When I was but a sprout. The deal was you could get a drivers license at 16. Now it seems a lot of places put a great deal of restriction on licenses for people under 18 that did not exists in my day (25 years ago). When did this happen?
I’m in Michigan. I remembering getting my full adult driving rights at 16, almost ten years ago, so it depends on the state. My learners permit at 14 and 15 had plenty of restrictions, including needing an adult in the car at all times and I needed to complete a second round of in classroom only drivers ed.
For the first three years of your license no matter what age you are on, a driver is place in a probationary period, which means you get a scary letter in the mail if you get a ticket during that time.
I’ve noticed that a few years ago, minors are given vertical drivers licenses which is just to make it stand out more that they are under 21 and can’t use it as ID for booze.
I don’t remember any sort of probationary period when I got my license as a youth.
We could get learners permits. Those were really restrictive. You had to have and adult over some age in the car with you.
graduated drivers licenses are relatively new. most states that have them put them in in the last 10 years or so.
they are a great way to reduce teen fatalities and have been proven effective many times over.
as for 18 being the age to get your license, I can only dream…that and mandatory driver training for all not just those under 18.
My experience was certainly longer than 25 years ago, but you could get a license in Texas at age 16 if you took Driver’s Ed, which is what I did. I recall learner’s permits available at age 15, with an adult driver required to be in the front seat with you. And maybe even a “hardship license” at 14 if it could be demonstrated you had to work to contribute money to the family, but you could drive only to and from work. Otherwise, I believe you had to wait until 17 for a license. Or 18? I’m pretty sure it was 17.
And until you were an adult, I believe the license photo was in profile. Helped to identify at a glance you were underage. (This was back when drinking age was 18. Not sure if that changed for the 18-20-year-olds after they raised the drinking age.)
I knew a girl who got her license 30 years ago in Hawaii at 15. Then her family moved to Mass but she kept her license even though Mass required people to be 17. She ended up driving a lot of her friends around for 2 years. My guess is that kind of thing would not happen now.
I bet it would. Don’t states have to recognize other states’ licenses no matter what?
Pennsylvania had the “Junior Operator’s License”, also called the “Cinderella License”, 40 years ago. You got your license after passing the exam at 16, but you were not allowed to drive between the hours of midnight and 6 AM, hence the term. It was not a learner’s permit - it was the license you got after having the learner’s permit and passing the driving exam, if you weren’t old enough for the senior license. If you had taken a driver safety course in high school, you could get the senior license after age 17. If not, it automatically changed on your 18th birthday. You didn’t accrue points on the Cinderella license, either. Instead, infractions were judged on a case-by-case basis, and usually got you a suspension.
The PA “Cinderella License” I just described was not recognized by the state of New York, and you were warned not to drive across the border until you got your senior license.
No. For example, my own home state of New York clearly states in its Driver’s Manual and on its DMV website:
Learner Permits and Junior Licenses From Another State
NYS restricts driving privileges if:
[ul]
[li]you are under the age of 18 and have an out-of-state driver license, or[/li][li]you are any age and you have an out-of-state learner permit.[/li][/ul]
*You must obey the restrictions of **both *your home state and the NYS restrictions for learner permits or junior licenses in NYS. Read the DMV brochure, Learner Permits and Junior Licenses.
You cannot drive in NYS if you are under the age of 16. If you have a learner permit or a driver license from another state, you are not exempt from this rule.
Most if not all states require new residents to obtain a new license for that state, 30 days after arrival seems to be the norm. In the case stated, the 15 year old would not qualify for a Massachesetts license and would legally have to surrender the Hawaii license upon become a resident of the new state.
Yes, if you move there. I meant they would have to recognize it for visitors, although it looks now that’s not the case.
In Texas, you had to update your license within 30 days of moving to a new address, but I never did. I figured in the event a cop wanted to see it, I’d just say I still lived there.
18 has always been the age to get a license in S Asia, even if its a learners.
I got my license at 15 in 1988. Never had a learner’s permit and there was no requirement for driver’s ed. (Louisiana)
That all changed in the early-mid 90s.
In South Carolina we could get a license at 15 that was restricted from driving from 6:00 in the evening to 6:00 in the morning. Once you were 16, the restriction was lifted. You could become licensed to drive a school bus when you were 16. I drove a school bus through my entire junior year in high school and until the last two months when I was a senior. This was in the seventies and early eighties. My Mom and Dad were both school bus drivers when they were in high school.
In Illinois, I was able to get my license when I turned 16 (this was 20 years ago). Prior to that I had a permit to practice with a parent and took a drivers ed course.
Looking at the Secretary of State website, IL has moved to a graduated licensing program.
This allows you to get a permit at some point when you’re 15, get a restricted license at 16 and regular old license when you turn 18. There are some time, passenger and cellphone restrictions before turning 18 as well if you want to check out the details.
This took effect in IL on Jan 1, 2008. Basically IL copied it from other states (not sure which ones) since it proved to be an effective way of reducing teen deaths in auto accidents in those states.
As a parent of a 9 year old, I must say I like this idea. I would have hated it as a 16 year old, though.