THE FIRST U.S. DRIVER’S LICENSE
G'day folks,
Welcome to some facts about the first U.S Driver's license.
In 1886,
German inventor Karl Benz patented what is generally regarded as the first
modern car. Less than two decades later, in 1903, Massachusetts and Missouri
became the first states to require a driver’s license, although it wasn’t
necessary to pass a test to obtain one. In 1908, Henry Ford launched the Model
T, the first affordable automobile for many middle-class Americans. (In 1919,
when Ford’s native state of Michigan started issuing driver’s licenses, he got
his first one at age 56.) The same year the Model T debuted, Rhode Island
became the first state to require both a license and a driver’s exam
(Massachusetts instituted a chauffeur exam in 1907 and started requiring tests
for all other drivers in 1920).
California,
now known for its car culture, started requiring licenses in 1913 and exams in
1927. However, it took several decades for licenses and tests to be adopted by
all states. In 1930, only 24 states required a license to drive a car and just
15 states had mandatory driver’s exams. South Dakota was the last state to
begin issuing licenses (without exams), in 1954. Additionally, a handful of
states didn’t impose driver’s tests until the 1950s, including Alaska (1956),
Arizona (1951), Idaho (1951), Illinois (1953), Missouri (1952) and Wisconsin
(1956). In 1959, South Dakota became the final state to institute a driver’s
exam requirement.
Getting a
license was long considered a rite of passage for many American teenagers;
however, in recent years the number of young people who are legal to drive has
declined. Around 77 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 24 had
driver’s licenses in 2014, compared with almost 92 percent in 1983, according
to a 2016 report by the University of Michigan Transportation Research
Institute. Among 16 year olds, less than 25 percent had licenses in 2014, down
from about 46 percent in 1983. Although the study didn’t cite specific reasons
for the drop, other research has suggested that contributing factors include
new transportation options as well as the Internet, which has made it possible
for people to socialize and shop online instead of getting in a car to do so.
Clancy's comment: Interesting history, eh?
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