I realized something today...

[dtdg]

I'am always so used to having the bar lowed for me.
I realized this as I was thinking about making a topic ranting about how 5 is too high a number of questions missed and still get a driver permit. (Yes permit. I'm 18 yrs old and no permit .) But then I realized the bar has always been lowered for me. I even had the question read to me by the cop. She took it away as soon as I got done with question 21. It really pissed me off. I hate it when people take things away from me all of sudden. They're still doing as of 1:48 pm Tuesday. I sorta wanna go back, but I haven't peeked at my driver's guide thingy since I came to brother's house and surfed the internet. I still think 5 is still too high number of questions to miss and still get the permit. Maybe six or seven would be good. But I digress. So how long did it take you all to get your driver's permit/license?

[BulletMagnet]

Back in HS I missed passing the paper exam by 1 question (needed an 80, got a 78 ); at that point I really didn't need to drive, though, so I didn't bother retaking it and just rode the bus through high school. After I was out of there and on my way to a local college, however, I re-took the thing out of necessity and then got the chance at the actual in-the-car test, which I passed the first time. Of course, by that point they'd instituted the "provisionary license" thing, which meant even after passing the test I wouldn't get a "real" license for a year yet...but the restrictions on the pre-license weren't anything I needed to worry about, so I just waited. I'm probably one of the few people out there who, even as a teenager, genuinely doesn't like to drive, heh.

[TGK]

I still didn't get mine yet since immigrating to Canada. I'm 20 now.

have always relied on the bus system for work and school up to this point

I will need one soon, for great justice

[Davey]

I'm probably one of the few people out there who, even as a teenager, genuinely doesn't like to drive, heh.

I don't like driving. It's so damn expensive. I could almost get by without a car where I live, but not quite.

I didn't have a license until I was 19, and I didn't own a car until I was 21 (as opposed to most people I know, who get their temps at 15 1/2 and take the exam on their 16th birthday, with a car from mommy and daddy already lined up). Even then, I only got it because I moved 7 miles away from campus and no busses came within a mile of my townhouse or ran late enough for my last class.

People are always amazed when I tell them I walk places. My local grocery store is about a 15 minute walk away, and if I need to pick up a few things, I'll walk there (weather permitting). People are absolutely stunned by this, if not weirded out by it. Then again, I know people who would drive from one side of campus to the other (roughly half a mile). These were usually the same people who would circle parking lots 37 times looking for a better spot, just to save themselves a few dozen steps (but waste 20 minutes of their time, even though they're so busy).

On a side note, Americans are fatter than ever.

I wish it was still the way it was back when my parents were young. People lived in the city, and anything you needed was no more than a 15 minute walk away. But then the interstates were built, people moved out into the suburbs, and the inner city turned to shit. There are a few exceptions (mostly big cities and college campuses), but you pretty much can't be without a car in the US.

Sorry about all that, cars are one of my pet peeves. Or at least our uber-reliance on them.

[LoneSage]

Weird, I didn't get my license until May 5 of this year Taking into consideration that if I got my learner's permit at 15-6, then I could have gotten my license back in February...of last year.

I didn't know what I was missing out on, driving is awesome...but gas prices are suckin ass right now.

[JBC]

I got mine the first try and only missed one question - it was something about if you should use your fog lights in mist.

But i took the test in Mississippi about 10 years ago so i don't guess it would be the same as today.

[Minzoku]

Personally, I think the number should be LOWER and perhaps the legal driving age increased to 17 or 18, because there are already enough idiots on the road who drive as though they got their license out of a Cracker Jack box.

I didn't get my license until [late] 17, and I missed all of the questions about drinking [because I don't and didn't bother to learn them], but I've still been in two accidents and several close calls, not to mention the three tickets I've gotten. Meanwhile, you get [gah, I keep using him for an example] Kiken, who didn't get his license until 25[!], and he's never been in an accident or gotten a ticket, because Maryland is a lot more stringent on driving testing than somewhere like bumfuck Tennessee, where I was tested.

I think it's more that cars are treated as a right instead of a privilege, so we get all these spoiled kids getting new cars on their 16th birthdays and ending up wrecking them before the week is out... conversely, we also have people pushing 80 who still think they can drive as well as they did when they were 21, but they're either the car going 20 in the fast lane on the highway or the maniac driver who can't see a damn thing but doesn't care.

Whee, rant.

CLICK IT OR TICKET!

[mannerbot]

lol if you fail that test you don't deserve to drive.

[Kiel]

I got my license first try no problems and I havent gotten a ticket yet (I'm 23) and I dont drive Ms. Daisy either. I have a fast cop magnet of a car too.

[Kiel]

lol if you fail that test you don't deserve to drive.

I was thinking the same thing as well but didn't say it cause I didn't want to be a dick. IMO you shouldnt be allow to get any of the questions wrong because like Minzoku said there aer plenty of shitty drivers on the road.

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

I never had the money to take "Drivers Ed", so I had to wait till I turned 18 to get my license.
I passed both the written and driving the first time.
Mind you I was driving a "tank" when I took the driving...it was my Grandfathers 1972 Cadillac 4 door. (they should have given my a truck license too! )

Maybe the fact that I had a Go-Kart through my younger teen years, gave me "practice" with driving things with 4 wheels...then again, I've always been a natural. You guys knew that already.

[Damocles]

Whee for Drivers Ed. Driving on our farms is a way of life, so in-car testing was nothing new.

[mannerbot]

Yeah, it was pretty dickish of me to say it. But just as a side note, I really hate how people are more concerned with getting their licenses than actually learning how to drive. There are many fucking shitty drivers on the road.

[it290]

Y'know, I'm 24 and I _still_ don't have a license. I got a permit and all that when I turned 16, and learned how to drive before that, but never got around to getting the damn thing. I've done a few road trips and some emergency driving illegally since then, but that's about it.

I've never really needed a car for the most part, and on top of that I hate city driving and I don't want the expense/hassle. I figure I'll get around to it when I'm really going to need it for work or other reasons, but until then, I can get around easily anyway (helps when you live right in the middle of the city, although the public transportation system here leaves something to be desired).

[EddyMRA]

Ha! I'm 28 and still have yet to get my license. I did learn how to drive when I was 18, but never took it beyond the permit. Many people are weirded out when I tell them I walk to where I need to go or take a cab.

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

Ha! I'm 28 and still have yet to get my license. I did learn how to drive when I was 18, but never took it beyond the permit. Many people are weirded out when I tell them I walk to where I need to go or take a cab.

That might be fine for some people who live in the inner large cities...but where I live, there isn't even a Taxi sevice, let alone public transport.
Thats why this town gets most of its revenue from drunk driving offenses. There are no cabs to call when you've "had too much"!!!
This town sucks, sometimes I wish I could move back to Chicago, or some other large city with some class.

I love to drive anyway...well certian cars.

[Diabollokus]

I think the uk one at the moment is you must pass 30 questions out of 35 then followed by a short computer simulation where you must identify possible driving hazards which you must pass perfectly. think ability to change tyre and check oil is required aswell and thats all for the theory exam.


Honestly though it should be harder and the age for minimum driving needs to go to 18/19 there are soo many bad drivers in my country and they all drive fukin corsas with body kits AKA chavs, crash and jack up my insurance. makes me mad every time i see some uneducated moron with an unusually loud 1.0 litre car being reved at trafic lights.

[Acid King]

Personally, I think the number should be LOWER and perhaps the legal driving age increased to 17 or 18, because there are already enough idiots on the road who drive as though they got their license out of a Cracker Jack box.

I didn't get my license until [late] 17, and I missed all of the questions about drinking [because I don't and didn't bother to learn them], but I've still been in two accidents and several close calls, not to mention the three tickets I've gotten. Meanwhile, you get [gah, I keep using him for an example] Kiken, who didn't get his license until 25[!], and he's never been in an accident or gotten a ticket, because Maryland is a lot more stringent on driving testing than somewhere like bumfuck Tennessee, where I was tested.

I think it's more that cars are treated as a right instead of a privilege, so we get all these spoiled kids getting new cars on their 16th birthdays and ending up wrecking them before the week is out... conversely, we also have people pushing 80 who still think they can drive as well as they did when they were 21, but they're either the car going 20 in the fast lane on the highway or the maniac driver who can't see a damn thing but doesn't care.

Whee, rant.

CLICK IT OR TICKET!

The problem is that driving skills do not come magically at a certain age, they come from experience. Raising the age won't decrease the number of idiots, it'll just make the idiots wait another two years. I know Pennsylvania just made their process longer and more difficult and yet, that didn't stop my younger sister from trashing my car within a month of getting her lisence. This is only exacerbated by the problem of creating a mechanical one size fits all drivers test that puts pressure on the kids to do things exactly like they've been told and as a result do not really reflect the way they drive because of the presence of a DMV official or a parent.

[Kevin]

I took the drivers ed program offered by my high school before I turned 16 and got my licence on my first try 2 days after my 16th birthday. I still don't own a car and have no plans to buy one in the near future. During my in car driving lessons the teacher repeatedly stressed that it's not his job to teach me how to drive, but how to pass the drivers test. Learning to drive the way other peoplr drive came after I got my licence.

One thing I find surprising is that there is no testing required for winter driving around here. For 4-6 months of the year most of our roads are covered in ice and even experienced drivers end up sideways at an interesction on a bad day. My area recently moved to a graduated licence system, so I guess you atleast have to survive winter accident free to get your licence now.

[Dartagnan1083]

Personally, I think the number should be LOWER and perhaps the legal driving age increased to 17 or 18, because there are already enough idiots on the road who drive as though they got their license out of a Cracker Jack box.

It really depends on the state.
Some states actually make you wait untill you're 18 to get your Liscence.
Others will make you wait untill 17 for a permit, and still others allow you to get a permit as early as 14 1/2 (farm states).

At least it's not like Mexico where liscence and permit are pretty much optional.

[The n00b]

I passed my driving exam on the first try. It seemed a whole lot easier than it was hyped to be too.

BTW since some people are up in arms over denying people their driver's license based on age, wouldn't they also be in favor of taking away a person's license when they are seniors? Fair is fair after all... No wait that's right you can't take away a person's license if he/she makes up your voting block. Better to pick on those non voting teens.

[FatCobra]

Dude, I fail Driver's Ed and still managed to pass the Lisence Exam (although I also nearly failed that too because there was a FUCKING COP in my car! That made me nervous). It's too easy to get a driver's lisence in America. Might as well get it in the bottom of a ceral box.

Yet I'm still a great driver. Why? Experience. Driving around in congested Florida roads will teach you driving skills QUICK. Either that or make you honk your horn for a long time and give the idiot in front of you the bird.

[Davey]

BTW since some people are up in arms over denying people their driver's license based on age, wouldn't they also be in favor of taking away a person's license when they are seniors? Fair is fair after all... No wait that's right you can't take away a person's license if he/she makes up your voting block. Better to pick on those non voting teens.

It would be insane to take them away just for being old, of course, but I think they should force you to retake the driving test every 10 years or so. Just because you drove well back when you got your license in 1954 doesn't mean you're qualified to drive today.

I remember hearing once that a lot of old people move to Florida and can't pass the driving test when they get there. Can any Floridians confirm this?

[Minzoku]

The problem is that driving skills do not come magically at a certain age, they come from experience. Raising the age won't decrease the number of idiots, it'll just make the idiots wait another two years. I know Pennsylvania just made their process longer and more difficult and yet, that didn't stop my younger sister from trashing my car within a month of getting her lisence. This is only exacerbated by the problem of creating a mechanical one size fits all drivers test that puts pressure on the kids to do things exactly like they've been told and as a result do not really reflect the way they drive because of the presence of a DMV official or a parent.

Well, I said age increase because there's this whole "hardship" line they have [in TN, at least] where if it's possible to prove that such and such family has no other remotely qualified driver in the household, a person could acquire a permit at 14, and there probably are mature 14-year-olds out there who do the Hermione Granger thing and are fully competent, etc., even as astronomically RARE it would be to be so desperate to have a qualified licensed driver at the tender age of 14.

I was thinking, though, about how it's totally pass/fail for licenses, which is WHY it should be stricter/better organized [requiring at least a semester of driver's ed before even testing for a license, for instance], so even if you can't really tell the difference between "barely passing" and "passes with flying colours" when someone has a brand new driver's license, at least it will be a higher grade of it. A nicer thing would be to have a sort of grading system for driving competency that's tied right into the license, so it could be looked up when swiped or scanned, instead of only the point system we have now that penalizes drivers after the fact.

Really, though, we need more/more appealing mass transit systems, so everyone who drives out of necessity [15 minutes of highway to work, for me] won't have to and can leave all the assholes in their Escalades to wreck each other freely.

[Minzoku]

It would be insane to take them away just for being old, of course, but I think they should force you to retake the driving test every 10 years or so. Just because you drove well back when you got your license in 1954 doesn't mean you're qualified to drive today.

I remember hearing once that a lot of old people move to Florida and can't pass the driving test when they get there. Can any Floridians confirm this?

The law is actually that once you reach a certain age, you have to be retested for competency, at least as far as eyesight, hearing, and possibly reaction time. No one is in denial about the physical differences between senior citizens and teenagers.

Mind you, some of our elderly actually are only minimally impaired with age and can drive just as competently, but they are the exceptions, not the rule.

[SAM]

I don't have a driving license.

And I have never taken the test.

I think this is quite common for an islander around the world.

My island do require an islander to have a license in order to drive a car.

[Acid King]

Well, I said age increase because there's this whole "hardship" line they have [in TN, at least] where if it's possible to prove that such and such family has no other remotely qualified driver in the household, a person could acquire a permit at 14, and there probably are mature 14-year-olds out there who do the Hermione Granger thing and are fully competent, etc., even as astronomically RARE it would be to be so desperate to have a qualified licensed driver at the tender age of 14.

I was thinking, though, about how it's totally pass/fail for licenses, which is WHY it should be stricter/better organized [requiring at least a semester of driver's ed before even testing for a license, for instance], so even if you can't really tell the difference between "barely passing" and "passes with flying colours" when someone has a brand new driver's license, at least it will be a higher grade of it. A nicer thing would be to have a sort of grading system for driving competency that's tied right into the license, so it could be looked up when swiped or scanned, instead of only the point system we have now that penalizes drivers after the fact.

Really, though, we need more/more appealing mass transit systems, so everyone who drives out of necessity [15 minutes of highway to work, for me] won't have to and can leave all the assholes in their Escalades to wreck each other freely.

Well, most people do take drivers ed before taking the exam since I am almost positive that that class is given in pretty much every high school in the country. Same with the grading system for the competency. I don't see how that would improve peoples driving or improve enforcement of the traffic laws. As for mass transit systems, they're useless in most areas of this country because most of our population is so spread out and many places couldn't sustain them economically.

[Ramus]

They need to make the driver's test harder than shit pass. There are so many idiot drivers on the road that cause accidents. I'm a paramedic and I've seen all sorts of terrible shit like a guy who T-boned a mini van with a family of five inside. Only the Father survived and they were all wearing their seat belts. The guy wasn't drunk; he was a 17 year old kid who tried to make the yellow light and missed it by like 10 seconds. Stupid fuck should be shot. They shouldn't give licences to kids under 18. I remember driving like an asshole when I was a kid and I never thought I would before I got my licence. Most kids are not mature enough to drive.

[Minzoku]

Well, most people do take drivers ed before taking the exam since I am almost positive that that class is given in pretty much every high school in the country. Same with the grading system for the competency. I don't see how that would improve peoples driving or improve enforcement of the traffic laws. As for mass transit systems, they're useless in most areas of this country because most of our population is so spread out and many places couldn't sustain them economically.

There's the thing, though: most people take it, not ALL. My high school didn't offer it, because we were a tiny private school, but I took it at another school anyway. I still didn't REQUIRE it--they didn't make me prove I took it. What needs to happen is a more regular testing and immediate suspension for failure, instead of how I was tested only initially [and minimally so] to get my license... the rest was merely updating my age and address.

I meant better mass transit in larger cities that don't already have it, obviously, or for instance, there IS a metro in the Los Angeles area, but NO ONE USES IT because they'd rather enjoy the freedom of sitting in three hours of traffic in their CARS. Yes, there are those who will ride the bus, too, but they're a minority.

Also, we could take out the whole population of New Jersey...

Yes, though we need all these things, we won't GET them, because the car makers would pitch a fit and all these soccer moms who need a new SUV every year would rather have that luxury than pay a few more taxes to fund stricter driving enforcements to keep people SAFE.

Safety is one of those things people seriously take for granted... no one wants to pay for it in advance, they'd rather sue after the fact

They need to make the driver's test harder than shit pass. There are so many idiot drivers on the road that cause accidents. I'm a paramedic and I've seen all sorts of terrible shit like a guy who T-boned a mini van with a family of five inside. Only the Father survived and they were all wearing their seat belts. The guy wasn't drunk; he was a 17 year old kid who tried to make the yellow light and missed it by like 10 seconds. Stupid fuck should be shot. They shouldn't give licences to kids under 18. I remember driving like an asshole when I was a kid and I never thought I would before I got my licence. Most kids are not mature enough to drive.

Well, you again get the whole, "How do you make a better driver without experience?" stuff, but yes, as people get older, they're less inclined to show off and drive recklessly like that, as insurance premiums will reflect.

Hey, there we go. What needs to happen is more people need to be made ABSOLUTELY SCARED of driving, so all of these fuckers who can't drive WON'T.

[SheSaidDutch]

I'm currently on my forth driving lesson, so far so good. I've had my provisional a year.

Now I just need a part-time job to pay for a car although the price of petrol is on the increase