Old Enough to Drive

Although it varies from state to state as well as country to country, nothing beats being able to finally drive. I remember watching either one of my parents in fascination when it dawned on me that it was almost my time to shine behind the wheel of either one of my parents' cars.

However, just because there is a law that states when someone is actually old enough to take the car keys and drive themselves to and from work as well as to and from school, this doesn't necessarily mean that people pay attention to or actually follow what the rules are telling them. For example, I have heard plenty of stories of people allowing their children to drive tractors and other sorts of farm equipment if they live on a farm or are visiting a farm where they have a friend or family member who actually lives there. How do you feel about this sort of thing though? How would you feel about a ten year-old driving a beat up old Ford truck that “supposedly” can only get around enough to take them a couple of miles?

In the countryside, rules for driving and driving age seem to be, for the most part, nonexistent. However, take that same child and stick them into a significantly more urban setting where there are more people and more obstacles around, and suddenly everyone wants you to go by the book. But if you think about it- who actually made or created the laws and rules for driving that are still in existence today? And who is to say that a ten year-old doesn't have the maturity or understanding to be able to operate a motor vehicle without the supervision of his or her parents and without the peer influence of friends (who usually mean well) who seem to be out to get each other in trouble and then laugh about it later?

While there is an age discrepancy, I still cannot help but think that there are people out there who are more than qualified to operate a motor vehicle responsibly but who choose not to. Quite frankly, this lack of duress and caring makes me nervous when I'm on the road and have to share any part of my driving space with them. For instance, when I was in New Jersey traveling back to North Carolina recently, there was a vehicle behind me that I could have sworn was going to touch the back bumper of my vehicle if I even so much as stopped slightly. I wasn't sure what the rush was or if this particular person was just a bad driver. As I later found out, the person behind me was simply anxious to get off at the next exit. But couldn't she have waited at a much more comfortable distance than literally sitting only a hair's breadth away from the back bumper of my vehicle?

It's as if the woman behind me was somehow trying to will me into driving faster by being so incredibly close to my vehicle. And what is worse is the fact that the person behind her was doing the same thing to her! So, who knows how things would've worked out had I been forced to stop short for any reason!