Young drivers statewide could also face new restrictions under a proposal by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor. Barnes and Taylor announced their separate initiatives Friday.

Under the Barnes proposal, teenagers would have to wait until they are 17 to drive without adult supervision in metro Atlanta's most congested areas, where dozens of teenage driving fatalities have occurred in recent years.

Still to be decided are the counties that would be off-limits to solo 16-year-old drivers, but Barnes said he would propose legislation that would, at a minimum, curb driving privileges in Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties.

Teenagers would still be able to get learner's permits at 15 in the designated metro counties and drive at 16 in non-metro counties. Regardless of where they live, teenagers could not drive anywhere in the affected metro counties without an adult or guardian until they're at least 17.

Similar teen driving restrictions are in place in New York, where 16-year-olds can get a license but cannot drive solo in Manhattan until they are 18 years old.

"Many places in metro Atlanta are just as congested as Manhattan," Barnes said as he announced his proposal during a taping of GPTV's "Georgia Week in Review."

Another bipartisan plan, announced at the Capitol on Friday by Taylor and state Sen. Phillip Gingrey (R-Marietta), would require teen drivers to keep a logbook after getting a learner's permit, showing they have had either 40 hours of driver's training, or a sworn affidavit from a parent or guardian showing they had the same amount of time behind the wheel under adult supervision. Six of the driving hours would have to be at night.

The plan would permit only one nonfamily passenger under age 21 for 16-year-old drivers if no adult is in the vehicle. It would permit three such passengers for 17-year-olds. And it would impose a no-exception curfew of midnight to 6 a.m. on 16- and 17-year-olds instead of the current 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, which includes exceptions.

All new drivers, not just teens, would have to pass an on-road driving test and meet higher standards for passing the written driver's exam, Taylor said.

"During the past few years we have all seen firsthand the terrible tragedies of teenage driving crashes and fatalities on the highways all across Georgia, particularly here in metro Atlanta," the lieutenant governor said, adding that he will make the issue of teen driving his No. 1 legislative priority during the 2001 session, which begins Monday.

A cluster of metro Atlanta fatalities involving teens has focused attention on the issue of how best to protect inexperienced and young drivers from killing or maiming themselves and others on the road.

Because the mandatory tests for all new drivers would create an additional workload for driver's licensing posts, Taylor said he will support the Department of Public Safety's request to add 50 driving test examiners.

"I believe these new initiatives will help us better prepare our new drivers for the increasingly crowded highways of Georgia," Taylor said. "The new mandatory on-the-road test should also help us identify those drivers who need more time, instruction and practice before becoming fully licensed."

Against the background of 22 teen driving fatalities in Atlanta last year, urban legislators generally support proposals to tighten up driving laws.

But rural legislators are already putting up stop signs, saying further restrictions could penalize teens in parts of the state where highways aren't as congested as Atlanta's and where public transit isn't available.

House Speaker Tom Murphy (D-Bremen) and other rural lawmakers have said they will oppose attempts to increase the driving age to 17 statewide.

According to statistics compiled by House researchers, Gwinnett, Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb counties have experienced the highest number of fatal accidents involving teen drivers over the last four years. Gwinnett had the most with 38, followed by Fulton with 36, Cobb with 35 and DeKalb with 34.

But when compared with the overall population, fatal accident rates for teenage drivers in the four largest metro Atlanta counties are in the bottom 30 among Georgia's 159 counties. Smaller, more rural Georgia counties such as Wheeler and Lanier in South Georgia are among those with the highest incident rates per 1,000 residents for fatal teen driving accidents, according to the same House statistics.

Some lawmakers aren't so sure about Barnes' approach. House Minority Leader Lynn Westmoreland (R-Sharpsburg) said the two-tiered system would be almost impossible to enforce.

"Are you going to have a sign up, 'No 16-year-old drivers allowed,' like you do, 'No Through Trucks'?" he asked. "And then, what do 16-year-olds do, panic, stop, make a U-turn? It would be an enforcement nightmare for law enforcement officials."

He said Republicans are more interested in letting parents enforce rules on their own children. "Parents that don't want their kids to drive at 16 don't have to let them drive at 16,'' Westmoreland said. "The parents that don't want 16-year-olds driving in Atlanta don't have to let them drive in Atlanta. The state can't take all the responsibility for correcting this kind of problem."

Other lawmakers were more supportive of the governor's proposal.

"I think that's a good approach, quite frankly,'' said House Majority Whip Jimmy Skipper (D-Americus). "It's based on where the largest problems are -- metro Atlanta. It's got the most traffic and the most people.

"I think it's certainly better than trying to raise the driving age to 17 all over the state. I don't think that would pass,'' Skipper said.

The Taylor-Gingrey plan was carefully crafted to avoid opposition, the lieutenant governor said. "We think our proposal will definitely save lives . . . without the potential for becoming embroiled in a controversy," he said.

Taylor also said he welcomes the proposal by Barnes to raise the driving age in metro counties.

Like many other states, Georgia has a three-tiered teen licensing system that includes a supervised learner's period, an intermediate license stage and a full-privilege driver's license.

But experts say the state's existing graduated licensing law has loopholes big enough to drive a Mack truck through.

"Georgia's nighttime restriction isn't a restriction at all," said Robert D. Foss, a senior researcher at the University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center. The center helped develop national teen graduated licensing concepts.

When North Carolina restricted driving by solo 16-year-olds between 9 p.m and 5 a.m. a few years ago, the crash rate for that age group dropped by almost 50 percent, Foss said.

National statistics are in line with North Carolina's experience, according to a study last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Decreasing the number of teen passengers riding with a young driver also helped reduce death rates, authors of the JAMA article reported.

The study found the risk of crashes for unsupervised 16- and 17-year-old drivers was nearly three times as great between 10 p.m. and midnight as during daylight hours.

Some experts recommend restricting first-year drivers even more, ideally from 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. until dawn. Gingrey said he and Taylor considered the possibility of expanding the curfew hours but feared that might hurt the proposal's chances for success.

A potential reluctance by private driver's training companies to offer courses in rural and poorer parts of the state could thwart mandatory driver's education, Gingrey said, even though surveys show increasing public support for such programs. The governor has also voiced support for reinstituting driver's education programs.