Teen Drivers

Regarding driving restrictions on teens (“With New Law, 16 Isn’t So Sweet,” Nov. 12), they give teens a good excuse to not cave in to peer pressure to do something stupid. They can simply mention that it’s against the law, that the consequences of getting caught are too great or, “Man, my dad would kill me if I did that.”

As to needing 50 hours of supervised driving, if the parents are too busy, I’m sure there are many senior centers filled with people like my 90-year-old mother-in-law who would be completely thrilled if some teenagers offered to take her for a drive. She has plenty of time.

BARBARA ASPENSON

Los Angeles

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Your article happily demonstrates that relatively minor tweaking of our auto-dependent lifestyle through thoughtful legislative strategies can yield enormous personal, economic and social benefits. I was originally skeptical that the outcome would be so dramatic--12% and 18% reductions by teenage drivers in fatal and injury accidents.

Now that individual lifestyle changes have been made, the next step is for insurance companies to fully reward those very same teenage drivers with commensurate vehicle insurance premium reductions. How better to reinforce the habit of good driving?

AL BOWSER

Culver City