Nine days after I turned 15, I went with my mom to get my learner’s permit. I remember nights filled with reviewing obscure facts about rarely-used traffic signs and memorizing the speed at which a car could hydroplane. After barely passing my written exam I vowed to myself I would drive every day, study car facts in Driver’s Ed, and, in a year, be completely prepared to tackle my driver’s exam.
Fast forward 365 days; I’d done my time in Driver’s Ed, but the whole driving thing? Not so much. It took me another full year to get it together, practice parallel parking until I could do it in my sleep, and find the time to stand in line for three hours to take a photo that rivaled my passport picture in its ungainliness.
Somewhere between the first few weeks of driving and reaching my 16th birthday I realized, subconsciously at first, that I didn’t want my license as much as I’d thought. That’s to say, I didn’t want to get it as quickly as I had before. I had no plans of letting my learner’s permit expire, but I decided if it took me longer than a year to get my license, I wouldn’t sweat it.
Part of the reason why I waited was that I was unmotivated, plain and simple. I’d still be able to get to school each morning without having to drive myself and had rarely found myself in a situation where I met a friend at Starbucks and was unable to find a ride home.
This contributes to my opinion of teens living in bustling, urban cities; you don’t really need a car. Generally speaking, public transportation is pretty reliable, and unless you live outside the city limits, in which case you wouldn’t be zoned to Grady or any APS school, it shouldn’t be too hard to walk to either a bus stop or a Ru San’s.
Since I waited to get my license, I thought most Grady students would have as well. As of 2013, 54 percent of 18-year-olds have a license, according to the Federal Highway Administration. This number is way down from 1990, when 77 percent of 18-year-olds held a driver’s license. Surprisingly, in a survey of 150 Grady teens, I found that my peers seemed more eager to get their license on time; 59 percent of students got their permit and license as soon as they could or are planning on it, while only 25 percent either waited more than two months to get their license or didn’t have a timeline for getting it.
My Grady survey brought up another category: 7 percent were waiting until they turn 18 to bypass the permit stage. While I understand the method behind it, waiting until you become an adult enables you to be on the road, alone, with no prior practice or in-class learning.
Even though I was in the majority of American teens, I had profoundly different thoughts than most of my Grady counterparts. While I didn’t feel the pressure to need to drive myself, more of my peers did. When I finally surrendered my permit in mid-August, I felt accomplished, but also like a huge journey had ended for me. Because I took two years to learn to drive with the help of my parents and driving instructors, I felt more prepared to tackle Atlanta’s chaotic traffic. Now I can drive to the store, alone, for the express purpose of buying a new pack of gum. And if I want to drive 45 minutes to eat at that new Thai restaurant in the suburbs, I can do that too.