OneAndOneIs2

To be honest I do think it's ageist.

I'm 18 right now, but I rarely drive because my parents can't afford insurance for me on their cars. I also live in a city with a fairly decent public transit system, so driving is not a necessity.

Thing is, I'll never learn to drive at this rate. If I do learn to drive, it'll probably be when I'm 30 or something when I've started making my own money and can afford a car. Funny thing is, I won't need to pay so much insurance anymore then, because despite the fact that I still have no driving experience, I'd be 30, and that somehow inherently makes me a better driver than if I was 17. Which I find to be bull, but I wouldn't argue against it because I wouldn't want them to be charging me 17-year-old-charges when I'm 30 because I have no driving experience.

The thing I'm trying to say is that the insurance costs for young drivers are so high that they are pushing the ages that people start driving further and further back. Even when the ages get pushed back like this, they are still starting out as inexperienced drivers.

The current generation of adults didn't have this problem either. Back in the day, it wasn't extremely expensive for teenagers to start driving, and all the adults of today had probably started driving in their teenage years. Back in the day there was less licence enforcement etc too, and my dad says he started driving at 12 or 13 or something like that.

So why is it that only the current generation of young people have to pay more now?

Well, the simple answer is: There were far less cars on the roads when your dad was learning. They were also slower and less powerful tan modern cars. As a result, there were less accidents.

A few decades ago, only a fairly wealthy household would have a car. And it was *the* car - the family vehicle.

Now everyone over 17 wants their own transport and the 'average' family with its 2.4 children is likely to have four cars on their drive.

So there's more cars, busier roads, and there's more accidents. So insurance costs more.

And these days, computers have made it simple to see the trends and work out just how likely a given driver is to have an accident based on all his (or her) vital statistics: A database query can give you an answer in under a second that would have taken a team of analysts months to come up with 30 years ago.

Young male drivers crash more often than most other motorists, so they pay more insurance. That's just how it works.

When I first stared driving, I borrowed my mothers' car and was put on her insurance, which was much cheaper than getting my own. That lasted for the few years it took to get out of the high-price "danger" zone.

Have you shopped around? I just had to sort out insurance for my new car, and the cheapest quote was a third what my existing insurer would have charged me!

how about, dyspraxia-ist?... I'm dyspraxic and quite un-coordinated... I'm faaaaar more likely to crash my car than anybody else on the road - ergo if they increase my premium because I have an accident they're discriminating against me due to my "disability".. Everybody else should subsidise my disadvantage in life! ... .. .. What scares me is I think this is pretty much the same argument as lady drivers; Vis-à-vis would probably stand up in court.

Fair enough; I wasn't alive then of course so I don't know everything. Either way the system screws us over.

I haven't shopped around and I don't really care to. Sure, I could probably find some way to get cheaper insurance, but there is no way it's going to be cheaper than public transit etc, so it just doesn't matter. And in the end I'll like never learn to drive.

I'm hoping that by the time I grow up public transit would be the green/cool thing to do and cars would be obsolete once the Saudi oil wells are depleted.

It's always been expensive to start driving - the missing word is "relatively". When a decent wage was £1000 p.a. (£20 p.w.)even a pound to fill the tank of my Mini with 4 gallons of petrol was a lot - and my insurance also was through my Mum! Let's get some cars off the roads - everyone else should use public transport!!!

I like the 'ageist' :>

Nonetheless i supporting "Europe out of Europe", too.

I've always loved knowing insurance is cheaper (in the US) for people with higher education degrees. I'm assuming insurances wouldn't do that based on stereotypes and that it's thoroughly by data, but the idea that people with an MS are more responsible drivers cracks me up.

As for getting out of Europe... what are the people who want out doing when the British government does something they disapprove of? It always amuses me how prompt people are to blame "Eurocrats" (or "the Government") as if they came out of thin air and were only here to spite us.

What are they doing? They're British, what do you think they're doing - they're complaining about it to each other in pubs :o)

I hadn't heard the one about degrees resulting in lower insurance. Reminds me of an episode of the Big Bang Theory..