Strict Road Rules Are Driving Students Mad by Marcus Zaiff
My fellow classmates,
May I ask: who here can drive? Who here has taken those monotonous hours of a driver’s education course? Who here passed their road test and has a junior license? Who here drives to school? That’s what I thought. None of us can, for it is illegal.
Most people share the common misconception that once you get your junior license, you can drive to school. Sounds familiar, right? Well, it’s not true. According to New York State DMV laws and regulations, students with a junior license cannot drive to school in neither Nassau or Suffolk Counties nor in any of the five boroughs. However, upstate New York, it is perfectly acceptable to drive to school with a junior’s license. Why is this?
This is because Long Island and New York City are the most densely populated areas in New York State. There are 5,571 people/sq mi on Long Island. According to the DMV, there are 1,112,165 licensed drivers in Suffolk County. Now, how many of these licensed drivers have a fresh memory of all the traffic laws such as junior license drivers do? Very few, I presume.
Junior license drivers are far more well-versed and aware of the traffic laws than most people on the road. In order to get a junior license, you must have your learner permit for at least six months and you have to take a drivers education course. Drivers education courses educate students on every aspect of traffic laws and how to implement them while driving. Lastly, you must pass your big and scary road test. Road tests are administered by DMV employees who see if you can drive well enough to be on the road alone. But, you cannot drive alone. Not until you’re 17.
Why can’t we drive alone? Does age really matter that much? According to the law, yes it does. We cannot drive until we are 17. Say you get your junior license a few months before you turn 17. How much better drivers will we be from the time we pass our road tests to the time we turn 17? Not much at all. We’ve all seen how many horrific drivers there are out there. How about we put some good drivers out on the road?
Let us drive when the law is fresh in our memories and we’re able to continuously practice those good driving habits we’ve just learned. The law says that between the hours of 5AM and 9PM, junior license drivers can drive alone to their employment. Employment could be many miles away. The distance between your house and your school is most likely much closer than the distance between your house and your job. That doesn’t make sense, does it? Why would the state rather you drive farther, and possibly a more dangerous route, than to a much closer location?
The benefits of allowing students with junior licenses to drive aren’t just for the kids. They’re for the adults, too. In my findings, most parents would rather their children get more desperately needed sleep instead of waking up early to catch a bus. Some parents even go the extra mile and drive their children to school everyday so they’re able to get more sleep time, improving school performance.My girlfriend’s mom, for example, drives her and me to school every day. She does this to allow us that much-needed time for sleep. Otherwise, we’d have to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch our bus. She does this even with the expense of possibly being tardy to work. However, if the law changed to allow junior license drivers to drive to school, we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place.
Now, come join me. I want to be allowed to drive to school as much as you do. We can come together and find a way to make what we know is just happen for the good of us all. It was just recently Election Day, and there will soon be new people in high-up positions. These elected officials are willing to make changes to maintain and increase their supporters. So why not start here? Let’s bring their attention to the importance of extending the law. Allow kids who have their junior license–who are more than capable of doing so–drive to school. Together we can go down to the town supervisor to plead our case and get his support. Together we can go to the county executive and persuade him to change this law for the betterment of our sleep deprived junior license holders. Together we can shed light on this injustice. We can demonstrate to Governor Cuomo the importance of junior license drivers driving to school. Together.