Credit: Abby Bergeron

Join WSPN’s Mackenzie Young as she breaks down the tedious process of acquiring a driver’s license in Massachusetts.

At 15 years old, you have just completed your mandatory 30-hour driver’s education course and passed the final exam to prove you understand the rules of the road and basic navigation. What’s next? You wait what feels like an eternity before you get any real driving freedom from all those lessons. To make the process less tedious, Massachusetts teens should be able to apply for a learner’s permit at 15 and drive passengers at 16.

With a mininmum age of 16 for a learner’s permit, Massachusetts is tied with seven other states for the oldest minimum age to begin driving. Most of the other states with this law are nearby, including Rhode Island, New York and Connecticut. However, Connecticut requires two fewer months of practice between a learners permit and a Junior Operating License (JOL), meaning teens there are able to obtain a license sooner than teens inMassachusetts teens.

In Massachusetts, teens are eligible to begin the licensing process at 15 years and nine months by taking a driver’s education course in the classroom. After completing the course, they must wait until age 16 to be able to take a multiple choice permit test, online or in person, to obtain a learner’s permit.

A learner’s permit in Massachusetts allows a teen to operate a vehicle so long as a parent or driving instructor is in the car. Six months after acquiring a permit, you can take a road test to demonstrate your driving capabilities, including maneuvers like turning, stopping and parking.

Once you have waited six months and passed your road test, you are finally granted a JOL, but you’re only able to drive yourself, adults and family members during specified hours. The jump between a JOL, otherwise known as an intermediate license, and a complete license, is the same as most other states.

After the first six months after receiving a JOL, drivers cannot transport any passengers other than family members. But after nine months of waiting, practice and a road test, teens demonstrate that they are more than capable of navigating the roads safely, as certified by the state. Given how much time is spent earning a license, it makes little sense to restrict someone who has proven their ability to drive only themselves.

When I get my license, I want to be able to drive my friends to and from places without risking the loss of my license. After nine months of practice, student drivers have surely proven themselves worthy of this privilege, and yet there are still restrictions on their driving abilities. The six month restriction on transporting passengers is also illogical because it limits new drivers with requiring any additional proof of skill, hindering the freedom of a license without actually making teens safer or better drivers.

It would benefit teens to be able to get a permit at 15 and an intermediate license at 16. This would provide more opportunities to learn the rules of the road before receiving a full license at 18. Aligning more closely with the 42 other states with fewer restrictions would make the process of getting a driver’s license less tedious by making it less of a waiting game and more a test of genuine understanding.

Massachusetts should tighten the requirements for earning a license while lowering the age restrictions by a year. This would keep unprepared teens off the road and give capable drivers more independence.