First off ... "Nealz Nuze"? That alone should be ample proof that this guy is an imbecile. But to top it off, these adorable little "new driver" stickers will not only be bring all forms of attention to you (pedophiles, greedy cops, etc.), but are simply unsightly to look at; I'd rather have a clean, respectable car than some piece of crap with bumper stickers on it. But maybe that's me.
The politicians that passed these laws are hypocrites; they should have no right to take away OUR rights, the rights that THEY were allowed to have when THEY were our age! Increasing the legal driving age won't help anything! The best thing to do would be to idiots off the roads as quickly as possible, in the form of increasing the difficulty of drivers' tests, and perhaps a way to prove maturity.

get your car registered in ur parents name, not only will u not have a sticker. but insurance is cheaper that way

its not like the governer is mistake free in driving either.

NOT a right

ok i get the whole lets make everything safer deal, but your are screwing teens in the process. why dont a few of you nj government officials grow a pair and let us live our lives. why not instead take the license away from kids who break the law and drive while drunk. its not fair to yous teens who follow laws and still get kicked in the ass because of those few dumbasses who dont think of others

It's unfair that the government is constantly picking on young adults who have no one to represent them and can usually not stand up for themselves. This is ridiculously upsetting. I just turned 15 in January but I'm a sophomore and all of my friends are 16 and either have or are soon getting their permits. Since this law doesn't take full effect until Jan. 1st, 2010, they will all be able to get their licenses with 6 months of driving and 6 hours of professional driving classes by the time they are 17. Just because I was born a couple of months later, that means I have to wait a full year longer to get my license? Right now, 2 hours of driving classes costs at most about 100$. That means that all of my 16-year-old friends’ parents have to dish out at most 300 bucks and that's it besides fees at the DMV. This new law will require me to take professional classes for twice as long. Meaning that my parents, guilty of nothing but having a child 25 days into the year of 1994, have to pay twice as much for my driving lessons. And not only that, but since it will be over a longer period of time, in this economy, the price of all professional driving teachers will probably go up and so will the fees for the DMV. I know our no-seatbelt-wearing governor would probably have any problem dealing with that but for a barely upper-middle class, African American family like mine, it's tough. Especially since I already go to a private all-girls catholic school. It's terrible what happened to that Kellaigh girl but it did not happen because the laws in place were not effective. It happened because the laws already in place were broken, just like I'm sure these laws will be. Another reason it happened was because a girl with hardly any driving experience took more responsibility than she was equipped for. How can you possible cure the problem of drivers with little experience by giving young drivers less time to learn what they need to and to actually put it into play on the road? What happened was tragic but I wonder why the government responded to radically to this tragedy and not to the thousands of other teenagers who are seriously or fatally injured in automobile accidents every year? Where did the sudden caring come from? I find it a bit convenient that a bill that is supposed to be all about public safety got pushed through so rapidly by the governor who himself was recently in an accident, but did not follow the seatbelt law, which caused him harm

This law is terrible. First off, putting the sticker on your car is going to make other young drivers who don't have the sticker on their car harass you. I am 16 now and this law will effect me because i dont get my license for another year. I told my parents that they should be expecting a lot of tickets for me because I WILL NOT listen to these dumb laws. Idiots will go cutting me off and honking their horn at me just because of one little sticker. That is completely messed up. Also, there's people out there who pose as cops in under cover cars that will target girls, like myself, with those stickers. I seriously think this rule needs to be reconsidered. And yes, at 18 you are an adult so why would you have to keep this stupid sticker on until your 21? STUPID! Second, what is the difference if there is 1 family member and 1 friends or just 1 person total? I will be a senior in high school driving and my two twin sisters will be freshman in high school and we will all be attending the same school. You're going to tell me that I won't be able to drive both of them to school?!? One will have to take the bus? My sisters will hate me. So honestly, rethink all these stupid laws. Thirdly, why does one hour make a difference? It doesnt matter if it's 11 or 12 kids will still the drive the same way. It's dark at both times. Finally, I just have to say to all the Police out there, you guys are lucky, you'll be making tons of money off all the kids who will be breaking these laws. I WILL BE ONE OF THEM! Why should my friend get to be able to drive to 12 when he's 17, but I cant? Thats not fair. So I will be driving until 12 and with 1 family member and 1 friend. This way, I'm not breaking a law, I'm following the one all my friends had to follow.

When you're 18, you can fight for your country... but not drive a car with more than one person... wait... I though 18 meant you are an ADULT!

Alerting everyone who is a teenager can be dangerous, because it alerts everyone of unsupervised teenagers probably attracting all kinds of preditors

Lets stop putting band-aids on this problem. A sticker means nothing but more money to spend in NJ. My son just got his permit yesterday 21st of april and I am all for safety, but that is not the answer. One answer is a harder road test. His friend just got her licensed and told us she drove around a parking lot-WHAT??? How about some real driving in the ice or speed on a highway. These kids need experience and none of these laws will help that. Stickers - not on my car...he will not be a target.

Where do I begin?

I live in South Jersey and I will be getting my license in August. I know i will be targeted with this sticker by police, predators, etc. NJ also already has the highest driving age, and many levels of drivers licenses. Another thing not mentioned, is that "Kyleigh's Law" which this is offically called, is named after a 16 year old that was killed while riding with 4 other friends. As the law is now, you are only allowed to have 1 other person not living in your house in the car. Kyleigh was already breaking the law, what is going to make teenagers not break this one?
Another thing that I want to know is can I drive out of state? I will be going to college in North Carolina. Does this mean that I cannot drive out of state until I am 21?
Also, it is now law that in order to get your permit you need 60 hours of behind the wheel driving with a state certified driving school. Currently, it is six. How are they going to find time to schedule 60 hours per kid? And for my six hours, it was $375, how much will 60 hours be?
These are just the main problems I have with it, but the list goes on.

i heard that when this law is passed, those already over the age of 18 wont b affected at all, if there is any truth to this, i would like to know when the cutoff date is

Thanks for covering this Neil, and for your strong opinions about teen drivers. My son, 27 and a firefighter/EMT, is in a wheelchair (potentially for the rest of his life) because a 17 year old behind the wheel pulled out in front of him.

Now lets get this done in Georgia.

http://caringbridge.org/visit/danielbrackett

Great idea!! lets also do this for elderly folks, say, people who are 40 and above? Because you know, it's not like they don't pretend to know everything.
And while we're at it, let's do it for people who are ever capable of making fatal mistakes on the road?

Come on, Neal... when you say things like this, I can't tell if you're just trying to "entertain" us... what the hell happened to liberty and small government? God, you get over a certain age and it's like those things don't apply to younger people anymore.

And for God's sakes, let's lower the drinking age back! Sure you can hurt others with alcohol, but aren't cigarettes worse anyway?

Oh, and the required insurance law is stupid too, so let's just repeal that.

No comment on the driving test (let's just say, as much as it undermines my authority on the subject, that I didn't get my liscense a good long time after my first try)

To Frank: you have to be 23 or something to rent a car anyways. Loans I don't know about.

ill be 19 when this dumb law goes into effect and ill simply not put the sticker on my car.

I totally agree with the ban on hand held technology while driving. Not for just teens either. I think the "Scarlet Letter"would be non valued added and
and in fact dangerous. They're far too many stupid humans in transit out there that would go out of their way to harass and distract these inexperienced drivers. You'd end up seeing their videos on you tube. Think about it. Just ban the cell phones.

Im a 17 year old who is about to turn 18 in about 2 weeks. I have been driving with ristrictions for a year now and I was exited to have them lifted from me. The new laws have made my college decision easy. I was going to go to a State school but now that my state doesnt trust why should I stay here. If the federal government feels I can risk my life at war then why cant I drive past midnight in my own state.(I have not had one accident while driving nor one moving vilation.)Put the restrictions on the careless drivers not all of us.

This just makes it easier for local law enforcement to harass law-abiding citizens.

Our initial test for drivers needs to be set a bit higher. I did not get my license until I was 18 years of age(I think this is a more appropriate age for a drivers license). When I finally went to get my license, I had not read the book, or even skimmed it over. I had also only driven once... in a wal-mart parking lot. I passed with flying colors and yet I had no clue how to drive. Looking back, I realize that I am lucky to be alive, as well as many other motorist out there.

When I was in Japan 95-97, they had magnets of different colors, instead of decals, that informed other drivers that the driver of that vehicle was either a first year driver (regardless of age) or over a certain age (I think it was 65 or 70.) With it being a magnet, you could transfer it easily to whichever vehicle you drove. To me it is much like the "Student Driver - Stay Back" signs on student driver cars. You know to avoid being near those vehicles because of the signs. What's wrong with that? In the case of teenager/new driver, I think it would be better to not apply the decal/magnet due to their age, but the skill level or driver licence(permit) type that they have, much like Japan.

Also, Japan requires that a person go through an extensive driving school to even be able to qualify for getting a license. Training is the key to being able to handle a vehicle. That's why those of us who grew up driving various vehicles/equipment at a young age are more confident and know how to control a vehicle.

I am requesting you reconsider your support for the New Jersey Driving Law that would place stickers on the plates of drivers under 21 years of age. Remember back a decade or so when tourists in Florida were being robbed and murdered? The “bad people” were targeting rental cars because they had stickers and special numbers/letters on the plates. How long after the New Jersey law goes into effect before we have teenagers being rob, raped and murdered because they are driving around with bull’s eyes on their car plates? How easy is it for a sexual predator to see a “girly” style car with an “under 21 sticker” on it and know he has hit the jackpot? We have a real problem in Georgia of bad people deliberately causing accidents as insurance fraud. Their illegal activities will be much easier by targeting teenagers in their schemes since the teenagers are automatically at fault in most people’s eyes. The world is a dangerous place and we do not need to make things any easier for the sexual predators, thieves, murders and generally bad people. If these items do not change your mind then please at least champion to have stickers on the plates for everyone under 21 and over 70, the law as written only covers half the problems on the roads.

It's pretty disturbing how many so-called "libertarians" here are applauding the government labeling of a certain branch of law abiding citizens. I'm sure it's because they don't care because it won't affect them, and all that stuff about individuality goes straight out the window when we're talking of branding a group they don't belong to.

Also note that you can't sensibly make the driving age any higher than the age at which parents can legally kick their kids out (18).

I honestly believe those dumbasses should be kept off the road until 21. Except for driving to work, of course. Fewer corpses on the road would be the result. Also, the driving test should be much more difficult. I had it too easy.

Teenagers are dumb, and therefore should not be given control of a vehicle until they have learned a bit about risk.

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how about a sticker for white, older, balding males? just enforce the law and everything will be fine. whatever happened to liberty and freedom? i guess that doesn't apply to teen drivers and smokers.

What would be the law broken for not wearing a sticker?
Driving an unmarked car?

I'm 18 and just missed the new CT laws on driving. I agree there are many awful teen drivers, but there are still plenty of drivers in their 30s and 40s who are god awful. I think they should make the test harder (because it truly is a joke), but once you are 18 you are an adult and you don't need your state holding your hand and putting a sticker on your car until you're 21.

Not a good idea on a number of levels, Neal.

I'd go for stricter enforcement of existing laws and mandatory drivers ed. for ALL drivers.

Cool!
And the leaders of some obscure political faction in pre World War II Germany also thought it would be a good idea to identify certain segments of its population with symbols, too. But, hey, if it keeps us safer to mark all the innocents as objects of suspicion along with the guilty, then why not?
Irresponsible teenage drivers are a problem, I concede. But the stink test is this: “Does the corrective measure penalize the innocent more than it subdues the guilty?”
Ask yourself that question next time you get frisked at an airport security checkpoint.
And what happens when Mom and Junior share use of the family car? Never mind… my wife would love to drive a car with a “teenager at the wheel” decal.

I got problem with this, under 18 sure it is okay. 18 and over not good at all.

Teenagers rideshare in the commute to school across the country. I'm sure they do it in NJ as well.
Has anyone calculated the net impact to the environment by limiting teen passengers of responsible teen drivers to only ONE? It seems there would be a significant impact to the state of NJ in carbon costs, PLUS a global warming contribution (snicker).
Oh, but I'm sure the Fed will print more $$ and grant tax credits to the parents (we pay for their nanny-state).

In the name of 'doing something' about teen driving fatalities, the Ga. state legislature has already pared down the number of allowable points on the license of anyone under 21 to 4 points. Here's what that means: If your kid gets one 3-point violation (and that's failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign and similar offenses), you better ground him right then and there. Because if he gets one more point on his license, it's an automatic six-month suspension -- and a big hit to your insurance rates. (Not to mention the mandatory defensive-driving course he'll have to take, the written and practical re-tests, plus a $221 'reinstatement fee.'

You can't get a lot more draconian than that. Has it cut down on teenage driving fatalities? Probably not. But the legislature and governor 'did something.' And Neal likes it.

You're 18 and an adult. You can be drafted to go die in a war, but you can't drive a car without a little bumper sticker. Ridiculous. What about old people who shouldn't be driving? Can we put little stickers on their cars too? Maybe an early warning horn when they get close to a farmer's market. You can't treat a citizen as second class, it's unconstitutional.

Great idea, but ho about police officers looking to see who is behind the wheel rather than a reflective invitation for criminals. Do you want you teenage daughter driving around after dark, announcing that she is young and alone?

Perhaps a lisence plate prefix that only law enforcement officials are aware of?

Won't this alert criminals that there is an inexperienced person driving and invite trouble? I would refuse to do this if I were in NJ.

I agree with this move. I have felt for a long time that 16 is just too young to start driving your own.

I have a proposal tied to maturity and acheivement for societal priveledges instead of just age- you graduate from high school, you get it all, the 3 Ds- Driving, Drinking (even as bad as those sound together) and eligible for the Draft (not that we'll ever have one again most likely).

16 is too young to drive and 21 too old to drink.

So if I have a 17 yr old, I have to have a reflective sticker or something on my license plate if I live in NJ? What happens if I am out after curfew because it is MY CAR? This really screams govt intrusion yet again.