This month, significant changes are coming for young drivers in this state. Learning to drive is a significant milestone for young adults, and ensuring that you take the process seriously with intention and commitment ensures that you keep the roads a safer place for all road users. As a new driver, you also need to be aware that changes to driving legislation are frequent, and it is your responsibility to keep up with new bills and enactments that will affect what you can do on the road.
Keeping up with new changes for drivers across states
Chnages to driving laws and legislation are constantly under review and subject to updates in order to ensure that the safety of all road users maintains a top priority for all road users. These changes range from updates to speeding laws, changes to the use of automated camera technology, stamping out phone usage, prevention interventions to prevent excessive speeding and distracted driving, updates to license registration requirements, and even changes to the designs of licenses themselves.
With these laws constantly in flux, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to keep up with changes regarding what is permitted on the road, especially if you are a new driver. However, driving is a major responsibility, and if you want to be a responsible road user who contributes to the safety of others, you need to take it upon yourself to remain vigilant and aware of these updates to ensure that the law remains respected and updated.
Driving laws, which have been particularly subject to change across states this year, pertain to updates to fines and penalties associated with speeding. According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), speeding accounted for approximately one-third of all road accident-related deaths in 2023. In order to reduce this statistic, states have been updating their associated penalties for speeding to include increased fines and even jail time as a penalty if convicted of speeding.
New changes for this course for young drivers
Recently, the Ohio Traffic Safety Office announced that starting September 30, if you are under the age of 21 but over the age of 18, you will now have to pass a full driver’s education course to receive your license. Previously, if you were part of this age group, you could still obtain your license through an abbreviated course, provided you passed a road test. The change has been put in place due to this age group currently taking the top spot for the majority of crashes in the state:
“From what I’ve heard, for the first time, it’s now an older age group that has had the most crashes, which is the 19 to like 20-something range.” said AmeriDrive Driving School co-owner Bethany Baxter to The Intelligencer
These changes mean that drivers of this age group will now be subject to the same driver’s education requirements as those who are between the ages of 16 and 18.
The need to update licenses is increasing across states
License security is also becoming increasingly stricter, more advanced, and futuristic. More states are beginning to implement digital licenses for their residents as part of a broader effort to contribute towards modernizing identification systems, streamlining public services, and enhancing security protocols.
To support these new digital licenses, the Transportation Security Administration is updating infrastructure across airports to support the use of these licenses to board your flight. However, you need to ensure that your digital license is REAL-ID certified if you want to be able to use it at these federal facilities, as May 17 this year saw the REAL-ID certification deadline finally take place, after two decades of the deadline being pushed back due to resistance from states
