Under 17 driving
In the UK, the youngest age to legally hold a driver licence is when you are 17 years old. You are then allowed to apply for your provisional license, sit your theory test including hazard perception and book the practical driving test as well. Although you are allowed to apply for a provisional driving licence 2 months before you are seventeen (16 years and 10 months old), you are not allowed to drive on the roads until your 17th birthday though. However for under 17s, driving lessons can be taken for off-road practice.
Driving before the age of 17
You can have private driving lessons as young as 12 in some places but this is done on private land with a fully insured and experienced instructor. It is illegal for anyone under the age of 17 to drive on public roads and motorways (it has to be off-road at all times). Many driving schools offer driving lessons for under 17’s because they believe that having a young driver eager to learn, they can be shown the proper way fight from the start and thus they will learn to drive with confidence. As this is true, it’s also said that under 17’s driving instructors are also cashing in on this trend. It is agreed that before being able to drive legally on public highroads, you already have an understanding of how to control a vehicle but can the same be said when a young driver actually ventures out on their own?
Not reached minimum legal driving age - Where to find driving instructors & lessons prices?
The best place to find an instructor is word of mouth, the local phone book and the internet. Where there is land and a demand for this type of lesson you are more likely to have a provider in the area. Some places offer private land driving from the age of 12-16 but if a child wanted to learn, I still believe they should wait until they are 17 years old for maturity purposes.
The verdict on driving before 17
There's a height restriction of 1.47m because the driver needs to be able to reach the pedals in the car but besides this, anyone from 12 upwards can have the under 17 driving courses as an experience where you get to know the basic controls of the car, move off and reverse. However this comes at a price and we're talking more than £100 for an hour which is very expensive compared to a standard driving lesson which costs in the region of £23.
The average person spends £1200 on driving lessons alone before the costs of owning a car is taken into account. The average hours of tuition you need to pass your driving course is 45 but depending on how eager and confident you are when learning, you could to it in as little as 14 lessons. Spending money on an underage teen eager to drive is in some ways silly - after paying for pre-seventeen lessons, you will then have to buy a car, insurance and so on. This is why young teens have no concept of money when it's handed to them on a plate. The statistics for teen drivers are also bad revealing that teenagers are more at risk of having an accident within the first year of passing their test. Young drivers are reckless, proud and do not fear police or speed limits and road regulations; do we really need more of them on the roads?
