Did You Know That Some States Don't Allow Drivers With Out Of State Learner's Permits?

UPDATED January 9, 2019: The app is available for both Android and iOS.

As a parent of a new driver, I wanted my daughter to get as much supervised time behind the wheel as possible. So when we drove to Florida to visit friends for Thanksgiving, we took advantage of the road time to get her a few hours behind the wheel.

A couple weeks later, my wife mentioned this to a friend who told her that some states prohibit out of state drivers with learner's permits. We were both surprised to hear this, assuming that a permit was equivalent to a license, allowing someone to drive anywhere in the country as long as the permit restrictions were abided by.

Because we live near a state border, and were planning to drive out of state for Christmas, I decided to do some investigation. I tried Google. I looked for mobile apps. Information for a few states was relatively easy to locate. For most it was much harder to find regulations applying to drivers with learner's permits.

I was also very surprised to find that a neighboring state prohibits non-resident drivers with learner's permits from their roads.

What I ultimately found was

• There is no single place to find this information for all states.
• Most people I spoke with had no idea that the laws varied by state.
• I was also very surprised to find that a neighboring state prohibits nonresident drivers with learner's permits from their roads.

That's when I decided to take the time to gather the information and put it in one place for driver's with learner's permits and their parents or guardians to access when driving across state lines.

Initially I planned to learn to develop a mobile app myself. After spending so much time doing the state law research, I reached out to a former colleague and software developer to see if he was interested in working with me. He was, and the Where Can I Drive? app is now available for download.

The app is designed to intuitively provide the necessary information to ensure that drivers with learner's permits need to comply with each states' law. Simply select the state from a drop-down list, or tap it on an overview map of the US, and the local laws are explained.

States shown in green allow all nonresident learner's permit drivers. Yellow states, allow nonresident permit drivers, but have some restrictions. These are often related to the age of the student driver, age of the supervising driver, or time of day. States in red do not allow any nonresident drivers with learner's permits. Some states, like California and New York, have some specific requirements that aren't seen elsewhere.

Some states, like California and New York, have some specific requirements that aren't seen elsewhere.

If you have a student driver in your home, I encourage you to install the app for both you and your child. It can be downloaded for Android by clicking HERE, and for for iOS by clicking HERE. Google Family Library sharing is supported. More app details, and sample screen shots can be seen in the Google Play Store or Apple iTunes App Store.

Note: Updated information for the states of Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin is included in the latest version.