Raising the minimum driving age?

Making a break with years of habit, I was thinking yesterday, and it occurred to me that there’s a strong argument in favour of raising the legal minimum age for drivers in the UK from 17 to 21.

For one thing, it would mean less cars on the road, cutting down on pollution and energy use and easing urban congestion. For another, it would reduce accidents and fatalities, surely disproportionately high among the 17-21 age range of driver.  I’ve not been able to find any stats for this online to quantify either of these.

After all, if you’re under 21, you don’t really need to drive in the UK. It’s not as if you’ve got a proper job or anything, so the journeys you do make are unnecessary except to convince your fellow road-users of the awesomeness of your stereo’s bass response and your fine choice of music.

A staw poll of voters yesterday, including a taxi driver and an ex-wife, indicated strong support for a measure like this, yet I’ve never heard of it being proposed. I’d guess the only opponents would be the kids themselves, and they don’t bother to vote anyway.

Maybe I should write to my local MP or something, and let the machination of the two-party, first-past-the-post, disproportional system of representation take its natural course.