What nation has the lowest legal driving age? Is the US limit (in most states) of 16 pretty much the bottom of the barrell (though no doubt this age limit is shared with some other nations)?
Also, is there any nation on earth where, whether by force of law or by virtue of the police looking the other way, the de facto legal driving age is “Old enough to reach the pedals”?
I’ll note that New Mexico had a driving age of 15 until just a few years ago. i don’t think NM was unique in this regards.
India also really has no de facto driving age limit - there are very many unregistered drivers out there. On occasion, i’ve seen a fairly young kid (about 10-12 years of age) driving a scooter. In villages, it seems to happen even more often. I don’t know the actual legal driving age limit there though.
In IA (and some other states no doubt) farm kids can (or could) get limited licences at 14 or something.
Brian
It’s that way in Wisconsin, too, but it’s only for farm equipment, and the kid has to complete a training course in safety. You can only drive on farm business–to the fields and in them, etc.–and the majority of the equipment you’re allowed to drive isn’t all that exhilirating. There are more exciting things than going 12 miles per hour down the highway, pulling a gravity box behind you, with your parents’ voices ringing in your ears. Not really something that encourages joyriding–“Woohoo! I broke twenty! Going down a hill!”.
From just my anectdotal experience, this is the case in much of the less developed world, particularly in rural areas.
In Iowa (at least, in the mid-nineties when I still lived there), you could get your learner’s permit at 14. At 14, you could also apply for a limited license to drive yourself to and from school (and I don’t think you could have passengers). The focus of this was probably for kids in rural areas, especially if they were in sports, but I knew several kids in my town (~25,000) who convinced their parents to let them get the license.
True. Legal age to drive an ungeared 50cc moped: 16. Legal age to drive everything else: 18. In practice, though, I’ve seen kids as young as 8 riding scooters; even driving tractors and cars.
up in the snow, it was “learners” at 14, and unrestricted at 16. mind you i believe they just changed it.
In the “First World”, Italy seems pretty lax when it comes to scooters. I’ve certainly seen kids of around 10 rising Vespas around town and nobody seemed to bat an eyelid. Often there’d be three or four kids on the one scooter.
However according to this page, you officially have to be 14 to drive a moped/scooter (up to 50cc) in Italy. And 18 for a car.
Er, that should say riding Vespas.
In Spain it’s 14 with license for scooters; 16 with no license for scooters; 16 with license for motorcycles 50cc or over; 18 with license for cars and trucks.
I got a full-blown driver’s license in Louisiana in 1988 on my 15th birthday although that may have changed now. However I even drove and had a car at 14 because my parents were divorced, my mother worked all the time and we lived in an isolated area. They had farm licenses as well for 14 year olds and they weren’t restricted to place or type of equipment. We had a fair number of farm kids driving to school at 14.
I find it scary that so many places have an 18 year old driving age. Especially foreign countries like New Jersey. I shudder to think what my life would have been if I couldn’t drive in high school.
I am not sure this is correct. 22 years ago you could get a drivers license at 15 and 1/2 if you took drivers ed. Is that what you are refering to?
Licenses for driving tractors? Here we let six year olds do it if the tractor needs moving.