Frustrated Resident Of Oswego County

I am writing as a frustrated resident of Oswego County, on behalf of the silent victims of this issue, to demand urgent reforms to New York State’s outdated and discriminatory permit laws, which actively hinder workforce participation, economic mobility, and basic freedom in rural communities like ours.

The Problem: NYS’s Permit System is broken, and was written by insurance companies that are afraid of NYC traffic (and ignored the rest of the state, as usual).

Current NYS Vehicle and Traffic Law (VTL § 509) requires all permit holders—even those over 21—to have a licensed supervisor in the car at all times, with no exceptions for:

– Driving to/from mandatory driver’s education (unlike the exemption for road tests).

– Adults with no access to a licensed mentor (due to family circumstances, poverty, or lack of local driving schools).

– Working adults who cannot take 50+ hours off work (if you have a job — how long does it take to get 50 hours of PTO where you are?) to fulfill arbitrary supervision requirements.

This creates an unjust bureaucratic barrier, effectively making car ownership and licensing a privilege for those with family resources—not a huge hurdle for responsible adults facing tragedy, decades if not generations of poverty, and an uncaring public (you, probably).

How This Harms Oswego County:

– Employers struggle to hire workers who can’t legally drive to job sites, training, or childcare. People can’t even access childcare, or become a childcare provider without a car. The vast majority of our workforce does not live in our cities!

– Low-income residents are trapped in cycles of dependency, be that from DSS or their overburdened friends and family, due to an inability to get licensed. Unlicensed people certainly aren’t creating jobs for programs that help get them licenses!

– No public transit exists here — certainly not any that allows someone to get to their job on time, hence the need for the car, let alone attend a driving school in Syracuse. Without a license, residents face barriers to access healthcare, education, groceries, court, even to evacuate if the plant goes critical!

– Driving schools are scarce, and requiring licensed supervision just to drive out to access them is illogical and punitive

I figure the most convincing argument for y’all is to point out the unnecessary bureaucracy that keeps this little known regulation alive:

– Why force a 30-year-old construction worker to sit beside licensed driver (a coworker that takes pity on them, a paid instructor, or someone held captive I assume) when states like Alaska, Kansas, and Montana trust adults to drive solo after having their permit for 30 days? Make it 6 months, make them log their hours or buy a dash-cam! Get creative!

Want solutions? Think this is a non-issue? At least Oswego County Workforce Development is attempting to do anything to tap into this isolated and forgotten population, so they can at least apply for the scant few ghost jobs that are posted that all require a license to even be considered. God forbid one takes the ridiculously inadequate public transportation, or walk, or bike, or an Uber, or car-pool to work — but no license? Get in the breadline!

I urge Oswego County legislators to advocate for the following changes at the state level, but knowing this county you better start small and try to legislate yourselves first:

– Exempt Permit Holders 21+ from the supervision requirements after holding a permit for 30 days (mirroring Alaska’s laws).

– Allow Permit holders to drive alone to/from a Driving School (just as NY already allows for driving to and from road tests!)

– Push for Rural Flexibility in DMV policies, acknowledging that downstate urban rules, based on insanely busy roads and city traffic, don’t fit our realities.

This is common-sense reform. Even the Republicans, gutless temporarily embarrassed millionaires that they are (not to discount the gutless Republicans who are actual millionaires who are STILL ineffectual in helping this county) don’t care that you’re locked out of every opportunity because, who knows, maybe your parents died before you got your license. Now you have to take 50 hours of PTO to attend a driving school that doesn’t operate after 5pm, in Syracuse, with no way to get there without paying for them to pick you up or taking one of the few buses, and pay hundreds of dollars to satisfy the requirements.

States with less restrictive permit laws also do not have higher crash rates among adult drivers, if that’s your concern. In NY’s current system:

– Forces illegal driving, because rural residents have no other options (even though you yourselves probably got away with it more than once)

– Stifles economic growth by keeping workers off the road (even though you probably lived at a time when this wasn’t a requirement for every single job application)

– Wastes government resources by ticketing people for trying to comply with impossible rules

Even though you’d think ticketing people was probably the only thing keeping us afloat — just look at our borderline illegal Traffic Diversion program, where even if you plea non guilty you can still get coerced into a $300 class when they can’t find you guilty anyways!

If Oswego County truly cares about its rural workforce, take a stand by:

– Passing a local resolution calling on NYS to amend VTL § 509.

– Lobbying Albany for rural permit exemptions

– Partnering with local driving schools to expand access, or God forbid, expanding even just the Oswego DMV to include *a car to take the test with instead of forcing us to bring one*, a driving school (maybe you should move it somewhere that can actually be accessed by pedestrians, or by bus without crossing a 4 lane highway via the bus to Syracuse?)

But this isn’t just about convenience—it’s about dignity, fairness, and economic survival for rural New Yorkers, rural Americans, and probably the US in general if you want a workforce capable of manufacturing anything.

Jacob Straw

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