Teens taking a detour

On the day she turned 16, Susan Bye said, "I dragged my poor mother out to the driver's license testing place -- I was not waiting." ¶ But when her son Alex turned 16, there was no such sense of urgency. "I was just kind of lazy, I guess," Alex said, "and kind of busy." ¶ Now that Alex, a Minneapolis Southwest High student, is a year away from college, "I'm getting more and more busy, so maybe I should just wait until I turn 18" in January to get the license. ¶ The Minneapolis teenager is far from an anomaly. He and many of his peers are waiting longer to get behind the wheel. Last year, fewer 16- and 17-year-old Minnesotans got licenses than at any time since 1991, according to the Department of Public Safety. ¶ Inertia is hardly the only orange cone on the road to a license. Every aspect of driving is costly. The state's road test is more difficult than it used to be. Teens in the city can ride bikes or take public transportation to many destinations. And some adolescents are simply intimidated about operating such heavy machinery. ¶ "I'm actually scared of driving and cars," said Ariana Wentzel, 18, of St. Paul. "Plus my dad refuses to drive with me, and my mom is just a spaz when it comes to driving." ¶ Wentzel's parents insist that if their children want to drive, they have to pay for insurance, which can be expensive for teens. ¶ The minimum rate for a 16-year-old, said Christe Kress, manager of Minneapolis AAA's insurance agency, would be "about $100 a month, for an occasional operator of an average vehicle." Factors ranging from grades to gender to the parents' insurance score can ratchet up the premium rate.

State toughens up

But car insurance for teenagers always has cost a lot. Other obstacles arose with two changes in the late 1990s:

• In 1997, the state made the road test considerably tougher. "We evaluate drivers on a technical performance of handling the car and more of a cognitive, reactionary basis, how they make adjustments to risks in a driving environment," said Deb Carlson, the state's driver exam program manager. During recent years, she said, failure rates on the road test have hovered around 43 percent in the Twin Cities.

• In 1999, the state instituted a three-tiered permit/license system that mandates a provisional license and extensive, expensive classroom time for those under 18. Since then, many 16- and 17-year-olds have gotten a permit (meaning an over-21 licensed driver must be in the car) but waited until they turned 18 to get a full license, thus avoiding the classroom time and fee.

"I think kids, especially in the city, manage to get around," said Pam Weiss, longtime driver education assistant with St. Paul Community Education, which conducts classes for the city's high schools. "You see a lot of students riding bikes or taking public transportation. They have varying access to cars through friends."

"And their schedules, some of them are so tight, it's unbelievable. That might be why a bunch of them are content to have a permit. They get the plastic ID card and can drive."

That's a far cry from his youth.

"I know I couldn't wait to get my license when I turned 16," said Walstrom, 49, who grew up near Maynard, Minn. "All my friends got them on their 16th birthday. Except we had one friend who was too young to get a license, and he would drive a tractor 4 miles to football practice."

'Loser' stigma disappears

Peer pressure, of course, still exists.

"I get some crud from friends," Wentzel said. "But a lot of my city friends don't have licenses. Most of my suburban friends do."

"I did get a lot of pressure from my mom and aunt," said Compton, who will attend Concordia University St. Paul this fall. "I didn't really want to drive, but my aunt pays for the lessons and my mom's going to give me her car. I'm glad now. It worked out well."

Compton is part of a continuing trend, says Debbie Prudhomme, owner of the Training Wheels driving school. The average age of her students is "a good 6 months older" than when she started the school in 1996.

"We used to see people 14, 14 1/2," she said. "Now we're regularly seeing 17-year-olds. In the old days, that was a 'loser' demographic, people that age still without their licenses. But that stigma is gone."

She added, "17 seems to be an optimal age to teach someone how to drive. There is a curve. If you're 16, you do better than someone 15; 17 better than someone 16. Older kids have more mature decision-making and the ability to recognize something as a risk."

Tim Olmsted, a driving teacher in the St. Paul program, agreed.

While these teens are waiting to get their licenses, it might be the parents who are more anxious.

"It does make things a little more difficult," said Trina Wentzel, Ariana's mom, "because even though we tell our kids that they need to be responsible for their own transportation, the reality is that probably about half the time we bring them where they need to go."

This fall, she won't be giving Ariana any lifts. The 18-year-old is going to work as a nanny in New York City.

"There's no point in having a license there," she said.