The executive is considering reforming the driving license by lowering the minimum legal age to 16 and reducing the cost of obtaining it.
Obtaining a driver’s license could soon be subject to a major change. For several weeks, the executive has been considering lowering the minimum legal age to be able to take the exam, by raising it from 18 to 17 or even 16 years old.
If driving alone from the age of 16 is already possible in a car without a license, this reform under study divides French motorists. “Will people be trained enough at 16? I ask myself the question”, testifies one of them at the microphone of BFMTV. “That’s better than 90-year-olds who still have the license,” replied another.
But move on the legal age of the driving license is not the only issue of this measure. The government would also like to remove the 20 hours of compulsory driving in order to reduce the cost of obtaining it.
Serious concerns among professionals in the sector
This initiative does not fail to be criticized by some driving instructors, who believe that fewer hours will not necessarily mean cheaper.
“We can bill the lessons individually, so in fact someone who will take fifteen hours, it will almost cost twenty hours in the flat rate. We will bill one hour of driving at 50 euros whereas in the flat rate it was at 45″, says Guillaume Clément, manager of the ALC Conduite driving school.
In France, 18-24 year olds are involved in 17% of road accidents even though they represent only 9% of the population.
“Lowering the age will increase exposure to the risks of this category and therefore mathematically, it will only increase accident rates and mortality”, estimates Anne Lavaud, general delegate for Road Prevention.
France would thus join the United Kingdom where you can drive a car at 17, or even the United States where the license examination is open to 16-year-old teenagers subject to a few restrictions, such as the strict ban on driving the night.
