Driving Maturity
Are You Ready? (Behind The Wheel)
Are you ready to learn to drive?
Of course you feel you are. What teenager does not feel they are ready to get behind the wheel and enjoy the freedom of the open road? After all, you have ridden all your life in your parents car and never paid a dime to do it. And now, how much can it cost? A few cents a mile for gas and away you go, right?
So why does society make it so hard to get your license and why do you have to be so old to get it? You know that you are special and are perfectly capable at 14. Problem is, you're not. As you age, your ability to make good judgments, without getting angry or upset easily gets better. Some people never mature enough and others are sufficiently mature by age 13. Generally, for most people that judgment comes in the late teens or early twenties. That cool level-headedness that indicates a mature brain that will not equate aggressive driving comes with being an adult. But because most teens are physically near their adult size by 16, we allow 16 year olds to drive in spite that they are not emotionally ready in most cases. And even myself, I was an aggressive driver until my early 20s. Therefore, you have to wait until you are 16. Just be aware at that age you are not really ready for it but teens have successfully whined and annoyed the rest of society to letting them drive then. Besides, it can be helpful to have multiple drivers in a household!
Once you have your license, you will find that was the easiest part of it. A license costs a couple hundred bucks for driving lessons and the like. The hard part comes in actually getting your hands on a car. Many teens start by borrowing the family car but this arrangement starts to feel really restrictive awfully fast. The typical teen wants their own car and it amazes me how many actually manage to scrape things together to get one. I did it at 17 and some how, some way I found insurance and gas money. I conned my parents that my mother who did not drive should take lessons with me. Then the family would buy a second car for her and I would drive it now and then. Son of a gun, it worked and my mother bought a car. I passed my license my second try, months before we bought the car, my mother went seven times and failed every time. So while I ended up driving her all over creation, at least I had a car when I was 17. Of course every dime I could dig up went into running the car: for insurance, gas and repairs. Though my folks covered some major engine work. Because of the lack of funds, I learned to do a lot of the work myself and I learned a lot about cars keeping that 1962 Valiant running from 1968 to 1976. But then it helped that my dad was an Air Force mechanic and we had plenty of tools around the house.
In your case, once you have acquired a car by some means, you need to get gas at 12 to 18 cents a mile, insurance for about $200 a month and still have $1000 available anytime for sudden repairs. And you have to allow $1000 a year just for routine maintenance as well. It all adds up. Are you able to dig up the approximate $3500 a year it takes for a teenager to keep even an old beater car on the road? If you are, then maybe you are mature enough to drive. But until you can dig up this sort of money, you are not ready. Still, get your license as early as you can even if you do not have a car as insurance companies generally counts your driving experience time from you get your license. So even if you do not have a car, just having it and having no accidents makes your rates go down every year!
Tags: cars, behind the wheel, driving maturity, teen drivers, car maintenance, paying for a car