Originally Posted by
henkybaby
I have heard another explanation. Since car insurance in US & Canada is really hard to come by cheaply and no-claim is therefore extremely valuable most people are scared to get into accidents. Especially when you are young an accident apparently explodes your insurance payments. It sounds like a credible explanation but someone should tell them that the anxious and slower drivers are more likely to cause or be in accidents (or so I keep telling myself).
I can't speak for more than a couple of other states, but from what I know you have that backwards. The penalties on young drivers in the US are WAY less than my nephews face in the UK. Most young people here start driving on their parents insurance and there's little or no additional cost associated with that. As a result it's not uncommon to find 16 year olds driving huge 5+ Litre V8 trucks & SUV's, where most 18-25 year olds in the UK struggle to find an insurer willing to cover them in anything bigger than a Fiesta.
When they do get their own insurance, the years they've been driving on their parents policies can count towards discounts.
Also a lot of kids get some formal training, often courtesy of their High School, which also administers a rudimentary check / test, though it's a lot less onerous than the one I went through to get a US license.