Is it possible to issue a driving license from the age of 16: the opinion of a psychologist

State Duma Deputy Vasily Vlasov proposed to give Russians the right to drive a car from the age of 16. If his initiative is approved, what will such an innovation give us? After all, according to the law, the age of majority comes at 18. Does this mean that drivers will appear on the roads who, from a legal point of view, are not fully capable of being fully responsible for their actions?

How do other countries deal with this issue?

From the age of 14, rights are issued in some US states, for example, in Alaska, Kansas, Wisconsin and some others. However, there are certain limitations. Beginners must be accompanied by an experienced driver, you can not drive at night and carry a large number of underage passengers.

From the age of 15, rights are issued in El Salvador. And from 16 – in Mexico, Colombia, Israel, in Europe, in Australia and in the USA. So getting a license at this age is quite a popular practice. However, in Europe teenagers are not allowed to drive on their own, only with their parents.

In some countries, rights are issued from the age of 17 and, like ours, from the age of 18. This age in most states is considered appropriate to trust a person to drive a car. So whose experience can be considered the most acceptable for us?

Early or not?

Quite often, children take cars without asking. And it regularly turns into tragedy. The other day, in the Moscow region, a twelve-year-old boy decided to “ride”, lost control and flew into a fence. Boys aged 12 and 13 and a girl aged 13 were injured as a result of the accident.

Of course, 12 years is not 16. But is the difference that big? What restrictions and what articles will have to be introduced into the Criminal and Administrative Codes in order to protect people and underage drivers themselves? And will they help?

It seems that when issuing a driver’s license to sixteen years old, an even stricter and more complete check would have to be carried out than for adults …

“Getting rights is a ticket to obligations”

Yulia Schukina, psychologist

At the university, we were taught that the human brain is fully formed by the age of 21. The frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex, which are responsible for the functions of control, planning and anticipation of consequences, are the most recent to develop. Now work on the study of brain development continues.

It may be worth taking this information into account when working on a bill. To predict the behavior of a driver on the road in a stressful situation, it is important to consider whether his nervous system can respond to a large number of stimuli at the same time.

Obtaining rights is not just a ticket to a free life, it is a ticket to obligations, under which you subscribe when you receive this document. This is a story about responsibility and about those who bear it.

Like all people of their age, 16-year-olds and 18-year-olds are different. Just saying that some are smarter than others seems wrong to me. It is also debatable that an 18-year-old is more responsible than a 16-year-old: their responsibility is different, and so are its consequences.

It is worth dwelling on this concept. We can consider responsibility as some skill that we master in the process of life and development. This is the ability to understand the consequences of one’s actions or inaction, to understand what one risks if one harms another… The line of age is conditional here, since there is no direct connection between age and responsibility. Where we learn this is also a good question!

From this point of view, I understand why some US states have introduced conditions – to be behind the wheel with an experienced driver, an additional re-examination. As if steps are being built here to master the skills of driving, responsibility and control – they have someone to learn from.

It doesn’t seem right to me now to give licenses to our teenagers at 16 and let them go alone on the road, unless there are special conditions that help them learn to control themselves, be responsible for themselves, the road, the consequences, and also compensate for possible harm.

Probably a two year difference could be a good time to practice this skill.

When thinking about the proposal to issue licenses to 16-year-olds, we must ask ourselves questions: who will be responsible in case of accidents – on the parents or the 16-year-old himself? What training programs and mentors will be available to guide teens along the way? Maybe ask the teenagers themselves if they are ready for such responsibility for themselves and other people on the road?

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Before accepting such an initiative, doctors, lawyers, sociologists should give a balanced answer to all these questions. And only then it will be possible to seriously talk about allowing 16-year-old citizens to drive a car and take responsibility not only for their own lives, but also for the lives of all road users.