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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kids were both excited to learn to drive, but many of their friends were not. Older DC has a couple of friends who are now in their first year of college and still don't have a license. I don't know what their plan is.

But one thing that has come up - while I agree with a lot of the restrictions that are placed on first-year drivers (passengers, curfew, etc), it does remove some of the incentive to drive. Any time there are more than 2 teens going someplace, they either need multiple cars or they have a parent drive so that they can all ride together. They end up walking or taking public transit, or getting a ride from parents, even if they all have licenses, just because they'd rather travel together than split up into multiple cars. I don't think this is the whole story on kids not wanting to drive, but it is an interesting effect.[/quote]

Kids in MD have to have their permit for 9 mos (was 3 when I was 16) and after they get their license they can’t drive any friends for another 5 mos. It takes the excitement out of it and 14 mos is long enough that it feels close to never to kids that age. It’s hard for them to put energy and excitement into a payoff that’s a year away.

But the fact that they have trouble prioritizing a useful skill where the payoff is a year away is a good argument that parents should be responsible for seeing the value/importance and building it in to the kid’s plans. I felt/feel that way with my teen. We are well on the way and it did take encouragement but my teen will get the license around their 17th birthday.

In MD now the earliest a teen can get a license anyway is 16.5 and not their 16th birthday.  If you actually do the required 60 hours it’s not so easy to get it done by then. [/quote]

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