this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
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In the US you don't get your full driver's license until 18. 16 is permit and requires an over 21 license driver with you, and 17 is a provisional license so it has restrictions on how late you can drive and how many people can be in the car.
I got my license at 16, permit at 15. I live in the U.S...
Yeah but I think what he's saying is that you can have a license, but there are still restrictions for a certain amount of time. In California when I got my license on my 16th birthday, I think it was 6 months that I couldn't have anyone in the car under 18 without someone over 25, and I couldn't drive past 10 or 11 pm (unless I was coming from work or some kind of emergency). It's been a minute (almost 20 years lol) and I remember changes to the rules not long after my restrictions were lifted (I think they extended them to a year), but yeah, it's not like they handed you a license and you were a free agent.
Old Millennial, here. Gather round!
In most of the USA, you could get a permit at 15 1/2 years old, and this came with the restriction of needing someone over 18 with you.
Then at 16, if you passed the test, you were given a license and could drive all you want. No restrictions, no limits, have your friends in the car, no one really cared. Then people started to realize that giving 16 years olds free rein to drive causes a lot of accidents. Over the past ~15 years more states have adopted the graduated driver’s license and it has caused a notable drop in fatalities.
Isn't this the same country that made the drinking age 21 because of car accidents?
I think that may be a state restriction. For sure you can get a permit at 15, and 16 should be provisional, but iirc the only restriction is that those under 18 cant drive after 11pm, atleast in FL.
Pretty sure the US allows individual states to set the ages. In Canada, it's provinces that set it. Lowest age I've ever heard of was 12 (for limited permits to move farm machinery along back roads in Saskatchewan, although that was decades ago and it might not still be a thing). I had a full and unrestricted license at 16, but the rules have changed since then.
Only if you live in New Jersey
Admittedly it's been a long time since this was relevant to me, so this may have changed, but where and when I grew up in the US you could get a learner's permit (unlimited driving with another qualified driver in the car) at 15 yrs and 9 mos, then a full license (able to drive by yourself and transport anyone over 18) at, I think, 16 and 6 mos. At 18 the restrictions on whom you could transport disappeared, but I've never heard of anyone paying attention to or enforcing those rules anyway.
There may also have been a restriction about driving after midnight, but I don't recall for sure.
I only had my learner's permit for 6 months before getting my intermediate, and my full license 6 months after that.