Off the top of my head, I don't think my 19yo has driven anywhere substantial alone. She has driven MoCo to Bethany and similar trips with a friend in the car several times.

She is not driving home from college alone next month (500 miles), but then is driving to a friend's school (300 miles) the following weekend.

My dd started doing 2-3 hours to the beach at about 17 (drove with us a few times first).She went to school 4 hours away and would drive regularly starting her sophomore year.

Our 18 year old drove his friends to Rehoboth after graduation for a few days.
He now drives 7 hours each way to/from college.

Had a 30 minute daily commute to high school senior year, then several hours to college.

18/19.

He just turned 20 and not yet. Severe ADHD. He's not a reliable driver and thankfully, knows his limits. He's at an urban college campus and takes public transportation.

My 17 yo drove to deep creek and back. She also drove in NYC and beltway rush hour traffic. With that said, I worry about any driving she does outside of her normal day to day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking here because responses will be more relevant than teen parents. How far did they go and when? Did they drive back and forth from college and if so how far?

It really depends on your kid and where you live.
I have friends who the kid drove part of the 9 hour trip for summer vacation when they were 18
Others who kid did not have their driver's license at 18 because they lived in the city.
My niece had a job at a barn 45 minutes away but it was all rural roads and they lived in an area where you get your license earlier. That same niece can not drive in the city.

I am wondering because my ds is going to be a little over 5 hours away for college. Flights are not an option (would require a connection and basically take a whole day) and the only other option is a bus which is over 7 hours due to a few stops along the way and of course he hates that idea. We can drive him back and forth for breaks, but wondering if it makes more sense for him to drive himself (there is parking at school and some though not all students bring cars). He has been driving every day and quite a bit including longer distances (4 hours) with us in the car and some shorter trips (2 hours) without us.

Anonymous wrote:Asking here because responses will be more relevant than teen parents. How far did they go and when? Did they drive back and forth from college and if so how far?

It really depends on your kid and where you live.
I have friends who the kid drove part of the 9 hour trip for summer vacation when they were 18
Others who kid did not have their driver's license at 18 because they lived in the city.
My niece had a job at a barn 45 minutes away but it was all rural roads and they lived in an area where you get your license earlier. That same niece can not drive in the city.

College - 3rd year for DS and 2nd year for DD. They didn't have cars at school before that. DD's school is 3 hrs away and DS's is 4 hours.

4th year of college. Virginia to Connecticut.

4 months after they got their license because how else are they supposed to grow wings and flock out the house and be independent

No longer than an hour drives before 18. They did start 2-4 hr drive from college after 19. First year of college they took flight, bus, train, Uber or we picked and dropped from college during COVID.

18 at college 300 miles through NYC.

Asking here because responses will be more relevant than teen parents. How far did they go and when? Did they drive back and forth from college and if so how far?