It's completely opposite now. A lot of us still got our licenses ASAP. My bestie and I joke that our mothers had us get ours so we could run their errands (partly true on both counts). But so many waited for whatever reason. A few have said to me, "Ah, well, I just haven't felt like it..." My one friend up until this semester had to get rides from family members to school (again, public transportation is a joke in MD; another reason my parents planned for me to have a car); thankfully she only lives 10 minutes away. Another one of my friends, who is several years older, got hers at 19. One of my friends wasn't allowed to get hers until age 18 (her parents are from New Jersey and her mom once told me she thought the legal driving age should be 18 like it is in New Jersey...right after I said that I had just gotten my license.
) Another got his at 19 after failing 3 times. Another got hers at 20 because she was afraid to drive for a long time. It's rather ironic how many friends I have who are older than me but got their licenses after me
The requirements have gotten so much harder for passing your test. In MD, you first have to pass a written test to get your permit. Then, you have to have 60 hours behind the wheel with a mentor (a parent or someone over the age of 21 licensed for 3+ years), 10 of which must be at night, driver's ed, plus 6 hours behind the wheel with the driver's ed instructor, which does NOT count toward your 60 hours. You have to pass a behind the wheel test with the instructor. And then, at least 9 months after you get your permit, you take a behind the wheel test, which most people fail on the first try. If you pass, you get your provisional license. Everyone is issued a provisional license regardless of age. For the first 6 months after you get your license if you are under 18, no passengers under the age of 18 unless you have a mentor in the car (over 21 and licensed 3+ years). Siblings are allowed regardless of age. Other than that, the penalties are much stricter under a provisional license.
Yikes, the restrictions are really piling up for new drivers. It was nothing like that when I went for my license, although I do live in a different state from yours.
I have to laugh when I think back to my own driving test, at 21. The driving instructor from my driving school took about 8 of us down to the Registry of Motor Vehicles; and one by one, we'd go out on the road test with the officer, while the instructor would sit in the back seat of the car. The day I went, the Registry had accidentally double booked us with another group, so essentially, it meant that the driver's test probably took all of 6 minutes, so that they could fit in everyone!
On top of that, we had been assigned this incredibly handsome, 30ish, Registry cop, and I turned into complete mush, with him sitting in the passenger seat next to me.
(
swoon . . .) I was so nervous that I forgot to fasten my seat belt, and he "suggested" I might want to do that . . . Then, I went to put the keys in the ignition to start the car, and I dropped the keys on the floor!
I tried to reach down to get them, but the seat belt was too tight, so I unfastened it and got the keys and started the car. Again, he "suggested" that I might want to put on my seat belt again. (All I remember was mumbling, "I'm sorry, officer," to him, a few times during my road test.
)
Meanwhile, my driving instructor, observing me turn into a blithering imbecile, put on a command performance, trying to engage the officer in small talk, to distract him.
In the end, all the officer had me do was drive around a block, making sure I stopped at the stop sign and looked in all directions before moving, and then had me park the car at a curb. (Now, I was about 2 1/2 feet away from the curb, but I parked it . . .
) Don't ask me how I ever passed that driving test!!
