative traits a person should have before hitting the road.
    On the issue of driving during college in new areas, most college freshmen and sophmores are not allowed to drive until their junior year. Students will be able to gain experience in the times that they are home and during the summer, and once again, they will be more responsible and knowledgable because of age.

    Princess Diana

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  13. I agree with Princess Diana. I think that 17 is the perfect age for teenagers to get their licenses. I believe that any age younger than 17 teenagers do not have enough responsibility and are not cautious about the dangers of the road, therefore lowering the age to get a license would not better the GNH. I agree that kids need experience on the road through having a permit for a year when they are 16. The more experience the better. Most kids are not aware of the dangers on the roads, especially on highways. Highways are very dangerous and new drivers must be cautious of their own driving as well as other drivers on the highway, especially at night when their is a higher possibility of drunk drivers on the road.
    Also, some want to raise the driving age to 18 because it has been reported that there are "more teen fatalities on the road each year than the amount of deaths reported from 9/11" and "the number of teen deaths on the roads in the U.S. are greater than the number of deaths reported of U.S. soldiers before and after the war in Iraq!" In my opinion, although inexperience, risky behavior and young age are reasons for many accidents, I do not believe that changing the driving age to 18 would prevent accidents.
    http://www.ideamarketers.com/?Raising_the_Teen_Driving_Age_to_18&articleid=43761&from=PROFILE

    Britney Spears

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