[Rtech]

Recent posts of underage drivers got me thinking about this one.

I'm sure most of us here have done it. Driving before we were legally allowed to do so. At that age, you just can't wait to get your licence and drive. What makes it worse is seeing your peers driving to college while you are still taking the bus! Parent's are dead against you driving? well, sneak out with the keys, push the car out of the gate and drive off! Easily done in metro's where people live in multi-storied buildings! Sure it wasn't right, but at that age, you rarely consider the consequences of your actions.

The difference is that kid's nowadays are taking their parents cars out with the blessing of their parents. We even have kids who have their own car at 16 or 17.

Is 18 too long a wait to get your licence? Should the minimum age be reduced to 17 or even 16? So would it not make more sense to simply reduce the age limit and ensure that the seventeen year old's are taught properly instead of getting fake licences and driving.

While that would make sense in a country which has strict driving tests, where the repercussions of underage driving are severe, in our country where a person can literally get away with murder by greasing the right palms, would this really work?

Lets have your comments on this. What do you feel is the correct age to start driving (legally) and how do you prevent underage driving?

[Harrie]

I voted for 21. I feel that driving has lots to do with maturity. The more mature, responsible a person gets the better and safer he drives IMHO. Have seen quite a lot of 18 year olds burning the tarmac living in a frenzied state enjoying their new found freedom.

he he dont ask me when i started driving. I started off at 7 years didnt drive on the roads at first was driving inside our factory only. but started driving on the roads till the time i was 18. my driving was only in the private roads or inside our factory where i am the only person driving.

[SCARLET]

No i definitely oppose this, my point is 16 is too tender and imature age to issue driving licenses to kids, 18 they will be slightly more matured and will drive sensibly. Parents who give their cars to 16-17 year olds or say buy them their own cars at 16-17 are doing so just to show off their class in the society and are not doing any good for the childs responsibility.Parents should realise themselves the dangers involved when kids drive. If any TBHP member reading this is a parent please please dont give vehicles for people under 18 to drive or ride.
As far as i have seen 16 year old drivers they are majorly influenced by what they see on TV and they think its easy to immitate the same and hence drive recklessly.
Cops should be more strict and not issue fake licenses for 16 year olds.If the government employees themselves are not bothered why should the citizens be bothered.

Especially during early mornings is when i see a lot of kids driving cars and riding bikers rashly headding back from sports coaching or tutions.
WHATS WRONG WITH THE EDUCATED PARENTS OUT THERE

[GTO]

Any younger than 18 is out, my brother may know all there is to cars but hes not going to be taking the car out on the roads before his 18th birthday this May. Even after that, its going to be driving under supervision for a while.

Kids may be getting smarter with all the exposure, but that doesnt translate to more maturity. Further, the cars in these times are significantly more powerful than the breed that we grew up with. Traffic and road violence rates also "appear" to have shot up.

GTO

[Technocrat]

Hmm nice Topic Rtech. yes even i have sneaked out in my dad's car when nobody was at home & today i realise how stupid I was :(

What i can say is that just like in 2 wheelers where a person can get non-geared bike's license at 16, we can have similar stuff but not based on gears but based on either cc or power of a car e.g only less than 50bhp cars or only less than 1000 cc cars or may be only electric cars (I know this sounds weird but still).

This will encourage parents to buy less powerfull(hence less leathel) cars for their kids w/o compromising much on public's safety

my 2 cents

[shravan316]

I guess 18 is just fine. If at any younger age, the license is issued, it could possibly turn out to be the license to kill!
I'm half way into 18 and i still dont get the car to drive very frequently... when i do get it, its under dad's supervision. 21 would be too long a wait, sure the maturity level would be a lot higher, but, i dont think it would be practical here in India. People would just get fake licenses... so no point.

[Rtech]

Further, the cars in these times are significantly more powerful than the breed that we grew up with. Traffic and road violence rates also "appear" to have shot up.

Correct. So if the legal driving age is to be changed, ideally it should move UP!

What i can say is that just like in 2 wheelers where a person can get non-geared bike's license at 16, we can have similar stuff but not based on gears but based on either cc or power of a car e.g only less than 50bhp cars or only less than 1000 cc cars or may be only electric cars (I know this sounds weird but still).

Interesting concept techno. But, I doubt it would work in our country.

[xstream_nos]

well i think 18 is the correct age as in thtz the age when a person is matured enough to get behind a wheel...

[shravan316]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

What i can say is that just like in 2 wheelers where a person can get non-geared bike's license at 16, we can have similar stuff but not based on gears but based on either cc or power of a car e.g only less than 50bhp cars or only less than 1000 cc cars or may be only electric cars (I know this sounds weird but still).

Nice concept techno, i doubt this will cc/bhp classification work in India. Think about it, we have Zens running with 1.3l engine, but, the RTO doesnt know a s*** about it being a 1.3l. The RC book may/will show it as a 993cc machine. So, people would buy cars which comes under the legal restriction, but, then they can do whatever they want with it. So, we would still have street burning cars around. On the otherhand, electric cars sounds a good idea.

[nitinbhag]

18 should be the right age with strict enforcing of the age limit.. lowering the age limit is out of the question in this aegf of powerful cars, congested roads, violence on TV/games.. the law anyway allows 16-18 year olds to ride small bikes to satisfy their driving/riding thirst..

Maturity comes only with age..

[speedsatya]

i think it would be a very good idea to reduce the minimum age to 16 years.having a license will make definitely a driver behave more responsibly .

[nitinbhag]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

.having a license will make definitely a driver behave more responsibly .

Really?? How many people do we see driving responsibly on our roads even now, assuming that the vast majority holds a license..

[simran]

As a general rule, maturity increases with age.

There are so many variables like stricter enforcement, better roads, and the money to do all this, the engine size to enforce this on, that one can argue either ways while still being logical. Keeping in mind this is for India, a better thing would be to raise the age limit so that underage/immature bus drivers and tempo drivers etc cannot drive according to the law. The fact that the law can be broken does not justify its not being there in the first place.

Maybe what is really needed is a research on finding the correlation between age, gender, alcohol, car engine size and fatality of accidents, and then deciding the age limit.

Easier method is to follow what US/UK do!!!

Enforcement and better roads will come with time as the country grows, and becomes richer. Then we'll be discussing underage drunken driving instead!!!

[vivaid]

while i voted for 18... personally i feel the age should be a lil above 21....

infact.. i feel .. the responsibility that typically comes along with driving a car for which u have paid out of your own pocket is a lot more than from driving your parent's car etc....

cheers....

[speedsatya]

hey nitinbhag,

the driver has nothing to lose if he doesnt have a license.but atleast the fear of having the license getting negative points will make someone drive carfeully.

now,when you are reducing the minimum age for a license to 16 years,then there also have to be stricter laws.every offence should be accounted for with points.and when u exceed the maximum number of points decided upon,the license should be cancelled.

this will definitely give us safer drivers