Perhaps the most controversial provision of Gov. Roy Barnes' agenda this year cleared with no dissenting votes, but with plenty of vocal opposition from lawmakers who tried to remove a provision they said singles out some 16-year-olds for punishment.

"Has anybody thought about this? It's ludicrous,'' said Sen. Robert Lamutt (R-Marietta), who said children in the front half of his subdivision in Cobb County wouldn't be able to drive at 16. But teens in the subdivision's back half, in Cherokee County, could legally drive alone at 16 as long as they don't go out the front entrance.

"Are the kids in the back half of my subdivision any more likely to have an accident than the kids in the front half?'' Lamutt asked.

Other lawmakers argued that the state's decision to make Cobb, Gwinnett, Fulton and DeKalb counties off limits to unsupervised 16-year-olds drivers unfairly punishes good drivers and allows the state to make decisions that should be left to parents.

"I guess since youngsters are dying on the highway, we should not let them drive at all,'' Sen. Joey Brush (R-Appling) said sarcastically. "Keep them home. Lock them in a closet. That way we can save them all."

But Barnes' pointmen said the measure, patterned after a two-tiered driving age in New York city, is a way to tackle teen driving deaths where they most frequently occur -- in the fast-growing, heavily congested around the core of Atlanta.

"This is the demographic that the governor of the state feels we're losing, due mostly to their lack of experience and to the superhighways,'' said Sen. Steve Thompson (D-Powder Springs), Barnes' floor leader in the Senate.

Fatal accidents involving 16-year-old drivers climbed from fewer than five in 1997 to 10 last year, according to statistics from the governor's office -- proof, Thompson said, that the metro Atlanta area is becoming more dangerous for the youngest drivers.

That argument may be a tough sell in the state House, however, as Barnes' House bill 385 moves back to that chamber for approval of the changes.

Even Thompson acknowledges that the House "has spoken pretty loudly" against the measure when, in committee last month, they ripped out a larger, 18-county no-drive zone the governor initially proposed.

Barnes shrank the no-drive zone to five counties in Senate committee, and dropped another county -- Clayton -- as the measure moved to the Senate floor today.