Lowering The Driving Age Essay

As the number of fatalities caused by driving teenagers continues to increase, many people have been asking, “Should the legal driving age be increased?” However, this should not be the case. Instead of asking whether or not the driving age should be increased, it would be better to adapt to the current driving age and encourage safer driving. Some people suggest that biology is to blame for the fatal results of teenagers’ driving. In Robert Davis’s article “Is 16 Too Young to Drive a Car?”, he stated, “The weak link: what’s called “the executive branch” of the teen brain - the part that weighs risks, makes judgements and controls impulsive behavior,” (Davis, paragraph 3). People are shaped by their experiences, however, and children in particular are incredibly impressionable. Children tend to be much smarter than they are usually given credit for, and giving them the necessary experience to start safely is the key to cutting down on driving accidents. Rather than simply blaming the flaws of the human brain for teenagers’ bad driving, parents should instead try to give young drivers the experience and advice needed to practice

While it is true that teenagers’ brains are less developed than those of adult drivers, their parents are to blame just as much as their inexperience. Many parents tend to set a bad example for their children. In his article, “Is 16 Too Young to Drive a Car?”, Robert Davis states, “For teenagers, years of watching parents drive after downing a few glasses of wine or while chatting on a cell phone might make a deeper imprint than a lecture from a driver education trainer,” (Davis, paragraph 22). Parents should become more involved with teaching their children to drive, rather than simply blaming things that are beyond their