General Assembly Loosens Requirements for Teen Licensure

Twenty five years ago, North Carolina adopted graduated licensing for young drivers, a system founded on the principle that “[s]afe driving requires instruction in driving and experience.” G.S. 20-11(a). The statutory scheme implementing this program grants driving privileges on a limited basis and expands those privileges over time and upon the satisfaction of additional requirements. Id. Accordingly, to receive the first level of a driver’s license – termed a limited provisional license – a driver must have held a limited learner’s permit for at least 12 months. The holder of a limited provisional license generally may not drive unsupervised after 9 p.m. and may not have more than one passenger under the age of 21 in the vehicle. Last month, the General Assembly ratified legislation that loosens these requirements. COVID backlog. Many teenagers who came of driving age during the COVID-19 pandemic were unable to obtain a limited learner’s permit (which requires completion of classroom and driving instruction and passing a written DMV test) until many months after their fifteenth birthday. Because G.S. 20-11 as it existed in 2021 required those teenagers to hold a limited learner’s permit for 12 months, they were ineligible to receive a limited provisional license until many months after their sixteenth birthday. In 2021, the legislature shortened to six months the period of time for which a new driver was required to hold a limited learner’s permit before becoming eligible to obtain a limited provisional license. See S.L. 2021-24, as amended by Section 12 of S.L. [...]