5.

This house would raise the legal driving age to 20

PRO: Every study carried out in this field shows that young drivers are
more likely to be involved in serious accidents.

Human life is precious and whilst driving remains one of the most
dangerous things people do on a day to day basis1, we must do
everything reasonable to prevent deaths. Raising the driving age will
cut the number of accidents on the roads. In 2008 alone in the USA
there were 6428 fatalities involving young drivers and passengers
aged under 20. Raising the driving age will greatly reduce these
accidents and deaths.

It probably comes as no surprise that brain size does not equal

intellectual or emotional maturity. A growing consensus among the
scientific community about teen brain development has revealed the
precise implications this fact has for teen drivers. Although the brain
is 80 percent developed at adolescence, new research indicates that
brain signals essential for motor skills and emotional maturity are the
last to extend to the brains frontal lobe, which is responsible for many
of the skills essential for driving.

The new research, first released by the National Institute of Mental

Health, suggests that emotional immaturity, not inexperience, is the
primary reason that teenage drivers are responsible for far more car
accidents than any other age demographic. The most important aspect
of brain development for drivers is the spread of white matter, the
process that helps brain cells communicate more efficiently. The first
and second stages of brain development, which occur before people
become adults, over-produces brain cells, but lacks an adequate
mechanism to process them.

When adults reach age 20, white matter begins to spread, from the
back of the brain forward, usually completing this process between 25
and 30 years of age. The section of the brain most responsible for
driving skills is the frontal lobe (shown above), which manages the
bodys motor skills, emotional maturity, and aversion to taking risks.

A dearth of white matter here explains why teenagers are much more
likely to speed, disobey traffic signs, and lose control of their vehicles.

Through the ages, most answers have cited dark forces that uniquely
affect the teen. Aristotle concluded more than 2,300 years ago that
"the young are heated by Nature as drunken men by wine." A
shepherd in William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale wishes "there
were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would
sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting
wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting."

CON: Pure statistical analysis and stereotypes of reckless boy racers

should not be blankly applied to a group.

Many teens are safe and careful drivers, and almost all adult drivers
today started before they were 20. It would be unfair to punish all 18
and 19 year olds for the bad behaviour of a few. Instead of a blanket
measure like raising the driving age, there are other steps that could be
taken to make the roads safer. These include making the driving test
tougher, requiring driving graduate programs and training1 and
requiring a retest and compulsory retraining for any new driver caught
driving badly. Parents could even be brought in to the decision making
process as to whether or not their children are mature enough to learn
to drive.

Young drivers do have more accidents, but that is because they are not
very experienced, not simply because they are under 20. If we raise
the driving age, it will be 20 year old new drivers having more
accidents instead of 18 year olds. With this in mind, options like
having a more rigorous driving test or imposing stricter rules on
young people even after they have passed would do a better job of
saving lives.

Californias graduated license program stipulates that teenagers can

get their drivers permit at 15 years and six months, at which time they

can only drive with a parent or guardian. Once the driver turns 16, he
or she is eligible for a restricted license, with which the driver must be
accompanied by an adult over 25 for the first twelve months and
cannot drive between the hours of 11 pm and 5 am during that period.

Giving teens labels will not make them more responsible, on the
contrary...