Because of the virus outbreak, the State of Georgia is temporarily allowing 16 year-olds to get a driver license without taking a driving test.
Some 30,000 teens that had learner permits are on hold, waiting to be able to take the driving test to upgrade to a regular Official Georgia Driver License.
Well, now with a note from an adult stating that they’ve practiced, they can get permission to go online and print themselves an Official Provisional Georgia Driver License and take their friends on a road trip. In a couple weeks the real license will arrive by mail.
Some parents, some eligible teens, and some other motorists feel this is a bad idea.
Now that the announcement was made, maybe the insurers will. They might instead create a new insurance class for those without the road test and charge more for it. Added risk, you know.
Since I don’t see a “just kidding” smiley I don’t know if you’re serious but that clause applies to citizens of other states.Privileges and Immunities Clause - Wikipedia We talk a lot in the US about individual rights but rarely about society’s rights. One of them is the right to be reasonably safe from untrained drivers, IMHO. The Governor could have easily issued an executive order extending all learner’s permits until, say, the end of July. When I got my license in Illinois no behind-the-wheel driver’s test was required and that was a mistake IMHO. When I moved to Missouri I wasn’t required to take a behind-the-wheel test either. In fact, I’ve never taken such a test and I’m in my mid 60’s.
If the parents lie and put an unsafe driver on the road, that is their problem. Everyone keeps bending over when the government says “it’s for your own good”.
I think it is ok given the requirements. " Driver Education FAQs. … If you are 16 years of age, you will be required to show proof that you successfully completed a driver education course approved by the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS). In addition, you must have completed a total of 40 hours of supervised driving , 6 hours of which must be at night."
… and potentially a “problem” for anyone whom they injure or kill as a result of their lack of skills, coupled with the typical adolescent mindset.
Let us not forget that the genius who is running that state only “learned” last week that non-symptomatic people can be carriers of the virus, and can infect everyone else with whom they come in contact.
Most (if not all…I don’t know a state that doesn’t until now) states require a road test for a drivers license.
Most require drivers ed also IF you’re under a certain age. Some states it’s 18, and others it’s 21.
Most states require a written test to get a learners permit. NH doesn’t. At 15.5 you can start driving with anyone over the age of 21 in the front seat. No permit required. The caveat to that is you can’t drive outside the state. An the vast majority of NH’s population live near the MA border.
And it is also the problem of the innocent driver that their kid paralyzed because he sucks at driving.
This “freedum, Murka” crap needs to stop. Liberty is important, but your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. If you want to enjoy the benefits of living in a society, then you need to stop with the automatic “whatever, I do what I want” angsty teenager responses when someone tells you that there are responsibilities and guidelines that you need to follow.
Actually, the have a lot of driving experience before the test, at least in Maryland. We spent a lot of time in the car with our children before they could take their test. They also had to drive with a local driving school, and classes too. They were ready to drive by the time they could take the test. My kids were still inexperienced, but they had a lot of training. They drive a lot better 10 to 15 years later.
That’s because the Constitution was written as a protection of the individual’s rights. Societies rights derive from the idea that the individual’s right is upheld as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others.
We require proof of some competence of licensed drivers so they don’t infringe on the rights of others to be safe. Same end goal is achieved but derived from the point of the individual and not the collective.
I made that observation when I worked at a small airport while in high school and took flight instruction and learned to fly small airplanes.
Usually people ride in cars for many years before learning to drive and they ride bicycles near streets, etcetera. They soak in lots of information, concerning which side of the street to drive on, what the different colored traffic signals mean, which controls on the car do what and so on, but…
When folks show up at the airport and want to learn to fly, they often lack those years of riding in the vehicle and soaking in common useful information. I was one of those and there’s so much to learn all at once, basically learning aircraft nomenclature, pre-flights, controls, physically handling the airplane during taxiing, take-offs, slow flight, stalls, turns-about-a-point, and landings, short field and cross-wind, too, aviation weather, navigation, and communications (like at controlled airports). Sometimes, as in my case, I had never ridden in a small private airplane prior to beginning lessons.
From where I sit, the car driving license test is a joke, compared with the test required to obtain a pilot license.
A driver license granted to a 16 year-old is basically a license to practice driving, anyhow. I did my road test by having an officer follow my moped on a prescribed short ride. Feel the magic! CSA
