By Eliza Ridgeway

Joe Hu/Town Crier Los Altos High School senior Alex Oliver, upset by the licensing system, prepares to head home after the school day.

Local high school students feeling the pinch from city restrictions on street parking near campus also are prohibited from carpooling for a year under the state’s graduated licensing system.

The city has banned students from parking in the Valencia Drive neighborhood bordering Los Altos High School, and Mountain View High School neighborhoods may soon follow suit.

Teen drivers in Los Altos became an issue when neighbors complained about student parking in residential neighborhoods around the high school. Extensive remodeling at LAHS had removed parking spaces, but the student body continued to grow.

“I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to be in the neighborhood now,” Dior Terrace resident Renee Koury said. She spearheaded an effort to restrict daytime student parking in the neighborhood near the school.

Koury said she sympathized with students who face limited transportation options. Buses are no longer funded by the school districts, and carpooling is banned for many young drivers by California’s graduated licensing system.

Many states have adopted a licensing system that gradually increases driving privileges for beginning drivers after an initial learner’s permit is issued.

In California, teens become eligible for a permit at 15 and may only drive with an accompanying and supervising adult older than 25. After logging 50 hours of driving practice, at least 10 of them at night, and passing a mandatory driver’s education course, teens can apply for a license at 16.

That license is not unrestricted, however. In January, the state Legislature toughened the California vehicle code to set the nighttime curfew for beginning drivers at 11 p.m. instead of midnight. The ban on carpooling for teens was increased from six months to a year after a license is issued.

Car accidents are the leading cause of death for youth between 15 and 19. Studies show that crash rates decrease as teenagers age and gain more practice, with 16-year-olds experiencing five times as many collisions as 18-year-olds. Inexperience, risk-taking behavior and teen passengers contribute to the higher rate of collisions among teenage drivers.

Although the parking ban near LAHS has been effective, it has spread the problem to other neighborhoods. Residents of Frederick Court and Alicia Way may be next to seek restricted parking, Koury said.