Does your eligible teen have their Drivers' License?

[kyton]

We own a caryard plus my husband is a mechanic by trade so no one in our family gets brand new cars - they devalue too much. 17yo daughter was “given” a 10yr old Mitsubishi when she got her learners but when she chose to stop learning, that car was put back on the yard and sold. When she started to learn again my husband bought a 5yo hybrid Toyota that she adores - helps that she uses hardly any fuel being hybrid.

 

[DLgal]

We do not buy new cars for ourselves, and we buy beaters for the kids to share. All are gifted AAA memberships which comes in handy when you are driving 15+ year old cars. My 26 year old was budgeting for an apartment, just put $1000 into her civic, she commented that at least she doesn’t have to worry about buying a car a time soon, pretty optimistic for an owner of a 2007.

If it's a 2007 Civic, it will run forever. I'm driving a 2007 CR-V and it's been a dream, maintenance wise.

I recently saw a gold 1985 Civic on the road. I recognized the model year because we got the SAME CAR when I was 7. I'm 44 now.

A well maintained Honda will run a LONG, long time, and 2007 was before the cars got all high tech, so it will last even longer than, say a 2017.

 

[Colleen27]

I've got two that are old enough to drive, and neither got a license until 18. There were a couple of reasons for that.

Money is a big one. When I took drivers' ed, in the 90s, it was a program offered by the school at no additional cost to families. Now my state requires you use one of a handful of state-licensed providers and between the two segments, it costs $500-600 just to fulfill the drivers' ed requirement plus $100ish in testing fees. Adults applying for a license don't have to take classes, only the written and road test. And of course, there's what having a teen driver does to the whole household's insurance rates, even if they never or almost never drive. Our insurance rates are already the worst in the country. It isn't exaggerating to say we saved $7000+ per kid, between drivers' ed and insurance, by them not driving for those two years, even with requiring them to take a one-day adult driving skills program that they didn't technically need (but which helped immensely with confidence for their road tests, if nothing else). That's without even talking about the expense of having an extra car on hand for the teen driver(s) to use.

Motivation is the other. The graduated licensing system has taken away much of the incentive for teens to want to drive. For the first year, they can't carpool, can't go places with friends, can't even stay out late enough to catch a movie much less a concert or something. Especially for kids who don't have access to their own cars - which would be my kids, and most of our community - there's only a narrow window of time when they can even borrow a parent's car before hitting the no-night-driving cutoff time (10pm). And only seniors are guaranteed parking permits at our local high school, so even kids who have their own cars can't necessarily drive to school for that first year or so. Even jobs aren't a great motivator because there are so few places around that hire under-18s that kids who need an employer who will work around sports/band/etc. are more or less out of luck.

The jury is still out on when my youngest will start driving, so we may or may not do the teen driver thing once. Some of her friends have started signing up for driver's ed, but she's one of the youngest in her grade so she's not eligible yet and hasn't really shown much interest. Like her sister, so far her college interest seems to be leaning toward places where she wouldn't need/want/be able to have a car anyway, so that may influence her choices.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I am curious how it works today with teens. Do the high schools still have driver's ed? Back in my days circa 199E0 verybody basially had drivers ed.. Cannot recall any who didnt. Costs a small fee maybe... I recall our teacher ( was our PE and health ) even had Sat. driving hours. Everyone then on their 16th Bday did the right of passage to the DMV and took their test. Have things changed?

I can only say/recommend. Had your kid do it as soon as they can before life gets too crazy and busy. It was stress enought with our kids at 16,5 (driving age is 18 officially, with 17 they take their test and get their license but valid only with parents, once they turn 18 they can drive on their own) My son is finishing school and starting college and I cannot imagine having to do this process now.

Unless one lives in a city with public transport, not sure how these kids are doing it without being a burden to others.. I know our employer for every job posting by the small print has it a requiredment to have a valid license.

HS has driver’s Ed here. Well run by our version of DMV but in the high school.

It was like $50 to register. Then $30 fee for the driving test .

 

[jackers]

DS26 got his pretty much as soon as he could. Back then it was 15.5 for permit, and 16.5 for license. He took drivers ed at a local driving school in person - for him the high school still offered a program, but it was only once a year in the early summer, and that didn't coincide with his age well (turned 15.5 in late fall).

DS17 has his license, but he definitely didn't have interest at first - we had to push him into it. He did drivers ed online (plus 6 hours driving with an instructor) - high school no longer offered any programs - and it took him a year to finish. He was eligible for his license at 16.5 but was a little past his 17th birthday before he finally got it - he was a more anxious driver, which was part of the delay, but has relaxed considerably (although he still won't drive on the interstate). He's glad he has it now - no more riding the school bus and able to have a part-time job.

For both boys, they got my old car to drive (13-14 years old), and I got a new-to-me car.

Rural area, no public transportation to speak of, so a license is pretty much required if you want to go anywhere and not rely on your parents.

 

[RedAngie]

In my day drivers ed was through the school (usually gym teachers for whatever reason), our kids attended the same high school we did, drivers Ed for the written exam was junior year health class, took the written test in class, behind the wheel is now a private company.

Same for me in NJ in 1977-78. We had driver’s ed the first marking period of junior year taught by a health instructor. And we took took our written test at the end of it. Driving age was 17.

Some schools offered behind the wheel but mine didn’t. I was taught by my father and uncle.

I got my permit a few days after my 17th birthday and took the road test about 6 weeks later. There were no provisional or probationary licenses then. I was fully licensed when I passed the road test.

 

[RedAngie]

Younger DD was hesitant to get her permit but I pretty much forced her to do so as HS graduation approached. I told her Mom’s taxi service was going out of business.

Uber and Lyft weren’t really a thing back then, just old fashioned taxis.

 

[VandVsmama]

ODD is 16 1/2. Got license in January. Drives about once or twice a week and hates it. Finally drove somewhere on her own last week. We are paying through the nose for insurance now of course. Told the kid that this is a required life skill so you have to get your license. She had her permit for about a year before getting her license. She’s a little gun shy because she got t-boned only 3 weeks into having her permit. It took months for the PTSD from the accident to subside.

 

[soccerdad72]

We got our older son a car just before he turned 16. It was clearly stated to him that it was not "his" car, but a third family car that he was able to use. We needed a third car at the time so he was able to drive. When my younger son turned 16, my wife was mostly working from home, so he was able to use her car for the most part. We bought a car for him about 6-9 months later when he found the car he wanted.

Both boys will be given the car once they graduate college. My older son is already online, shopping for what he wants to trade his Toyota in for once he gets his first job.

 

[mrs. magoo]

All 4 of mine got their licenses by 17. My oldest took the longest he was a senior but a young one. We needed them to drive asap to help out with the driving to the many sports activities that all were involved in. My younger daughter has friends from high school that still do not have their licenses at age 22. I watched the Today show segment and was amazed at the stats. Her friends use ride share but more than often depend on a friend to drive them where they need to go. I sometimes see this as taking advantage of others. We got my oldest a cell phone when we found out he was borrowing his friends to call home as some families had gotten rid of house phones and our rule was you had to call when you got somewhere. I did not want him taking advantage of others.

 

[tzolkin]

Here it depends on when you get your permit. You must complete drivers ed in order to get your permit. There is a class portion (online) and then you are on a waiting list to do the "in car" portion (which is only three sessions). They automatically sign everyone up for it based on their birthdates, but sometimes it does not work out. For example, middle daughter had turned 15 in March, but didn't get her permit until July. She had already taken the online class in January, but she did not get the call to do her in car portion until late June so she was not able to get her permit until then. You must have the permit for a minimum of 1 year, so it was therefore not possible for her to get her license immediately when she turned 16. She went right at the 1 year mark to get her license and immediately got her first car.

My other two were much less interested in driving. Oldest got her permit, but we honestly didn't do much practice driving with her because she didn't care to get in the required hours. She did not get her license until after she was in college. Youngest just got his license a week ago (he was eligible to get it last May).

That seems very inadequate. Wow. Even here in CA, during the height of covid, they did regular behind the wheel tests, just required open windows and masks to be worn.

Here they didn't do them at all. The road test was just waived. Which was a bit scary to realize that every teen who got their license during that two-year period never did a road test.

Eh almost no one did driver's ed even when I was in school. Most were taught by their parents. Doesn’t appear to be a new trend. I did driver's ed but paid for it myself (was $350) but still had some driving time with my stepmom.

Here drivers ed is a requirement to even get a permit (if you're under 18). It's an online class and then three hours of actual driving. Technically, your parents can't teach you how to drive prior to that (since you don't have a permit and therefore can't operate a vehicle), but for some reason the instructors always seem to expect that the kid has had some experience behind the wheel before the in-car portion of drivers ed. Once they have their permit, the parents are required to log a minimum of 60hours of driving with the teen.

I had actual drivers ed in school. It was an elective class during the school day. We had a course set up with three cars operating at the same time and the instructor driving around in a golf cart watching us. Occasionally, we would go out on the road with the instructor. We took the road test at the end of the class (also with the teacher on a golf cart). And then we were able to just take that certificate to the DMV to get our license without having to take a written or road test. I don't recall my parents teaching me how to drive at all.

A big problem right now is the cost of cars. It's been ridiculous since 2020. Of course gas prices too.

I think this is a big factor. When I was a teen it seemed like everyone got their license as soon as they could, but we also were able to purchase used cars for very little money and insure and fuel them with a minimum wage job. I think a lot of kids now see less appeal in getting their license if they are not also going to have the freedom that comes with their own car. I know that was the case with our oldest and many of our friends' kids. They figure what's the point in paying for insurance to have their license if they don't have their own car and aren't going to drive much anyway.

Our middle daughter needed to get a car last year and it was just ridiculous what she would have to pay for something decent. I wound up just getting a new car for myself and letting her have/use my old one, but many families don't have that option.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Here drivers ed is a requirement to even get a permit (if you're under 18). It's an online class and then three hours of actual driving. Technically, your parents can't teach you how to drive prior to that (since you don't have a permit and therefore can't operate a vehicle), but for some reason the instructors always seem to expect that the kid has had some experience behind the wheel before the in-car portion of drivers ed. Once they have their permit, the parents are required to log a minimum of 60hours of driving with the teen.

I had actual drivers ed in school. It was an elective class during the school day. We had a course set up with three cars operating at the same time and the instructor driving around in a golf cart watching us. Occasionally, we would go out on the road with the instructor. We took the road test at the end of the class (also with the teacher on a golf cart). And then we were able to just take that certificate to the DMV to get our license without having to take a written or road test. I don't recall my parents teaching me how to drive at all.

Yeah like MillauFr was mentioning for their state it's a requirement but that's a state requirement. Not trends related to cost of the driver's ed that would play out nationally over at least 15 years of declining driver's licenses in youths.

Your comment about experience is one of the reasons I was scratching my head at the public school's one in my area strong recommendation of parental lessons beforehand. I think driver's ed is a good companion to it but most are doing the school to do the primary learning or the basic learning where then someone can do a lot of first hand experience later on.

Side-note I'm not sure how good an online tutorial is. It's really easy to stop paying attention, not fully grasp everything, etc just by doing some online thing. Defensive driving course is different because you already know driving, but to start off fresh IDK. Interestingly online only courses are prohibited in my state for the usages of obtaining your driver's license like you can't just go get a certificate from an online course and call it good. It has to be a program accredited through the state dmv and board of education. Understanding here though that the driver's ed being talked about in this thread is a combo with course and real experience.

 

[tzolkin]

Your comment about experience is one of the reasons I was scratching my head at the public school's one in my area strong recommendation of parental lessons beforehand.

When I brought my daughter to the first in-car session, the instructor asked her what experience she had with driving and she responded "none". He was taken aback and asked, "Really? You haven't driven at all?" I said, "Well, she doesn't have a permit, so isn't it illegal for her to drive?" His response was, "Well, I guess. But most parents let their kids drive around their neighborhood or back roads or at least a parking lot." It was the same with my other two kids (different instructors). Apparently, I'm a weirdo, but I did not want to let an unlicensed, uninsured 14 year old drive my car.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

When I brought my daughter to the first in-car session, the instructor asked her what experience she had with driving and she responded "none". He was taken aback and asked, "Really? You haven't driven at all?" I said, "Well, she doesn't have a permit, so isn't it illegal for her to drive?" His response was, "Well, I guess. But most parents let their kids drive around their neighborhood or back roads or at least a parking lot." It was the same with my other two kids (different instructors). Apparently, I'm a weirdo, but I did not want to let an unlicensed, uninsured 14 year old drive my car.

I def. did not drive before I got a permit but I know my sister was taught years before by my grandpa on his golf cart down at the lake of the ozarks. I do think that was common enough and I do see young kids on golf carts in my neighborhood without parental supervision. Golf cart totally different than car but more the mechanics of gas break, steering, etc. Still though not advisable IMO, these kids on the golf carts drive like crazy on the neighborhood roads without care to cars on the road as well. Makes me nervous whenever I see them driving through our cul-de-sac.

That clip is hilarious and somehow that actually does happen IRL

 

[lyric_rains]

My girl got her license 2 days after her 16th birthday (earlier this month) and that was because her birthday was on a Saturday. The day after she passed, I got Covid. This pushed her to driving the 17 miles one way to school by herself, sooner than I would have liked. The fact that we live in a rural community, far from school and any urban area, was the driving factor that pushed us toward getting her driving ASAP. I will say, that while her friends are not as motivated, she herself says how grateful she is for the independence that driving to school and visiting friends has given her. She believes it has been better for her mental health, than staying home and using social media to connect to her friend group.

 

[Colleen27]

When I brought my daughter to the first in-car session, the instructor asked her what experience she had with driving and she responded "none". He was taken aback and asked, "Really? You haven't driven at all?" I said, "Well, she doesn't have a permit, so isn't it illegal for her to drive?" His response was, "Well, I guess. But most parents let their kids drive around their neighborhood or back roads or at least a parking lot." It was the same with my other two kids (different instructors). Apparently, I'm a weirdo, but I did not want to let an unlicensed, uninsured 14 year old drive my car.

This is the one thing I do love about living on the edge of nowhere. My kids started driving on backroads at 14-15 and had a fair bit of experience with the basics before they started officially learning, but I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that in traffic. My neighborhood is fairly busy with a lot of pedestrians and parked cars - no unlicensed, uninsured kid of mine will be driving around here! But I can take my kid out just a couple miles from here to a neat grid of wide dirt roads where you might pass one other car in an hour of driving, and it makes good terrain to get a bit familiar with the controls of a car.

 

[princesscinderella]

My son got his permit about 6 months after his 15th birthday due to the DVM shutdown due to covid and in FL they are required to have it for a year before they can get their full license at 16. So he didn’t get his til the summer between sophomore and junior year. We got him a car (new) because the prices were almost the same as buying used it was crazy. My DD turned 15 last month and had her appointment for a day after her birthday but had to reschedule it to this Friday because she had a field trip scheduled for the original day and didn’t want to miss it. It’s like getting Disney reservations to get an appointment at the DMV in SoFla, they book up fast at midnight. I will initially teach them the basics of how to drive and then we will get a private instructor to help fine tune things and really take them out on the highway once they have a good handle on the basics.

I think them learning to drive is an important rite of passage and important that all teens should do, anxiety or not it’s a life skill that shouldn’t be put off or ignored. It’s definitely expensive and I completely understand if you can’t afford insurance but most don’t charge extra if a teen has a restricted license and they can learn that way. The teen can get a job to help pay for the insurance too.

 

[NotUrsula]

DS is a very introverted kid and a gamer, and his HS school was in walking distance; we dropped him off on the way to work and he walked home. We live in the city, so he had the option of public transit to get to most things other than friends' homes, and so we occasionally drove him when he needed to go farther out than usual. Otherwise he just wasn't in any hurry, and we were OK with it because insuring him would have been $$$$. He got his permit at 15 so that he could enroll in driver's ed., but from there he just kind of let it ride (we don't have a limit here on how many times you can renew a learner's permit.) The rule here is that if you take the road test and fail, you have to wait a month to take it again. He finally decided to take it at 18, right before leaving for college, but managed to roll a stop sign, so he had to wait until Xmas break to take it again, and passed. Then he went straight to the DMV in the state where he attended college and traded it in for one of theirs, so that we would not have to carry insurance on him. He used the campus Zipcars during college when he needed to go somewhere far from campus, or borrowed his girlfriend's car. We paid the down payment on a used car for him as a college graduation gift.

DD, otoh, is a serious athlete in an ice-sport, and that means practices at all kinds of crazy hours, so like her teammates, she'll be getting that license as soon as it's legal, and we'll be singing Hallejulah!
She got her permit the moment she turned 15 and immediately enrolled in driver's ed., so that's done, and she drives all the time with us, so she's well past her required permit driving hours. She will take the road test on her 16th birthday. We do have graduated licenses here, but the limit is only that she can't drive alone between 1-5 am unless for work or school reasons, and that she can only carry family members as possengers for awhile. Full-privilege license age here is 18 (though it's still flipped vertical to indicate under-21 for ID purposes.) The insurance won't be cheap, but no longer having to leave the house at 5 am and sleep in the car outside an ice rink 40 miles away (in freezing weather) will be more than worth it, LOL!

FWIW, I got my permit at 14 and full license at 15, which was typical when and where I grew up. I'd been driving for years on farm roads at that point, so the learning curve was mostly how to deal with traffic and how to control the vehicle at highway speed. (Farm training allowed for such adventures as having to swerve hard (without power steering!) on a shell road to avoid wandering livestock, while not losing any of the hay bales stacked in the back of the '67 3-on-the-tree pickup truck. Or choking to death on the resulting dust cloud! Also a lot of practice at rocking out a vehicle that was stuck in mud.)

 

[JLTraveling]

Yeah I'm sure there are states out there that have that rule. Here a driver's ed course allows you to skip the road and written test and just have to do the vision test to get your license but is not required.

One thing I liked about the driver's ed I did was they taught parallel parking which is not required in my state. That was super handy when I was working for my alma mater and had to parallel park on a hill majority of the time.

Florida didn't require driver's ed or parallel parking. My dad taught me to drive, and we never got around to parallel parking. I learned real quick on a Saturday night in Downtown Orlando about 6 months after I got my license (the day after my 16th birthday--birthday was on a Sunday and the DMV wasn't open). Bunch of friends and strangers standing around yelling instructions, while I somehow got the car into a space with about 2 inches to spare lol.

 

[princesscinderella]

Florida didn't require driver's ed or parallel parking. My dad taught me to drive, and we never got around to parallel parking. I learned real quick on a Saturday night in Downtown Orlando about 6 months after I got my license (the day after my 16th birthday--birthday was on a Sunday and the DMV wasn't open). Bunch of friends and strangers standing around yelling instructions, while I somehow got the car into a space with about 2 inches to spare lol.

That’s a great memory about learning to parallel park