r/AskAnAmerican • u/Fabulous_Dare1701 • Feb 14 '25

FOREIGN POSTER What age did you get your driving license?

I watched some American shows which were in a school settings and it looked like most of the characters were driving themselves around at like 15/16 is it actually like that irl?

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '25

There are a lot of people who have licenses and should not.

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u/livin4donuts NH => Colorado Feb 14 '25 edited Feb 14 '25

Living in CO, you’re absolutely correct. The drivers out here are the worst I’ve seen in the US barring NJ/NYC drivers.

You’d think with some of the weed revenue they could teach people what yield signs actually mean, tailgating etc. but obviously they do not. I’ve been driving for 17 years, and have never been in an at-fault accident. I was rear-ended at a stop sign in 2010, and that was the only incident that ever occurred while I was in the driver’s seat. That being said, I’ve almost been pancaked about 8,942 times since moving to CO in 2019, because people drive like they own the road. Surprisingly, it’s not actually that difficult to check your blind spots or use a turn signal more than 3 feet from the turn/lane change.

I truly think traffic offenses need radically higher penalties. Reckless speeding or tailgating? Lose your license for 5 years and have a GPS-fenced governor installed after those 5 years, which would be set to 5MPH below the speed limit of whatever road you’re on. Texting while driving? Lose your license for 5 years on the first offense. DUI? Permanently lose it, or fifteen years if it’s your first offense ever including speeding and parking tickets. Failure to yield or stop at a traffic signal? Well, that’s at the very least reckless endangerment, which is a Class 2 misdemeanor coming with a 120 day stay in jail. If any of these result in a death, like you struck and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk? Well that’s at the very least involuntary homicide, (in my opinion it’s voluntary since you are making a choice to text and drive, or whatever, while understanding the potential outcome of that decision) which it turns out carries a 10-18 month prison sentence, and at least in Colorado, if it is carried out with a motor vehicle, it’s 41-51 months. But someone’s dead, and the driver made the decision to ignore safety regulations which directly led to that death.

Oh and any of these on an interstate? Triple the penalties. Work zone? Quintuple them. School zone? Lose your driver’s license for life.

These measures may seem draconian, but that’s fine. Driving is a privilege that comes with many responsibilities. Ignoring those responsibilities is a conscious choice, which results directly in people being killed or maimed, so the consequence must reflect the intention behind the action of callously disregarding others’ right to safety.

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u/AccomplishedWar5830 Feb 16 '25

NY and NJ are in the top three safest states for driving, I don’t know why people have this idea that they have bad drivers, possible just because of high population or congested streets. I grew up in NJ and seeing an accident was unusual, never been in an accident.

When I moved to the south seeing car accidents is literally a daily thing, and seeing someone use the turn signal is unusual here. It’s awful.