There are many reasons why teenagers are putting off getting their licenses. If you have your license and a car, you’re probably thinking that these kids should just get up and go out there to get their license and stop being lazy. While apathy is one reason kids aren’t getting their license, there’s many other reasons to discuss.
Personally, I’ve been putting it off because driving school is expensive and my mom won’t pay for it. Also, there’s very limited space in these classes due to COVID. It’s also a very long process.
Once you go to drivers school, complete it and pass the test, then make an appointment at the MVA, (because if you just show up you’ll be waiting there for days), find your birth certificate and Social Security number, you still need to have your legal guardian show up with you. If you finally get all these things done, you get your picture taken at the MVA and then wait a long, long, long time for your license to show up in the mail.
Who has the time?
There’s a lot going on in the world right now and a lot of people are just putting off this rite of passage to adulthood until things calm down out there and they have more time.
Another less trivial reason is the fact that driving is very expensive. If you don’t have a car or your parents won’t let you use theirs, you have to buy one. As you probably already know, cars are very expensive, and you’ll probably have to pay monthly payments for a long time. Then you have to think about gas money as well as when your car needs to go into the shop.
Yet the costs don’t stop there.
Buying a car means you will have to take out insurance on it, which is very expensive as a young driver; people 25 and under have very high car insurance rates because it’s proven that younger drivers get into more accidents than people who are more experienced. Makes sense. All together that’s a lot of money for young people to spend, even if they do have a job.
According to Consumer Expenditures in 2019 by the U.S. Department of Labor’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average vehicle costs $9,576 per year to own and operate. The breakdown of the figure comes to $4,054 for purchasing the vehicle, $1,968 in gasoline and motor oil expenses, and $3,554 in other vehicle-related costs.
It’s a lot easier to find rides around now instead of driving. I personally take Ubers (which is expensive as well) and some of my friends drive so I ask them for rides sometimes. Plus, there’s a lot of public transportation options such as busses and the light rail, which are cheap ways to get around, not to mention walking, biking, and skateboarding. Teenagers are genuinely pretty lazy, but some like me don’t mind a little exercise to be able to get to where they want to go. Stores are genuinely pretty close to houses and are easy to get to; I know many people that walk or bike to go places.
In a PBS News Hour 2017 segment, Tim Henderson interviewed numerous teenagers on just this very topic and one interview that stood out was with a 16-year-old Florida boy who had yet to get his license,
According to Henry Stock, “It’s more time and effort than I want to put into something that won’t benefit me a lot right now,” Stock said.”
Stock is not alone. The rate of high school seniors who have a license dropped from 85.3 percent in 1996 to 71.5 percent in 2015. That’s a big drop! Fewer teens are finding getting their licenses worth it.
I interviewed 16-year-old Tavon Winchester who attends New Era Academy in Baltimore about the driving dilemma. He’s a prime example of someone who’s currently putting off getting their permit and license.
Q: Why don’t you have your license yet?
A: I don’t have a car and I don’t know how to drive that well yet.
Q: How do you get around as of now?
A: My mom drives me sometimes as well as my older brother and friends.
Q: When do you plan on getting a car and how?
A: I plan on getting a job and saving for a while, then buying an old but good car. I’m a teenager and I don’t need to spend more than 8k on a car as long as it works.
Q: Do you think that you have spent more money getting around then you would have if you had just bought a car?
A: Maybe; probably. I give my friends gas money all the time when they drive me around.
So in the end, getting a license is a personal decision but one that requires money and time. So next time you blame a kid for not having a car, think about everything that goes into it.
MOOSE PRINTS 