Driver's license: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:58, 8 February 2007

Revision as of 02:00, 8 February 2007

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*[[Illinois]] : 15 years (Learner's Permit), after 6 months - 16 (License with restriction)

*[[Indiana]]: 16 years, 1 month

*[[Iowa]] : GDL system (Approved Driver's Education Course requriedrequired for all licenses/permits ages 14-18 with the exception of the learner's permit, parent consent required for all licenses/permits years 14-18): 14 years (learner's permit, may drive with family member 21 or over and anyone with a full license 25 and older, written or computerized test of road knowlageknowledge required), 14 years (moped license), 14.5 years (minor's school license; must live 1+ miles from school (although, it is up to the school's administrator whether or not to enforce the 1+ rule), may drive to any official school event or activity within the district of residence or a contiguous school district), 16 years (license with restriction: Can not drive between the hours of 12:30 am to 5 am, unless you apply for a waiver), 17 years (full license), 21 years (full license with a Blood Alcohol Content of .08)

*[[Kansas]]: 14 years, with parent

*[[Maryland]]: 15 years, 9 months (learner's permit) 16 years, 3 months (provisional license) 17 years, 9 months (full license)

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The classes of licenses are usually organized so that Class A is usually the license that indicates a person can drive the heaviest and largest vehicles. The license held by the vast majority of ordinary drivers is Class C, D, or E depending upon how the government sets the weight limits for each class. Motorcycles are usually Class M, although some jurisdictions simply add an endorsement permitting the holder to operate motorcycles as well as the class of vehicle for which he or she is licensed.

Because there is no national [[identity card]] in the United States, the driver's license is often used as the ''de facto'' equivalent for completion of many common business (and governmental) transactions. As a result, driver's licenses are the focus of many kinds of [[identity theft]]. Driver's licenses were not always identification cards. Indeed, in many states, drivers licenses did not even have a photograph well into the [[1980]]s. Activism by the [[Mothers Against Drunk Driving]] organization for the use of [[photo identification|photo ID]] age verification in conjunction with increasing the [[drinking age]] to 21 in order to reduce intoxicated drivers led to photographs being added to all state licenses. [[New York]] and [[Tennessee]] were the last states to add photos in [[1986]] (However, New Jersey later allowed older drivers to get non-photo licenceslicenses; this was later revoked). Later additions varied from state to state, and have included fingerprints, bar codes, magnetic strips, social security numbers and tamper-proof features, most of which were added to prevent identity theft and to curb the use of [[fake ID]]s. States have now slowly been converting to digitized driver's licenses which incorporate holographs and bar codes to prevent forgery.

==Special licenses==