this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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Today I learned

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WTF. This should be illegal

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[–] racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Own a car, or drive a car in public infrastructure? I think in most countries, it's legal to own a car without a driver's license because why not? For example one might just be into collecting cars in his garage and never drive them.

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah how could a company own company cars if it was required to have a DL ? A business can't get a DL.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You don’t need a DL to own a car pretty much everywhere in the US.

I doubt any lender would finance a car without a driver and I doubt you can get it registered to be driven without a license.

[–] Two_Hangmen@midwest.social 2 points 1 day ago

You can buy a car, but you can't register it to get a license plate without a driver's license.

The article notes that a lot of the accidents are from people with suspended drivers licenses, not just drivers without a license.

It also says there was a decline in traffic enforcement by the NYPD.

So, I'd say it becomes a public policy decision on how much time do people want NYPD going after cars with no plates or fake plates, and stopping people with revoked licenses from driving? I don't think there's an answer to that, that's going to make everyone happy.

[–] Vaggumon@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

I used to know a couple in Wisconsin, the wife was totally blind and the husband could see. She owned the car, he drove it.

[–] anyhow2503@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Being able to own a car without a license probably isn't the main cause behind the rise in these statistics. At least I'm not convinced that requiring a DL to own one will do any good. Many countries don't require a license to own or even register a car and have far better traffic accident statistics.

At least in Germany, most unlicensed drivers are just the ones that continue driving after having their license revoked, which explains why they are a big source of accidents. This also means however, that most of them have completed their driver training at least once. From what I'm reading it sounds like in NY, administrative chaos during covid has caused some people to just not get a license at all? If so, then the most obvious solution to me is lowering administrative hurdles for getting a license. In car-dependent places like the US and Germany, it's very difficult to prevent people from driving a car at all. So, why not focus instead on making sure the people who need to drive can get a license?