Skarie ACE Debate

You say that the driving age should be increased to 18 because kids brains are more fully developed at 18 rather than 16. But I say that either way, your brain isn't fully developed. According to npr.org, brains do not fully develop until age 25. Therefore, brains are not fully developed at age 16, nor age 18.

Another reason why the driving age should not be increased is because it would make it a lot more complicated for parents. Many students are included in clubs and sports that they need to get to every night, and if the driving age is increased, 16 and 17 year olds will not be able to get themselves there. According to a study done by The Bureau of Labor Statistics, 59% of kids have 2 parents that work. This means that over half of kids would not have anyone to bring them places if they could not themselves. Not only would they miss out on sports, they would also miss out on things like parties and dances. These are important parts of a teens social life, and raising a driving age takes all of this away from them, which is something I do not think is good to do.

The only reason why 16 year olds have the most accidents like it says in your evidence is because they are still getting used to the road. If the driving age was increased, 18 year olds would still crash and they would be killed in their crashes. This would not solve the problem of teens dying in car crashes, it would just delay it until they are older. In this case, raising the driving age would not help this situation, just simply make the chance of 18 year olds dying higher, rather than 16 year olds.

I do not think that the driving age should be raised. My first reason is that even if the driving age is increased, the new drivers still have the same experience, no matter what their age is. Studies show that most crashes occur because of inexperience, but both 16 and 18 year olds are new to this whole "driving thing," so they would get in crashes either way. Several sources show that your brain is not fully developed until your early twenties. So either way, 16 or 18, the brain is not fully developed and the teenager would take just as long to understand everything about driving, and they would still get in car crashes from not fully understanding what to do. Therefore, teaching the kids how to drive when they are younger will help them to be better drivers in the future, and the driving age should not be increased.