Driving and Parking

                  The red sports car, gleaming like a candy apple, beckoned at the curb in front of our house.  As a boy approaching his mid-teens, 16 couldn't arrive fast enough for me.  I pleaded for the minimum age to obtain a learner's permit to arrive in a blistering sprint; it limped toward me on geriatric knees.
                  I desperately needed to become old enough to learn to drive.  As a high school sophomore, my wings were unfurled, but there was no way to fly.  A car would represent another snip at the parental umbilical cord.  Windows down, Doobies on the eight-track, the road and possiblities in front of me, rockin' down the highway.  I dreamed.  Ah yes, a car.  I needed to learn to drive for many reasons.  Making out at Inspiration Point on a two-wheeler was hardly an option.
                 So, I sat on our front porch drooling over that four-wheeled beauty as if it were a glistening pig on a spit, impatiently awaiting the dinner bell.
                 Mine was not exclusive yearning.  No, this interminable wait for wheels was a chorus among my friends.  However, according to independent studies released this summer by the Federal Highway Administration, the Census Bureau and the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety, the song among today's teens doesn't remain the same.
                 That teens today are waiting longer to get a driver's license than those in the 1980s came as a shock.  The FHA's study showed that, in 2010, about 28 percent of 16-year-olds nationally had a driver's license, compared with about 46 percent in 1983.   The AAA's study showed only 44 percent of 16-year-olds are licensed to drive within a year, and just more than half of teens had a license by 18.
                 In Pennsylvania, the number of 16-and 17-year-olds licensed to drive in 1999 was 153,984.  Last year, it fell to 79,383, a reduction of 48 percent.
                 Why the drastic change?
                 The reduction in teenage drivers ----- and many believe this is a good thing, given the fatal crash rate for drivers ages 16 to 19 is four times higher than for drivers ages 25 to 69 ----- is tied to many theories.  Some believe the high cost of gas and auto insurance during a tough economy is responsible for the recent drop.  When I was salivating on the porch, gas cost about 50 cents a gallon.  Total cost to fill up our sports car : $8.50.
                 Others feel that, unlike those rotary phone days of the 1970s, teens today don't need to rely on a vehicle to stay connected with their friends.  Electronic devices on which teens text and connect with social networking sites like Instagram serve as their umbilical cord.
                  By the time I reached driving age, my parents seemed as eager as I was to get me behind the wheel.  I'm sure they'd grown weary of driving me to and from sporting events, the mall and friends' homes.  Now, they believed, it was time not only to drive myself to those events, but also my younger brother.  Liberation Day had arrived for my mom and dad.
                 I couldn't wait to learn to drive.  Teens today feel differently, many believing the keys to staying connected don't hang from an ignition.  They feel if they need to be somewhere, mom and dad will drive them.
                I can't tell them they're wrong, but I can tell them this :  Inspiration Point isn't nearly as inspiring with your parents in the front seat.