One of the links that FriedGreenCorrado posted had a good point - graduated licensing. A huge part of the reason why many of my friends got their licenses was because they didn't want their parents driving them and their friends to the movies or to a party or whatever. But nowadays, so many states/provinces won't let a 17 year old have another young person in the car with them so if you and your friends want to go to the movies your parents still have to drive you. If you can't borrow your parents car on a friday night and go pick up 4 friends and just go cruise around looking for parties, a huge incentive for getting your license disappears.
I also wonder if the article is blaming a lack of 17 year olds with licenses on the teens when they should be blaming adults. Another article FGC posted says that in 1996 Florida started forcing new drivers to wait 6 months to take the driving test after getting a learners permit, then in 2000 increased that to a year. If other states are doing the same, you're decreasing the possibility that a randomly surveyed 17 year old can legally have a license. If you don't go to the DMV on your 16th birthday, you will have at least one day as a 17 year old where you can't legally have your license. If parents use incentives/threats like "I realize you just turned 16, but you can't get your learner's permit until you raise your math grade to a B", if the next report card doesn't come out for 4 months then that teen can't have a license until they're a third of the way through being a 17 year old. The article should have mentioned some of these factors instead of blaming everything on the kids.
I also think the parents should be forcing the kids to get their licenses too, by simply refusing to chaufeur their kids around everywhere once they're eligible to get their licenses. Of course, that's very easy for me to say since I don't have kids and have no idea how hard it really is to deal with teenagers.
Bob
