By Alli Avola

You are sixteen and a half years old and it is the beginning of your junior year of high school. You have just passed your road test and received your Junior Operator’s License (JOL)! You are overjoyed with your newfound freedom and independence now that you are a licensed driver. But, how much freedom do you really have?

The restrictions of a JOL include the following: (from http://www.myjol.com/faq.html)
Under the law, if you are a junior operator (between the ages of 16 1/2 and 18):
For the first 6 months of a JOL, you may not drive while any passenger under the age of 18 is in the vehicle (other than an immediate family member), unless you are accompanied by a person who is at least 21 years old, has at least one year of driving experience, holds a valid driver’s license from Massachusetts or another state, and is occupying a seat beside you.
You may not operate a motor vehicle between 12:30AM and 5:00AM unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
You may not operate a motor vehicle requiring a commercial driver’s license. (NOTE: additional laws may prohibit anyone under 18 years of age from performing a job requiring operation of a motor vehicle or heavy equipment such as fork lifts)
Penalties for speeding, drag racing etc. are much more severe for minors than for someone who is over 18, and you will automatically lose your license for at least 90 days if found guilty of any of these violations.

The restriction that is most often broken and is the most controversial is the passenger restriction (the first bullet above). New drivers often don’t abide by this law for a few reasons. Nearly everyone in high school has been affected by this law in some way, whether they need a ride from a friend or a friend needs a ride from them. It is extremely difficult to wait 6 months before driving your friends around, especially because that is one of the things that people most look forward to when getting their license. Another reason why many new drivers do not obey this restriction is because it is more difficult to get caught breaking than other restrictions. In order to get caught disobeying this restriction, a police officer would need to pull the new driver over for breaking a different law such as speeding. Then, after looking at their JOL, they would check to see if all of the passengers are immediate family.
I believe that the period of time until a new driver can legally drive people who are not immediate family should be reduced to three months. According to https://www.massrmv.com/rmv/brochures/JOL_brochure.pdf, the reason for the passenger restriction is to reduce the number of distractions that an inexperienced driver may face while driving. While I understand the reasoning behind this law and I believe that it is beneficial, I think that six months is an excessive amount of time. Three months is a perfect amount of time to get an inexperienced driver accustomed to driving with other passengers and ignoring distractions in order to focus on driving. If a new driver is unable to ignore or minimize distractions and is unable to be a responsible driver after three months, perhaps they shouldn’t have their license. Also, I believe that new drivers would be more willing to obey the passenger restriction law if they knew it only had to be followed for three months rather than six months.
In conclusion, I believe that new driver should only have to wait three months rather than six months until they can drive people other than immediate family around. Three months is not too much time, but it enough for a new driver to become experienced and responsible enough to drive people who are not immediate family members.