Florida teenagers are waiting years to get their driver’s licenses, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Driver’s education teachers, parents and teens suggest several reasons, from tougher license requirements to a growing awareness of the dangers of driving. The high cost of gas and insurance, as well as protective parents, may also be factors. …

In 1996, Florida started requiring teens to have a learner’s permit for six months before applying for a permanent license. In 2000, the mandatory wait increased to a year. What’s more, novice drivers must obey curfews or be accompanied by someone at least 21 unless they are going to or from work. You must be at least 16 to have an operating license.

In 1996, when I got my driver’s license in Florida, the driving test was so easy that it took place almost exclusively in a parking lot. I got in the car with the examiner, drove forward, reversed, parked in a large, SUV-friendly parking spot, backed up, exited the parking lot, drove half a block, turned right, drove another half-block, re-entered the parking lot, did a three-point turn, and was done. Couldn’t be easier. I could have done that test half asleep. Hell, I was 16: I probably did do that test half-asleep.

Florida roads are full of elderly, barely competent drivers, who can’t see over the steering wheel and drive 20 mph on the highway. They, more than just about anything else, make the roads there frightening. I wonder if this fits into teens’ 
“growing awareness of the dangers of driving” (as the Sun-Sentinel described it). If so, that might be the only example of generational table-turning, when young whippersnappers are the ones afraid of their elders.

Final note: The story is accompanied by a photo of this lad –

– who is a 16-year-old waiting to get his license, perhaps until, he says, he has a girlfriend. His mom, as quoted in the article, is clearly pleased with her son’s decision-making. It’s hard to read in the reflection, but he’s wearing a shirt that says, “I’m out of bed and dressed.” The second line of this strangely widespread shirt is, “What more do you want?” Which is kind of funny, and take your pick why: It’s a shirt portraying an irresponsible and aloof slacker, worn by a kid who is clearly neither of those things and making momma proud; or a shirt portraying laziness, worn by a kid who just hasn’t gotten around to getting his license.