Drive, Drive, Drive

Home, Sweet Home

At the wedding, i was talking to the woman i was sitting next to, Michelle, about driving in Adelaide. She thought it was completely insane that we can get a licence at sixteen and drive on our own just six months later. In Melbourne, things are different. I don't think kids can get licences until they're eighteen. I don't know how i'd manage!

We're lucky here. Without my licence i'd be waiting half an hour in the pouring rain for a rickety old bus. There are trains... but i've only caught one once. I'm not even sure i could find the train station... Adelaide isn't so big on the public transport. That's why we have our licences so early.

I have a few theories. First, i think they let us have our licences so early because Adelaide is small enough that it's just natural. Everything is less than half an hour away. Our parents don't want to be bothered driving ten minutes to drop is off, only to pick us up again a few hours later in the middle of the night. It's just so much simpler to let us do it ourselves. Seriously, what kind of trouble can we get ourselves into?

There's the big 'P-Plate Debate' that's heating up at the moment. People want us to wait before we can get our licences, because apparently we will become more responsible and cause less accidents. But will that really work? Leaving us without our licences will just make us more desparate to drive - and, for the less responsible people around, some might just go and steal the cars, take them for a joy ride, just because they can. Everyone wants what they can't have. Moreover, will making us wait really make us more sensible and safe? Is it really youth that makes us bad drivers? Or is it just a lack of experience? If it's a lack of experience, the problems are going to be the same whether we experience them at sixteen or eighteen.

Another thing. People are so terrified about P-Platers having accidents, but EVERYONE stuffs up at first. No matter what they do. I've got some warped logic; in Adelaide, we can have our licences earlier because, when we do crash our cars, there is less traffic here to get involved. If you hit a car in Melbourne, you're likely to end up with a six car pile-up. Not here - you hit one car and there's enough space for other cars to avoid you. Of course, that logic is totally irrational and non-sensical. But can you almost see my point? Driving as a whole is less dangerous here.

I'll bet that in Melbourne, where beginner drivers are older, there are no less accidents.

I love the fact that i can drive. I don't know how i'd manage without it. And i'm a good driver! I tried hard and now i'm cautious and i don't drive stupidly. The people pushing the P-Plate debate really should realise that there will be idiots on the road either way.

I'm just so glad that i can drive!

Annie