This message goes out to all you teen drivers working your way up the ladder of North Carolina's graduated licensing program: Before you move up from a learner's permit to a provisional license, you're going to have to spend at least 60 hours of quality time behind the wheel with one of your parents riding front-seat shotgun.

This new requirement takes effect for most limited provisional licenses issued after Jan. 1, 2013 (for all limited provisional licenses issued to teens who got their learner's permits after Jan. 1, 2012). To get a provisional license, you must be at least 16 years old, you must have had a learner's permit for at least a year, and you must be able to document the 60 hours of parent-supervised driving with written logs signed by a parent.

(Update: see 1/1/2013 Road Worrier.) If you're a teen driver or a teen driver's parent, I'd like to hear your perspective. Please call me at 919-829-4527 or email me at bruce.siceloff@newsoberver.com.

The state Division of Motor Vehicles says it has published forms for driving logs that will be required, starting next year, for thousands of teens seeking their driver’s licenses.

Teens who get learner’s permits after Jan. 1 will be subject to a new law requiring them to drive with front-seat supervision by a parent or other qualified adult for at least 60 hours spread over several weeks, including 10 hours at night.

They’ll have to fill out the logs, signed by parents, to document the supervised driving when they apply for provisional licenses -- after 12 months with their learner's permits -- starting in 2013. ... [MORE]

The General Assembly this morning approved a 14-month delay in the effective date for signed driving logs -- documenting that parents were in the front seat to supervise 60 hours of driving -- that will be required before 16- or 17-year-olds can get their driver's licenses. [See 9/15/11 story.]

Parents and teens needed more time to comply -- and DMV needed more time, too.

This changes a law, enacted in June, that added several tough new provisions to North Carolina's graduated licensing program.

Parents or other supervising adult drivers must sign the logs to show that they supervised 60 hours of driving, spread out over at least six weeks. The original legislation said the logs would be added to the requirements for any provisional driver's license issued after Oct. 1.  Teens at least 16 years old, who have had limited learner's permits for at least a year, are eligible for provisional licenses.

The rewritten language, approved today, says the 60-hour logs will be required for any teen 15 or older who receives a limited learner's permit after Jan. 1.  That means it will apply to provisional licenses issued after Jan. 1, 2013. ... [MORE]

No telling how long it will take the state Division of Motor Vehicles to approve the format for a simple driving log -- soon to be required for all teen drivers under legislation adopted this year to strengthen the state's graduated licensing program.

But why wait? Make your own log now, and transfer the info later to the official form, when DMV finally publishes it. 

You can start using an informal version of teen driving logs distributed now by DMV as part of a driving safety program (see below).

As the Road Worrier reported today, the legislature might -- or might not -- take action in September to correct an error in the new law, which as written causes unintended problems for 110,000 teens who have their limited learner's permits now and hope soon to get their provisional licenses.

If we're lucky, the legislature will exempt kids who already have their learner's permits, so they won't have to produce these parent-signed logs. One parent, Pam Bobay, said by email that she isn't putting all her faith in the legislature to fix this ... [MORE]

Two Triangle senators say they'll try in September to correct a mistake in a law enacted in June that caused unintended problems for 110,000 young drivers aged 15 to 17 who now have limited learner's permits - and for their families (see today's Road Worrier column with reader comments).

After a year with a learner's permit, and after you turn 16, the old law qualifies you to trade up for a less restrictive provisional license. The new law adds a big new requirement: before you get the provisional license, your parents must sign logs documenting 60 hours of driving over at least six weeks -- some of it at night -- with Mom or Dad or another qualified adult in the front seat.

Sen. David Rouzer of Benson, who sponsored the law, said he thought the new requirement would only affect teens who receive the learner's permit after Oct. 1, when the changes take effect.  That would give them a year to produce the new logs.

But Bob Goudreau of Cary got Rouzer to acknowledge what the Road Worrier reported in June ... [MORE]

If you have a learner’s permit now and you aim to get your provisional license this fall, you’d better plan to spend a lot of your summer driving around with Mom or Dad in the front seat.

Meanwhile, drivers old and young should get ready for a 2.5-cent tax increase, starting July 1, on every gallon of gas and diesel fuel.

Record-high gas taxes and tougher rules for the graduated driver’s license program are the biggest changes that North Carolina drivers will see as a result of action – and inaction – in the Republican-led General Assembly session that adjourned last week. [6/21/11 update: See today's Road Worrier column with reader comments.]

For now ... [MORE]

Spurred by the determination to do something, anything, that might stem the grim tide of deadly teen crashes, the General Assembly is making a few changes in North Carolina's graduated drivers license system.

I'll be writing more about this, and I'd like to hear from teen drivers. Tell me what you like and don't like about graduated licensing, and how it is working out or has worked out for you.  Please email me or call 919-829-4527.  Don't forget to leave your full name -- we don't quote anonymous folks -- and your contact information, so I can call you Monday.

North Carolina law allows you at age 18 to get your license just by passing the test. ... [MORE]

Young North Carolinians would have to wait an extra year – until they turn 19 -- to get an unrestricted adult driver’s license under legislation amended today by a House judiciary subcommittee.

The higher driving age was narrowly endorsed on a 5-4 vote, along with other measures to toughen the state’s graduated licensing program for young drivers aged 15 to 18. (See today's story with reader comments.)

Supporters said the higher driving age will reduce the number of teens who skip the graduated licensing program by waiting to get their licenses when they turn 18.  Fewer will be willing, the said, to wait until they’re 19.

Critics said 18-year-olds deserve adult privileges.

“Of course people who are 18 are adults. I was in the Marine Corps when I was 17,” said Republican Rep. Paul Stam of Apex, the subcommittee co-chairman. “Raising from 18 to 19, I would say I’ve got problems with that.” ... [MORE]

Cell phones, not six-packs, are the big culprit in the rise in fatal nighttime crashes involving teen drivers, according to a new report from the Teens in the Driver Seat Center of the Texas Transportation Institute.

In fatal nighttime crashes from 1999 to 2008, alcohol increased as a factor where drivers were over 20 years old -- but alcohol involvement declined in crashes where drivers were 16 to 19. Overall crash deaths have declined across the United States, but fatal nighttime crashes have increased, a press release said:

Russell Henk, a senior research engineer for TTI, noted that nighttime driving is the most common, documented factor associated with crashes involving young drivers. ... [MORE]

One out of every four American teens aged 16 or 17 have texted while driving, and more than 40 percent have talked on the phone while driving, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

They'd better stop. All cell phone use is illegal for drivers under 18 in North Carolina, and starting Dec. 1, texting is illegal for drivers of all ages in the state. (See Oct. 13 Road Worrier column on texting teens.)

The report released today, "Teens and Distracted Driving: Talking, texting and other uses of the cell phone behind the wheel," also says:

- 82% of U.S. teens aged 16-17 own cell phones, and 76% of these cell-phoners use them to send or receive text messages.

- 34% of texting 16-17 yr olds say they have texted while driving. That means 26% of all teens aged 16 and 17. Among teens aged 12-17, 48% say they have been in a car while the driver was texting.

- 52% of cell-phoners aged 16-17 say they have talked on the phone while driving. That means 43% of all American teens in that age group.