Driver's licenses aren't a rite of passage anymore

"As a mom of three kids, Christina Mott had been counting the days until her oldest son, Colton, got his driver's license. It falls on her to drive each of them - age 10, 12, and 16 - to three different charter schools every day, and then to extracurriculars and social outings. "Having him able to drive himself would free up a lot of time," she says. If only."

"Christina, who's 46, says a lot of her fellow parents are going through the same thing: Teenagers are slamming the brakes on the time-honored rite of passage of getting a license at 16, either out of fear or because they're put off by the process or the costs. "When I was 16, we didn't think this way about driving at all. Driving meant freedom!" Christina says."

Many teenagers are delaying getting driver's licenses, leaving parents driving them longer and increasing parental time burden. A Northern California mother drives three children to separate schools and activities because her oldest, Colton, postponed licensing after rolling through a red light and a stop sign while on his learner's permit. Fear of crashes, perceived unpreparedness, process complexity, and costs are cited reasons for teens postponing licenses. Licensure among 16-year-olds declined from roughly half in 1983 to about 25% in 2022. Older generations viewed driving as freedom, but current trends keep Gen X parents behind the wheel longer.

Read at Business Insider