Traffic build up is caused by reckless and selfish drivers trying to shave off a few minutes in their commute. California driving is no joking matter. But, that doesn’t stop us from throwing out the few satirical comments about inexperienced drivers – especially teenagers.

But, are they really that bad?

Teenagers may have just picked up the driving manual, but they could be the superior driver in relation to other, more experienced drivers. That’s why we’ve dusted the dust off our magnifying glass and did some investigation on the matter. The best traffic school California has to offer has the answers. Therefore, here’s our finding on who’s the best driver.

The Ultimate Driving Test

In an investigation that was led out of UCLA, researcher and vice-chancellor, Nancy Wayne, tackled this same idea with cold-hard data. With the help of a driving instructor from a local driver’s ed school, they put the pedal to the metal on teen drivers versus adult drivers. As a result, what they found would change ours, and maybe your perceptions too, of who makes the best driver.

The test assembled “100 novice drivers who had less than five hours of driving experience before their first driving lesson.” Moreover, the group was divided equally by their gender and the average age was roughly 18 years old. This mixed-match team represented teenage drivers with little experience.

The other group of Guinee pigs were male and female adults in their mid-20’s, who had accumulated years of experience, especially when compared with the fresh new drivers. Paring the two groups allowed Wayne to fully understand the scale of expertise and precision the newbies had.

The test took place in the wonderful, car-friendly city of Los Angeles, California. Subjects would engage in the standard testing environment, experiencing the same type of pressure one may feel during any other driver’s test. That includes the sweaty, older driving instructor who judged each turn of the wheel. The instructor would rank the performance of the driver on a scale of 1 to 4.

After the testing was complete, Wayne found herself questioning the fabric of reality itself in a shocking reveal of the data. Maybe it wasn’t that dramatic.

Teenage Trouble

The results of the experiment concluded that teenage drivers scored higher on the test than their adult competitors.

In other words, one could determine that teenagers perform better as drivers on the road than other age groups. It lays to rest the age-old myth that teen drivers are worse than others. It doesn’t end there.

Wayne discovered that students who participated in sports scored the highest on the test. This shows a connection between sport engagement and good driving engagement. It was also found to be similar across both genders of subjects.

The hacky comedy shtick of “men drive like this while women drive like this” is apparently not true. Who would have guessed?

Should Teenagers Drive Everyone Around?

Probably not. Teenagers may be deemed as the most competent drivers on the road, however that doesn’t make them qualified to drive people around. This journey wasn’t just a vain test to see if adults were as good as everyone said they were at driving. There are some actionable results coming from it.

More specifically, Wayne released a statement encouraging, “The Department of Motor Vehicles in California and across other states [to] consider extending mandatory driver’s education to all new drivers and not only teens.”

The goal is to, hopefully, cut down on the number of accidents by increasing the duration of education that drivers have while on the road.