Driving a car without a guide from the age of 17 will be possible next year. Elisabeth Borne announced it this week on the Brut platform.
Passing your license at 17 was already possible, but in reality, driving, apart from accompanied driving, was only at 18. From 2024, people aged 17 to drive unaccompanied. Decryption of this social question with the sociologist Jean Viard.
franceinfo: Is it important to offer this new freedom from the age of 17, is it necessary?
John Viard: It is important, apart from the big cities, it must be clearly understood that there is a completely different rate of permit rates between Île-de-France in particular, and the rest of the country, because there is no there is not at all the same public transport. Afterwards, it must also be said that we are not at all at the forefront. We are even rather in the rearguard. England and Germany are already at 17, the United States is 16, and some rural US states are 14. But as always, France, when it comes to “social issues”, we are late, on marriage for all for example, when it comes to touching cultural ties, we are always the last .
We have studies in other countries, which effectively show that the question of the mobility of young people, of their access to the labor market, and in particular in rural areas – 30% of young people live in the countryside, not counting those in peri-urban areas which do not always have easy transport. Take the northern districts of Marseille, if you don’t have a car to go downtown, there is no metro, no tram, it’s very complicated. So it’s a matter of autonomy, but also for the parents, because in fact, when you live in the countryside, your real job is a driver.
And besides, we have seen the explosion of small cars, especially in town, in wealthy circles, you know that you can drive at 14, it is developing absolutely everywhere, but not in the countryside, because it is dangerous, it’s not going fast enough. I wrote a book on road accidents with Pascal Delannoy with franceinfo, in 2002, which was called Against road barbarism, There are lots of trials. For example, there are states in the US where young men cannot drive on Saturday nights from midnight to 6 a.m. There are other states where it’s only two days a week, there are states like Massachusetts, where effectively at night a young person can only drive if there’s an adult in the car. This reduced nighttime accidents by 49%. So there is the licensing issue. But afterwards, there is a problem of insecurity created by young men. In France, 95% of violence is created by men, especially while driving a car.
It is not a contradictory discourse to say at the same time, it is a good thing, and we are even behind our neighbors, to lower the minimum age of the permit. And at the same time, there is this road insecurity. Is it true that 18/24 years old is the age group where there are the most deaths and the most serious injuries on the roads?
No, but it is clear that young people have more dangerous behaviors. Afterwards, there is an increase in the very old where the question arises. Again, there are states in the United States where very old people cannot go on the highways. They can only drive on small roads, basically, to buy bread, to see their friends, but not to drive 1000 kilometers on the highway. So we can regulate the use. You can drive, but regulate. So is it contradictory? The problem is that in France the majority of deaths today are no longer linked to the car on the roads. They are cyclists, pedestrians and motorcycles, it deserves discussions in society. It deserves that we consult in other countries, that we look.
It is true that the idea that boys do not have the same rights as girls, especially on weekends, at night, seems to me a really extremely interesting idea. The question of the choice of cars, because indeed, there are small cars, it’s interesting. All these elements, in my opinion, would require a great debate, both technical and political. Because it is clear that rural elected officials are faced with young people who have no possibility of leaving. So we always say to go to work, yes, to go to work, but to make love and friends, if I may say so. Because life isn’t just about work.
And it’s not just a professional question, is it really the notion of a social lifestyle?
Of course, you shouldn’t always insist on work, work is important, I don’t mean to say the opposite. But finally, in the trips we make in our society, we do 1/3 home and work, 1/3 indeed weekends and holidays and 1/3 to see friends, go to town, go shopping, etc. . Home work represents only 1/3 of trips, and even more in the countryside where indeed, it is easy to travel a lot of kilometers.