Young drivers and parents around New Jersey have been complaining about the driving restrictions placed on students receiving their Probationary License. Some restrictions, including the process of getting your license are a bit much. From the red decals, to curfew, to not allowing more than one friend in your car at a time; these restrictions have become excessive.
Parents should be the one’s to make decisions for their children, and how they can or cannot drive. To begin, us teens are restricted from driving with our friends. Parents should have the right to decide whether or not their child is allowed to drive with friends. Teenage years revolve around spending time outside of school, going out instead of staying home, and mainly spending it all with your friends. Teenagers want to live a fun life before going on to college. If a parent feels his or her child is not ready to drive with friends, maybe they aren’t ready to drive at all. The parent can stop their own kid from driving with friends if they really wanted to. But, if a parent believes his or her child is ready to drive with friends, and can handle that responsibility, then they are obviously ready to drive. Parents are responsible for their own children, and should only enforce rules for them if necessary. With the restriction of not being able to drive with friends is a hassle, and disrupts a teens social life.
Teenager practicing driving during a driving course.
Other than the fact that teenagers aren’t able to drive with friends, they have to stick red decals on their license plates in New Jersey. According to Kyleigh’s Law, which took effect in May 2010, teens are required to place red decals on their vehicles, because of an incident where a teen driver, Kyleigh D’Alessio, was killed, and others hurt in a crash in 2006. According to New Jersey State Law “All permit or probationary (formerly provisional) drivers under age 21 must display a reflectorized decal on each license plate (front/back) of any motor vehicle they operate.” The decals cost $4 per pair and can be purchased from Motor Vehicle.
Not only are they flashy, but they make teenagers stand out amongst all other drivers. This makes teenagers more prone to being followed, as people will know that the person driving a car with red decals is eighteen or younger. Parents have argued that forcing children to label their car with the red decals is making them more susceptible to beings followed by kidnappers or rapists. Parents are worried that their children, driving with red decals on their cars, are becoming targets, and may even attract predators to their home. With parental consent, teenagers have refused to place the red decals on their license plates, some even refusing to purchase the decals in the first place. This definitely shows how parents and young drivers do not feel safe driving with red decals on, so they shouldn’t be mandatory in New Jersey.
Young drivers also have a curfew. Teenagers cannot drive between 11:01pm and 5:00am. With this curfew, there has obviously been a decrease of young drivers on the roads between those hours, but young drivers have also become rebellious, leading to more teenagers wanting to drive between those hours regardless. Piling these restrictions on new drivers is becoming overwhelming and almost risking the teenager’s safety as well.
