L.A.
My sister is about to face this with her son.. He will get his licence in Feb, but in Texas there is a graduated licence.. He is not allowed to have a person in the car younger than 18 for a few months.. unless another driver than 18 is also in the car.. but after that , yes, he will be driving himself and sister to his dads home and then back to her house..
I think it should depend on how comfortable the parents feel and how safe of a driver the child is.. My nephew will actually only be driving within a few miles from his home with his mom to his home with his dad and then the schools that he and his sister attend..
Also we really do not have bad weather here, just really aggressive drivers..