Some people think that the best way to improve road safety is to increase the minimum legal age for driving a car or motorbike. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

 

Some people believe that raising the minimum driving age is the best solution to enhance road safety. I disagree with this idea because I believe that other methods are equally important and should be taken into account as well.

On the one hand, I agree that increasing the minimum age for getting a driving licence can be an effective road safety measure. Firstly, since people are often more mature and have more life experience when they get older, they can make quicker and wiser decisions to avoid dangerous situations on the road compared to younger drivers. My father, for example, will never use his phone when driving as he knows that he could easily lose his concentration and cause an accident. Secondly, raising the minimum driving age can allow adolescents to have more time to sharpen their driving skills. They can attend defensive driving courses to learn how to deal with different driving scenarios, which will help them minimize the risk of accidents when driving in the future.

 

On the other hand, I think that better road safety can be achieved by other more effective methods without increasing the driving age. To begin with, more stringent traffic regulations should be imposed, which would act as a deterrent to would-be traffic law breakers. In Singapore, people who run red lights are fined heavily, and therefore this will make them more responsible in order to avoid future punishments. In addition, governments should allocate financial resources to improving public transport, which would encourage citizens to drive their private cars or motorbikes less. As a result, these residents will no longer worry about the risks that they may face when driving their own vehicles, such as drunk driving or falling asleep at the wheel.

 

In conclusion, while raising the legal driving age can make our roads safer to some extent, I believe that governments should also introduce other road safety measures that are discussed above.