Six Thinking Hats

The age at which Australians learn to drive is too young

White hat:

Sixteen is the legal age in which a person is eligible to learn how to drive. Driving is very much an important part of our day to day lives. We drive almost everywhere. We use our cars much more than we do walking, riding a bike etc. More accidents in cars occur in young motorists than older insisting that younger motorists need more tuition. Younger drivers are more likely to be in self involved accidents as they are more prone to 'showoff' and commit reckless driving.

Red Hat:

Younger people need to be taught more driving skills. How can young drivers be expected to know the law of the road when they are taught in such a small time frame. We are taught to walk and run from birth but driving which in our generation replaces these 2 things in most of our everyday life, we learn in 12 months and then we are allowed to drive anywhere we want. You can't teach someone something so important in such a small time frame and expect them to be able to do it perfectly within 12 months.

Yellow Hat:

If we were taught to drive at an older age the benefits could be more responsible look at drink driving, greater knowledge of our road systems and more awareness of what a responsibility driving is. This is good because driving has so many responsibilities and should be taught even before we learn to drive. Driving is not the hard part it is the laws, rules and regulations that take adjusting to.

Black Hat:

The simple fact is we need more practice not less. Delaying the age will only make things worse treating driving as a duty not a privilege. It will be much harder to teach