WI: Driving age of 21 established before car ownership became the norm OTL

What if it was made illegal for people under 21 to drive sometime before car ownership became common OTL? What effects would this have on the culture of car-driving?
 
Roads would probably be safer. You might see the drinking age in the US remain 18 in they can't drive, at least legally.

And kids out in the country will still be driving at 13 or so, same as always.
 
What if it was made illegal for people under 21 to drive sometime before car ownership became common OTL? What effects would this have on the culture of car-driving?
Back then, you could Marry at 14, but not let you Drive a Automobile?

Don't think it would fly. One of the famous names of old automotive history that nobody remembers today, was Floyd Clymer.

He was running a successful car dealership when he was ten years old, in 1904.
 

DougM

Donor
It is not going to help all THAT much. Yes young drivers have issues but it is not like being 21 means you will suddenly be a great driver. The reason 21 year olds are better drivers is they have 4 or 5 years of practice, so you will have much worse 21 year old drivers and you will have discussion groups asking what happens if the driving age was 25. :)

But you will also get a hug movement to get the age cut back to 18 or less. And you are going to have issues with the Army as you will have people enter the Military who can not drive for 3 years and you are giving the tanks, jeeps and ships? Not a good idea for someone’s first time at the controls of a motorized vehicle for it to be a 50 ton tank. And who is driving the hummers and the trucks?

So I don’t think you CAN make the law 21 unless we extend the age for military service to 21 also. So I think 18 is as old as you can get it.
 
And kids out in the country will still be driving at 13 or so, same as always.

And, at that time, the U.S. was to a great extent, "out in the country", and farm work is greatly facilitated if someone besides Mom and Dad can drive the vehicles...
Think the idea is D. O. A.
 
And, at that time, the U.S. was to a great extent, "out in the country", and farm work is greatly facilitated if someone besides Mom and Dad can drive the vehicles...
Think the idea is D. O. A.
Farms existed for a long time before cars did.
 
The sexual revolution of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s would be different without teenagers being able to sneak off - without adult chaperones - to “lovers’ lane.”
 
OTO the male brain does not mature until age 25, so restrictions on teenaged drivers reduce accident rates .... just ask any insurance company!

ATL The army could always train 18-year-olds to drive, but - hopefully - limit their freedom to suffer accidents: requiring a 25-year-old crew-commander’s supervision, zero tolerance for drunken driving, limited hours, etc.

OTL Farm kids have always been able to drive on the family farm as soon as they could reach the pedals.

ATL That would not change, but Teenaged farm kids would be forbidden to drive into town.
 
ATL That would not change, but Teenaged farm kids would be forbidden to drive into town.
I see a lot of Farm States challenging this Federal Law on young Drivers.
As if it's not Federal Law, the Farm States wouldn't have this law on the Books
 
And, at that time, the U.S. was to a great extent, "out in the country", and farm work is greatly facilitated if someone besides Mom and Dad can drive the vehicles...
Think the idea is D. O. A.

In 1900 somewhere around 60-70% of the population were rural/agrarian. The 50% mark was passed in the 1920s in the US & accelerated during the Depression.

Children as young as three years old were following a plough team of horses. A smart six year old can manage a buggy or wagon team. Why can't anyone who could manage the controls not pilot farm truck.

In the city it was legal for a sixteen year old to work in a factory, construction site, or shipping dock and operate all sorts of machinery. What is the difference between operating a crane in a locomotive works, or donkey engine on a dock & operating a gasoline powered wagon of 1910?
 
OTO the male brain does not mature until age 25, so restrictions on teenaged drivers reduce accident rates .... just ask any insurance company!

ATL The army could always train 18-year-olds to drive, but - hopefully - limit their freedom to suffer accidents: requiring a 25-year-old crew-commander’s supervision, zero tolerance for drunken driving, limited hours, etc.

OTL Farm kids have always been able to drive on the family farm as soon as they could reach the pedals.

ATL That would not change, but Teenaged farm kids would be forbidden to drive into town.

What happens when a kid puts in two years of service, comes back to the states, and then suddenly can't drive again for a year 'legally'. You'd get an AWFUL lot of vets being pulled over and arrested here...
 
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