There are some students that can’t wait until they hit 16 to get their driver’s license. But other students are holding off on driving for various reasons as a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 15 percent drop from 1996 to 2010 in the number of high school seniors who had a driver’s license.

“Licensing among young teenagers is certainly down some,” researcher Robert Foss said in an article on usatoday.com. “If the economy ever recovers for the majority of the population, then licensing among young people is probably going to go right back up.”

Here on campus, the price of gas is one of several reasons some choose to be remain license free.

“Some students prefer not to drive so they don’t have to buy gas,” junior Orinze Ogbra said. “The benefit of not driving or not having a car is that you don’t have to give your friends rides everywhere.”

While license free means worry free for some students, the real problem for many students remains the price of gas.

“Why do some students prefer not to drive, because most parents rely on them to pay for gas,” junior Patrick Enunwaonye said. “Gas can get really expensive.”

Not having to pay for gas saves money for many students, but there can be other advantages for those waiting to drive.

“Not paying for insurance or gas,” Enunwaonye said. “You don’t have to worry about parking at all because the parking lot can get really full.”

Although there can be advantages to not having a license, there are also downfalls. From paying for gas to parking, driving can have it’s disadvantages.

“You can’t go where you want to,” Enunwaonye said. “You have to rely on other people to be there to pick you up and drive you around.”