Have Your Say – Polls
We understand clearly that the only reason for our existence is to represent the voice of the people in our parliament. We believe that any party that is not constantly in touch with the views of the people is simply not doing its job. In this space you can read what others think on key issues, and you can let us know your views.
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I am fourteen years of age and am planning on getting my learners licence next year in mid year. Because of this law young people longing to drive have to miss out, because some people (parents) they have raised there children to know nothing but drink driving and speeding, causing car crashes, deaths of innicent children and adults. If you look at the bigger picture it traces back only to the history and behavior of the family.
Posted by Jayden Taylor Dawson 2010-01-28 08:24:46.721The police dont have to give a licence to the person who applied for one. If you dont pass the test then you dont get a licence it is that fair! police should judge people by there personality and behavior because if there going to have attitude on the road then they should'nt drive!
PLEASE! I am just young but every person deserves a chance. don't put the driving age up it will diserpoint the children who will have to wait an extra 3 years!
thankyou
Also for my above comment, there is a reason for restricted licences, and that is to see if the driver is a good driver that knows rules. If they don't, THEY DON'T DRIVE ALONE UNTIL THEY PASS! So the people that pass their restricted licence are ready to drive alone, they are responsible enough. And for a country with a lot of country and not much public transport, I feel it is very important to have a restricted or full licence by time the kids go to university, because by time a lot of people are 17, they are off to university, and then they have to find their way to the uni because a lot of people who go to uni have family far away, in a country or something, and they would have to find someone else to help them learn everything. And also a lot of people have jobs far away from where they live and they can't always rely on their parents or something to take them out to their job as PARENTS ALSO HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES AND JOBS. It is silly.
Posted by Chloe Robinson 2009-11-20 19:53:45.152I do not believe that 15 is too old to have a licence.
Posted by Chloe Robinson 2009-11-20 19:37:09.519By raising the age for driving, first of all the teenagers that ARE being reckless drivers are STILL going to drive and be destructive, it wont stop a lot of them. I think that it is extremely unfair on all the responsible 15-18 year old drivers, when there are more responsible 15 year olds than irresponsible drivers. The driving age does not effect most boy racers and what not either, as they are mostly about 20. Second, We all have to learn how to drive at some point, changing up the age from 15 to 16 or 17 will not change the amount of crashes in my opinion as the drivers are all learning the same things, just at a different age. Also, at 15 a lot of children are not drinking, but in about a year a lot more do drink, so it is MORE dangerous.And as a lot of people say, you can't teach old dogs new tricks. It is better to teach younger people. 15 year olds are being treated as 0 year olds in the case of driving, and I feel this is a terrible way to treat the children. It's a two year difference, come on! It's not like maths, where the equations get more difficult each level! It's driving! It doesn't get any more difficult! You start the car, you move, you keep to responsible speeds, I think signs saying "50" km will be seen and registered in a 15 year olds brain the same as a 17 year olds brain. And by time the drivers are 17 they will be better drivers than what the 17 year olds just starting to drive are. Give the kids a break, they know more than we feel they know. They are begining to mature and 15 years old is the PERFECT time for them to be learning.
i think it varies from person to person. some people are mature enough at the age of 15 to start driving, but some arent. personally only now that i am 17 am i starting to learn how to drive, because up until now i wasn't sure if i was mature enough to be in charge of a vehicle, it definitely depends on the person.
Posted by Ben Jones 2008-11-08 18:12:44.066I do not think that increasing the age of getting your licence will change the way young people drive. There are many people in their early 20's who are just as immature as youth in their late teens. I think changes should be instead made to things such as the cc rating of cars they are allowed to drive before getting their full. Also the defensive driving course is in a classroom, how do you learn to drive at a desk, how do you know what it feels like to loose control of your car and how to correct it if you are not in a car?
Posted by Karen Booth 2008-11-01 16:01:44.446We get all over-dramatic whenever teens are killed in crashes. So we look for a simple solution. Hey, have we forgotten that the annual kill rate way back when we only had 3/4 of the present population was over 800 lives. Now that we have reduced this slaughter (since the introduction of seat belts and graduated licensing) to close to half of that earlier number we appear to be setting unrealistic goals. Yes, it is a tragedy that lives are lost on our roads, but it is also the risk that comes of using such forms of transport. And yes there is a high proportion of young drivers, but you will find it is the same in other countries with higher entry age limits. Learning drivers regardless of their age are at high risk primarily because of inexperience and raising the age bar only post-pones the issue. One huge question that needs to be answered is, has there been a dramatic increase in the percentage of crashes related to young people in the past 20-30 years, say over the first 3 years above the entry driving age i.e. 15-18yrs? And how does this compare with the figures from countries overseas, with higher entry ages, for their first 3 years of driving i.e. 18-21yrs?
Posted by Bob 2008-02-20 00:19:02.589The easiest solution is to assume that the age is the main problem, but is it age or attitude?
Almost all of the latest teen crashes highlighted on the TV have occurred as a result of the drivers breaking the law (attitude), usually through driving on restricted licenses with passengers (mates). Driving with mates was recognized as a major contributor years back, hence the graduated system with the built in passenger restrictions. However, if this was better enforced, and there were tougher penalties for breaking this, the issue would dramatically change.
Lets be careful that we don't miss the real issue here. And lets not assume it is physical immaturity when it could be primarily a lack of policing existing laws.
No! The driving age is fine as it is!
Im fourteen and i think im ready to learn how to drive!
Its about confidence, Skill and luck not about statistics.
Just because Peter Dunn is being a complete downer and thinking of all the bad things that happen when teenagers drive instead of the positives Eg. Life experiences, responisbility, Self independence and Just The next generation travellers!
Why should we miss out when generations before us got to drive at 15 and never had a single incident when they were teenagers.
Stereotyping every Teenager isnt fair!
We should get our say!
I know that if the bill passes, being the next generation of voters, i will have NO intension of voting for a party who pushes this law into action!!!
Posted by Tess Tuxford 2008-02-06 13:25:48.355Right off the bat I just have to say, I agree with increasing the minimum the age limit.
The UK government has found a way to restrict the amount of motorcyclist licenses received every year and protect the inexperienced the best way possible but the system needs to be modified to apply to NZ.
I'll try to give a modified example:
1. First write the theory test
2. Receive 4-8 hours of classroom and on the road training with a registered driving instructor before being allowed to drive on L plates. The 4-8 hours will give instructor time to teach the new driver in any areas that he/she is lacking and to see if they feel the new driver is safe to be allowed to drive on public roads. The max cost of this needs to capped to stop new drivers being ripped off, N$250 is what is cost me for 8 hours. After they get the compulsory basic training certificate (CBT) they can drive on L plates in vehicle with a engine size under 1300cc/90hp.
3. After they passing their driving test for full license they need to be restricted to a engine size by their age. 1300cc/90hp less for under 18 years of age and 1600cc/110hp or less for under 20 or 21 years of age.
4. Any new drivers under 25 will be restricted to 1600cc/110hp or less in their first 2 years of having a license.
5. Young farm workers can get a agriculture vehicle license/permit to use on roads when they have to use the public roads with agriculture vehicles.
If NZ did something similar it could work very well in the long run but whoever brings this in will get a lot of flack in the beginning for it sounds like a very restrictive idea but actually it's not at all. This method will restrict inexperienced driver to lower horsepower and this should help lower accidents where the power/performance of the car if far greater than the driver experience behind the steering wheel.
The only problems I can see it that smaller cars reach their performance limit faster and boy racers will overstep that line and cause a accident. Engine modification/performance needs to be able to be checked if need be, otherwise a turbo can be added as a after market part which will make the whole exercise obsolete and this is why there should be a horsepower cap as well.
Insurance tend to keep young people in small cars in the UK but the insurance industry sucks the consumers dry and young people get outrages quotes. The UK government should have made strict guidelines before putting in compulsory insurance (I pay happily for insurance just to have each of mind that I can repair/replace my car if some idiot drives into me).
I might be wrong and there is a better way of doing this, it's just an idea of a system that once in place that will create some jobs and bring safety levels of new drivers up to a certain minimum level. NZ could be the country that shows the world the right way of bringing new drivers onto the roads rather than being a country that has alarmingly high number of death on the roads.
In the end it doesn't matter what you implement you can't make everyone happy. You will also have some people who will bend or break the rules and there is nothing you do will stop that so try to help the majority and not the minority.
Posted by Jacques 2008-01-10 11:35:12.548I just recently turned 19 years old and I currently have my restricted license after gaining my learners license at 17 years old because I'd had obliging parents and a sister who didn't mind taking me places when I needed it. I also owned a scooter which I could drive on my learners license which my parents allowed me to do only around town, not on State highways.
I think that rising the age of driving is a good idea but only when followed by other things like enforcing restricted license rules more and such. The amount of young people who just ignore the rules is crazy and I can imagine that many crashes etc caused by youth are also caused by ones breaking the rules of their restricted licenses. Many of my friends are either very safe drivers and obey the rules etc or they don;t care about their restricted rules, ignore them and tell me they know they won't get caught. This is as much of a problem as having 15 year olds driving alone!
Yes, raising the age could cause problems for people in rural areas but I think the method of possibly having special circumstances licenses etc would be a way around that.
In other countries they have compulsory driving training with proper driving instructors. In Germany for example, many of my friends have to do 5000 hours of driving with a driving instructor before they can even consider going for their license and even then many people fail the first time around.
Posted by Ashley Henderson 2008-01-07 14:50:19.918While I think that the driving age should be raised I think that other things need to be done as well...there is not one magic fix for this, it takes more than that.
I am a single mother of two teenage boys and I am writing about the rising of the driving age. I am like many other people sick and tired of these teenagers and their noisy cars and doing burnouts outside our houses on the street. Unfortunately I have two living next door, every morning they leave it running for what seems forever to warm up and then they leave with the tyres burning. The blow out valve does it�s bit and the stereo, well there is no need for any one to have one in the street as the one in the car can be heard clearly.
My son is saving for a car which he will then only use for work, not school as I do not believe children in the city do not need a car to go to school. I have also stipulator to him that if he wants a car that he is only allowed a 1300cc up to a 1500cc motor maximum. I have also stipulator if he wants to modify it he is only allowed one item, be it stereo, mags or blow out valve. He is not allowed to install a noisy exhaust. I have also told him that this is all until he is over 20 years of age.
As he often drives my car when I do not need it he has been informed he is not allowed to drive it fast and if he gets any speeding tickets that he has to pay them or I will ban him from driving until they are paid. My 16 year old has also been offered a builder apprenticeship as that what he wants to be, however has turned it down to finish his schooling first and then he will defiantly need a car to carry the tools around and there are boys leaving school at 15 and then doing an apprenticeship so they need a car.
This is what I feel needs to be done to these teenagers, raising the age is not going to achieve anything and in my case makes it harder on us single mums.
So allow them to only drive a car of up to a 1500cc engine, then only 1 modifying item. Also make them pay their fines and if they are caught driving with anything else crush the vehicle in front of them no matter who it belongs to. The boys just want to show the vehicle off so if they are unable to modify the car some how it is pointless.
Also the public transport where we live is useless and we are in a fairly major route. There is no bus on a Saturday morning and after work they come just before he finishes and then nothing for an hour and then it is almost that long to get home. So a teenager would either be bored and causing trouble or else been hurt waiting.
Posted by Gayle Gibbons 2008-01-04 13:28:01.367