by Libby Hyde

Last year, Kansas passed a law changing the minimum unrestricted driving age from 16 to 17 years of age, and in addition, the state now imposes more limits on the least experienced drivers. These new laws, according to former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, were created in hopes of making roads safer and allowing teenagers to be more prepared to drive. Though these laws were supposedly made in effort to keep teens safe, they were pointless to begin with and have made my life more difficult, especially because I attend school in Missouri.

According to one of the new driving laws, teenagers may now only possess a full drivers license at the age of 17, but a teenager may receive their license at the age of 16 1/2 if they have met a number of different requirements. Within the first 6 months of driving, a teen can only drive one non-sibling passenger under the age of 18. However, a teen may acquire a restricted license by the age of 15 if they have completed a driver’s education course, which allows teens to drive to and from work and school.

Compared to the former law, teens now have to wait an additional six months to a year to receive their license. So, what happens within these six months to a year? And why did our government feel the need to change the law to such a short age difference? Surely the difference can’t be large enough to suggest the need for such a change to the law. These changes only make it more difficult and time consuming for teens to get their full license while restricting those teens who find this law to be pointless.

In addition to the miniscule change in maturity during 16 and 17 years of age, even under these conditions set out by the new law, many teens are still breaking the rules. For example, if a Kansas driver has obtained a restricted license, they are not permitted to drive in Missouri until they have obtained their full license. Also, the new restrictions passed on prohibiting the use of cellphones is often broken. So, even if these new rules have been put in place for teen’s safety, according to Sebelius, how much good are they really doing if teens are still breaking the rules?

Due to the new driving laws in Kansas, I will not have my full license until this November, which is long after many other students at STA. So while most students at STA will have already gotten their full license, I will be waiting six months after them to get it myself. This is obviously discriminatory. Does it seem fair that most of the people I know get their licence at age 16, where as I have to wait an extra six months? In addition to being restricted by this new law, I also live far away from my friends. This means I can not drive to meet my friends at events that take place in Missouri, which would be against the law. Also, even with the law allowing me to drive to school with my restricted license, I cannot drive in Missouri because Kansas laws don’t apply. These extra 6 months don’t guarantee that I will be more experienced than before, yet I still have to wait.

There are many improvements that could have been made to the Kansas driving laws without taking away some of the small rights teens have. For example, to obtain a full license, Kansas citizens must pass a written and driving exam, which can either take place at the DMV or an independent Driver’s Education administration. These include a lengthy test, and somewhere between 30 minutes – 6 hours of driving. If the administrator of the driving test finds the taker’s abilities to be proficient, they can receive their full license. This means that someone could climb behind the wheel during the driving test, complete only, say, thirty minutes of driving, and still receive their license. And the Kansas government still believes they are making our state safer by imposing these new laws, when they are completely overlooking a huge loophole in the driving test to receive your license?

These new laws are obviously doing more harm than good. Instead of imposing these laws on teens requiring them to wait only a half or full year before receiving their full license, Kansas should have instead focus their efforts on improving the driving test system, which would still have the intended results of make the roads safer without taking away rights of teens.