Driving Rules for Youngsters

"They're stupid in Georgia,"  Beazle is fond of saying.  She has had many chances to say it lately when I tell her about Georgia's driving rules for teens.  Thou many state are tightening their rules for teens driving, Georgia is the one we have to deal with. 

When Merritt and Holiday got their licenses in Arkansas they could take the road test whenever they thought they were ready.  If they passed they got their regular, unrestricted license.  Not so for Andrea in Georgia.  She has to keep her permit for a year and a day no matter how competent she becomes during that time.  Because she is under eighteen there is a lot of Joshua's Law rigamarole she has to go through:  thirty hours of classroom instruction, six hours of behind the wheel instruction from a driving school, fourth hours of driving with at least six hours being at night.  OR the teen can take the class online, print out this umpteen page driving lesson book, go through them and have a parent witness that they were done, plus the forty hours of driving with at least six hours at night.  Needless to say we're doing the latter.

We're enjoying a measure of freedom with Andrea driving.  We have some neighbors who ride with us while she drives.  She still have to work around other people's schedule but it's better than being strictly on MARTA. 

When the weed eater broke it was nice to be able to take it into Sears instead of finding someone to come to the house to fix it.  Andrea put the address of the service center in her phone's GPS and off she went.  Our neighbor thought we were taking it to the Sears in the nearby mall but we went all the way to Chamblee to the service center.  She got on the freeway, drove, exited, made a wrong turn, turned around, found Sears service center, parked away from other cars, and was proud of herself. 

Going back the way she came wasn't in her wheel house.  Our neighbor told her she was heading back toward Chamblee.  Andrea pulled off the freeway and parked at a gas station.  she put our address into her GPS and off we went.  I told her to program HOME in the GPS so she won't have to put it in every time. 

I decided to persue Andrea getting her license early because I'm visually impaired.  I figured Services for the Blind may be able to point me in the right direction.  My counselor and I did a three way call with the DMV.  Here is where more of Georgia's stupid rules come in.  At fourteen Andrea could have gotten her permit early.  Then she could have driven around with just me in the car because I'm visually impaired.  I asked the lady from the DMV is Andrea can drive with just me in the car now that she is sixteen and has her permit.  The lady said no, because the law is for fourteen-year-olds to get their permits early if a parent is visually impaired.  Since Andrea was sixteen when she got her permit she has to have a licensed driver ride in the front seat with her.  I couldn't wrap my brain around this at all.  I called her back the next day so she could explain it to me again.  I just knew she didn't understand the question or I didn't understand the answer.  We went over it all over again and the way I explained it here is how she explained it both times I spoke with her.  She didn't even sound like this was strange while explaining it.  It's obvious nobody proof read this when they wrote or passed it.  If you have a visually impaired parent why is there a cut off when you can drive the car without a licensed driver?  Either a licensed driver is needed or not; but why not if you start at fourteen put so if you wait until sixteen?  Shake my head.