It still strikes me as weird how young you guys can drive.

I'm 23 and I've never driven, nor owned a car. And I only have one friend my age who does.

I didn't drive for a long time after I could have, and looking back (and considering the three accidents my sister got in before she hit 20), I know this was a Good Thing.

Also, I just ated too much yummy free Thai food. I need a nap.

I hate that crap. Don't let them have licenses, then.

What they do instead, is charge them higher rates for auto insurance. Then everyone wins. Oh wait. No. Just the insurance companies and their lobbyists.

I got my license at 15 (wow, I've now been licensed longer than not !) and at the time, would have thrown a hissy fit if the state had switched to one of those graduated/supervised licensing systems, but with the wisdom of age (heh) I think they are a brilliant idea. What with having gotten into an accident that experience would definitely have prevented 4 days after getting my license.

I * knock on wood * never had so much as a speeding ticket as a teenage driver-15 I think was the age back home. My sole ticket was for window tint because my car had come from Florida and hadn't had to go through inspection in La. yet.

In defense of my less than reckless teenage driving, my father was/is a driver's ed teacher.

Yeah, I don't think Tom got his license till 25, give or take a year.

But in America, the driving thing is so necesary in 90% of the country, and a whole mythology has grown around it, which I find, um, eye-rolly.

Since I grew up on a farm, getting my drivers license was a Really Big Deal. Because then I could actually Go Places and Do Stuff. I also figured it would be pointless to ask a girl out on a date until I got my license.

I only really drove when it was ridiculous - I totalled my mom's car at 17 or so, no drinking, just driving rain and an unfamiliar street with a sudden curve, and also drove under the influence of one thing and another a few times, but never very far (like the other cars on the road cared how far I was going!!). I haven't driven regularly since I was 18, and not at all in years.

But in America, the driving thing is so necesary in 90% of the country, and a whole mythology has grown around it, which I find, um, eye-rolly.

This is what the boy says. He finds the lack of cars and general acceptance of public transport to be the hardest thing to adapt to.

I think the drinking age should be 16, and the driving age should be 21.

In one of my other moods, I think everyone should have to be 30 to do almost everything.