6 Comments on Teen Magnets Driver | Tagging teen drivers for their protection

Greg on Sun, 2nd Aug 2009 3:09 pm


If teens are required to put these warning signs on their car, then senior citizens definitely need to have warning signs plastered all over their Buicks.

Toby Smith on Sun, 2nd Aug 2009 4:12 pm


Requiring teens to put these signs on the vehicle that they are driving has got to be the dumbest idea I have heard in a long time! It’s absolutely idiotic for a whole host of reasons:

1. It would be a signal to cops: easy ticket here! Lets face the reality of the situation for young drivers, they get more tickets and not all of them are deserved although some are. Bottom line, it would make it easier the cops that engage in this sort of profiling (not all do) to spot teen drivers.

2. It is one more way of telling a teenager that people think of them as a danger to be avoided, essentially increasing the feeling of persecution that many teens have.

3. It unfairly labels all teens as bad drivers, not all are, some of them are very responsible drivers. A number of them are far better drivers than most of the adults on the road.

4. It unfairly gives the impression that teens are prone to breaking traffic laws. Actually, teens follow traffic laws more rigorously than most adults – especially in the matter of turn signals and lane changes.

5. Attempts at labeling other drivers in this manner would probably be met with a public outcry except possibly in the case of drunk drivers. Imagine a person being forced to put a sign on their car that says “This driver makes dangerous and unpredictable turns and lane changes” or more accurately “Idiot driver who doesn’t know how to use turn signals”. This would never happen.

6. It’s just one more thing that a teen has to think about and one more thing that they can be persecuted for if they forget to put it on. Insurance companies already discriminate against teens enough, the last ting teens need is a label that invites people to discriminate against them!

We already make teens lives hard enough, why make them even harder? Why further alienate them?

I am closing on 40 but I can remember being a teen driver and a responsible one at that and I had a learners permit for a full year before getting my license. Still, I would get pulled over when I was not doing anything illegal and I had to fight several tickets for offenses that I did not commit and all this because the cop could see that I was a very young driver. I can remember how almost everything seems to be stacked against you.

I can remember my feeling of outrage when I realized that insurance companies were unfairly gouging me because I was a teenage male. A teenage male with a year and 50,000 miles of driving experience when I first got my license. Our family drove a lot and when I turned 16 I got a learners permit and my mother decided that this meant that I was her chauffeur. The only accident that I had when I was a teen was when I got hit by a drunk and if I almost evaded the drunk and my reactions probably saved both me and my friends life. The police report noted that I was not at fault, in fact it made it quite clear! Yet the insurance company tried to raise my rates saying “oh you were in an accident” they only backed off when I threatened to sue them for, among other things, discrimination.

I routinely see adults change lanes and turn without signaling, without checking their surrounding and expecting that everyone will make way for them. Failure to signal is in my opinion a far greater danger than speeding (but speeding is easier to catch, ticket and prosecute). When I see a person that actually signals and then changes lanes safely, I try to determine what sort of person they are if possible. At least 75% of the time that I am able to determine with some accuracy who the responsible driver is, it is a teenage driver!

This, as I stated in the beginning, has got to be the most idiotic and stupid idea that I have heard in a long, long time!

david on Sun, 2nd Aug 2009 5:27 pm


Well no, not unless your gonna make old people have the same stuff. I am all for a more stringent drivers licensing program. But to make someone pass an eye exam when there 16 to get a license and have no upkeep other than merely going to pay a renewal fee is stupid. Obviously the human body deteriorates over time and although the youth might easily be distracted or have a lack of experience, they in many cases are physically in the best shape of there life, they have better reaction times, and have the ability to be better drivers than anyone else, with experience. I remember the story of the old guy running through a farmers market killing numerous people. (This type stuff is not going to happen with a kid, this represents massive failure of the system to make sure those behind the wheel are in physical shape to do so.)

Drunk driving is illegal, but driving while impaired due to the deteration of the human body through age is totally ok. (something not right)

Young drivers are bad drivers because they have little experience behind the wheel. Making others aware of a young driver on the road ahead of them is going to take their focus off what they need to be aware of as a driver.

someone on Sun, 2nd Aug 2009 5:38 pm


Damn stupid idea.

Perhaps we should label cars with alter kocker, or old fart, or elderly. too.

DerylW on Sun, 2nd Aug 2009 6:40 pm


Just another stupid idea from the same Idiots running our gov. If this country keeps going our kids will not be able to walk down the street when they are 16 with out a parrent with them. I absolutely agree if we lable teen drivers we need to lable senior citizens as well.

ptk on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 3:48 am


now every pedophile will know there’s an underage person in the car.

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