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Driver's education is optional in the United States (at least everywhere I've lived) if you're over the age of 18. Show up, take a written test, you get your permit. Then after a 90 waiting period you take your road test and that's it. You're done forever as long as you don't let your license expire.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:37
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punakone posted:Just what is up with driver's education USA I can't find the laws, but there were a couple years in Texas where parents were able to waive the practical drivers test. I got my driver's license at 16 with a written test and some parent-taught hours recorded in a logbook, never a road test.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:42
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And even then, unless your parents opt to send you to a more comprehensive driver's education course what passes for driver's ed is pathetically shallow, mostly classroom instruction that is 80% scare tactics about speeding and drunk driving. I learned more about driving and vehicle control going to autocross and HPDEs at a local road course than I ever did in driver's ed.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:44
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The road test at most consists of driving a few hundred feet down the road, stopping at a stop sign, making a three point turn/k-turn, and  parallel parking . In some places, you don't have to parallel park. People regularly fail this on repeated attempts.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:49
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I had to drive around the city for 30 minutes properly (lane changes, stop lights, etc), then parallel park at a shopping center in one of those sideways handicapped van spaces, then drive to the DMV to hand them the SEALED ENVELOPE with my SUPER SECRET TEST SCORES in it.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:55
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My road test to get my license involved pulling out of the DMV, turning into an unused road, making a three-point turn (that took a few extra), and then pulling back into the DMV. Never left sight of the building. That wasn't even remotely what was supposed to be required but the examiner guy had had a bad day and wanted to go home and couldn't care less what he was signing off on. Basically governmentworkers.txt. Lucky for me I had hundreds of hours in Need For Speed to nail down the fundamentals. Formal driving instruction and examination used to be even rarer because it was assumed your parents had in fact taught you, and that you might have had up to several years of experience driving already, before getting your license. My father and his siblings all started driving (in a somewhat rural area) at 13; in high school he drove the school bus. That really wasn't out of the ordinary. The other side of that is that accidents were far more likely to result in serious injury or death, which may or may not have made people pay more attention, but it did reduce the number of repeat offenders.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:57
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I'd hope that a series of fatal accidents would limit the number of repeat offenders, otherwise that town has many more problems than people driving recklessly. Like the zombies apparently driving around.
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Dec 11, 2013 21:00
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I almost crashed head on into some butthole because he didn't have his lights on in the pitch dark earlier. I'd just come out of a shop and turned around at a mini roundabout up the street. Then when I was coming back down to the traffic lights some guy who was parked in amongst a row of cars on the side of the road pulls out in front of me with no lights on. I was only going about 25mph and stopped just short of hitting him when I slammed on the brakes. He had the nerve to look pissed off when we were both sitting there facing each other. I flashed my brights at him and shouted out of my window for him to put his loving lights on before he even realised. edit: The driving tests in the US seem crazy to me. It gets harder all the time in the uk. I think they've added even more since I passed about 8 years ago.
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Dec 11, 2013 21:04
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FogHelmut posted:The road test at most consists of driving a few hundred feet down the road, stopping at a stop sign, making a three point turn/k-turn, and My road test was 3 right turns around the block that the DMV was on. One had a red light! Funny thing, my proctor was a fully dressed Mass Statie motor officer with the huge shiny motorcycle boots and everything.
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Dec 11, 2013 21:31
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While the UK driving test is better than what people are describing here, they haven't (yet) made it mandatory to receive formal tuition from anyone, and that's something I agree with. Set the standard and test people against it, how they choose to get themselves to that standard is up to them. I agree that no-one should be allowed to charge for tuition unless they are in some way licensed, but there's nothing wrong with relatives or friends teaching someone. In other news, a girl at work paid £45 for a pair of new windscreen wipers.
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Dec 11, 2013 21:38
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InitialDave posted:While the UK driving test is better than what people are describing here, they haven't (yet) made it mandatory to receive formal tuition from anyone, and that's something I agree with. Set the standard and test people against it, how they choose to get themselves to that standard is up to them. I agree that no-one should be allowed to charge for tuition unless they are in some way licensed, but there's nothing wrong with relatives or friends teaching someone. wow do they also wipe her butt for her?
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Dec 11, 2013 21:59
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I love the trends for yellow headlights, more than words can express. I'll never get them myself but everyone who runs yellows isn't running purple hidzzzz.
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Dec 11, 2013 22:01
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Wow, and here I was thinking my driving test was a joke. Lets see, from what I remember at the time, to take the written test, you could either A: wait until you were 18 and not take any classes, B: take an "accredited" class for $150 at 16, or C: pay the DMV $500 at 16 1/2. I took option B. Upon passing the written test, you got a learners permit where in you needed to wait 6 months and log 30+ hours of driving, with atleast 10 hours at night. All driving with the learners permit had to be done with someone 21 years or older ridding shotgun. Even though the DMV hands out log books, I was never asked for mine when I went for the driving test. I failed the first time for two reasons: I started the car before putting on my seatbelt (to get the heat going, it was a cold day in fall), and when I coasted down hill on a street that looked like a 35 mph zone, the speedo hit 30 which was technically speeding because it was actually a 25 zone. The actual test consisted of checking all the lights and signals worked before leaving the DMV, puttering around on surface streets between speeds of 25-45, stopping correctly at stop signs and stop lights, "parallel parking" behind a single parked car, putting the car in the "mode" for hill parking (pointing the wheels at the curb to stop the vehicle from rolling far), and backing up for some distance along a straight curb (can you back up straight). Had to wait 3 months to retest. Second time around, the tester clearly wanted to get back inside since it was the middle of a cold winter. He asked if I could start the car right away and put the heat on. We skipped the hill parking stuff, the straight backing, and didn't find a car to use for parallel parking, so I ended up parking in 3 different empty spots at the DMV.
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Dec 11, 2013 22:05
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Cakefool posted:I love the trends for yellow headlights, more than words can express. I'll never get them myself but everyone who runs yellows isn't running purple hidzzzz. Wanna see a line of cars, the first with purple hidz, the next with yellow, purple, yellow, purple, yellow... Maybe park em outside a Lakers game
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Dec 11, 2013 22:07
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rscott posted:Driver's education is optional in the United States (at least everywhere I've lived) if you're over the age of 18. Show up, take a written test, you get your permit. Then after a 90 waiting period you take your road test and that's it. You're done forever as long as you don't let your license expire. Texas changed it a few years ago to where you have to complete drivers ed to get a license if you're under 25. I think parents can still teach you (with state-certified materials), but either way, you're not getting your license before 25 without some form of training or a hardship permit. Weinertron posted:I can't find the laws, but there were a couple years in Texas where parents were able to waive the practical drivers test. I got my driver's license at 16 with a written test and some parent-taught hours recorded in a logbook, never a road test. I only had to do a written test in TX, as I'd gone through drivers ed. From what I understand, everyone getting their first license now has to complete a driving test. I got my license at 15  Alphius posted:I bought the same model you did and on the second day I owned it in the middle of a recording the audio got all distorted and cut off... now it doesn't record audio at all. I am about to send it back and get my money back and spend it on booze instead; it'll probably make me happier. Oh, also the camera doesn't turn on by itself when I start my car if the temperature is below freezing. I have to either manually turn it on and start recording or wait until my defroster heats the camera up enough at which point it turns on by itself. I never vouched for the build quality on it.  I'm thinking it's also the cold loving with mine; it started working properly after the interior of the car warmed quite a bit. Seeing it backfeed the power adapter was quite a  moment as well.
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Dec 11, 2013 |
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Dec 11, 2013 22:11
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FogHelmut posted:The road test at most consists of driving a few hundred feet down the road, stopping at a stop sign, making a three point turn/k-turn, and This sounds like the test I took, though at the time whether you had to parallel park was determined by which MVD you went to. I believe this has since changed, but I went to the one that didn't require you to do it; I don't think I had actually ever parallel parked my car in a tight spot at that time because parallel parking itself is so rare in AZ. I made the three-point turn a five-point turn, but the instructor let that one slide since I was doing the test in a Suburban. Other than that it was cruising around what must have been no more than 1/4 mile of actual city streets with nothing but right turns.
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Dec 11, 2013 22:12
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Before I got in the car I had to pop the bonnet and show the instruction where to check for oil, and where my window washer fluid went, followed by reading a licence plate at a distance. Then I had to drive around town for around 45 minutes following directions from the instructor, including driving on a duel carriageway. Then I had to to a parallel park between two cars, and reverse around a corner. I didn't have to do a 3 point turn or a hill start, but I think it could have been any two out of those four manoeuvres. It also involved an emergency stop, which the instructor just randomly tells you do to at any point. The whole time they are marking down any "minors" that you do, like forgetting to check your mirrors or using your indicators too late, not checking the mirrors before you indicate etc. If you get something like 15 minors you fail, which is no problem. But if you get 3 minors in one catagory you fail. Also you can fail on a "major". I can't really remember what they were specifically but one of those mistakes and you fail. I dunno what it's like now but supposedly they added more stuff since I passed.
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Dec 11, 2013 22:35
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Panic! At The Tesco posted:followed by reading a licence plate at a distance.
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Dec 11, 2013 22:36
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Seat Safety Switch posted:What? Don't you just have an eye exam like here?
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Dec 11, 2013 22:39
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My test involved probably one of the quickest fails short of someone jabbing the accelerator before the instructor is even ready. I started young, did the drivers ed for the learners permit, logged hours over a few months, then went to the DMV for the road test. All cars were in a lane waiting for their turn for the instructor to hop in and do the test. I was second in the lane, with a girl in front of me. Instructor hops into her car, a minute later they set off. Not more then 5 seconds went by, the instructor gets out, walks to the front of her car, shakes his head and mouths "you failed". I get out, walk over to look, her front tires are maybe a foot in front of the stop sign line that was ~20 feet down the lane that intersects a street you need to cross to get to the test area (a parking lot). Girl is sobbing as the instructor says her parents need to come and move the car. That was quite the opening for my turn. I'm pretty sure I looked like someone trying to land a 747 as I crawled to the stop sign. The test itself was much easier then anticipated. Crossed into the parking lot, did a few turns and a 3-point. Parallel parked once, and crossed back to the DMV. No traffic, didn't even go past second gear.
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Dec 11, 2013 22:55
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InitialDave posted:That's how we do it too, read a plate in the car park. Here, they have a letter card much like what you'd read at an eye doctor's office, except it's inside a machine (kind of like a microscope) so that only you (and the DMV person) can see it. They supposedly change the letter cards around at random, so you can't really memorize them (or have a friend memorize them).
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Dec 11, 2013 23:06
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Forgot I had this. Water main blew up the hill to the right flooding the street moving down. Do Not Enter signs were put up at the intersections immediately. People drove around them. Not only did they drive around them they chose to drive on the sidewalk to not drive through 4 inches of standing water. This was just one person out of many that did this for HOURS. I got flipped off and screamed at for taking this picture. I hate people.
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Dec 11, 2013 23:07
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My highschool had an 8 week driver's ed course with a written and practical exam at the end. If you got a good enough score on both they gave you a waiver to take to the DMV which would then issue you your license with no further testing required. I qualified for the waiver  The alternative was to not go to the nearest DMV but instead go ~30 minutes away from civilization to this little town with a population of 2,000 and a sum total of 27 streets, most of which are less than two blocks long, which just happens to have a DMV for some reason. The driving test there pretty much just requires stopping at a stop sign and not crashing into anything while you make a loop of the town which takes 5 minutes max because it's loving tiny.
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Dec 11, 2013 23:09
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some texas redneck posted:Here, they have a letter card much like what you'd read at an eye doctor's office, except it's inside a machine (kind of like a microscope) so that only you (and the DMV person) can see it. They supposedly change the letter cards around at random, so you can't really memorize them (or have a friend memorize them). We have those here. One time my wife was at the MVD while some old crone was shoving her near-corpse husband's face ever harder into the machine in the hopes that maybe this time he'd get at least one letter right. Maker Of Shoes posted:Forgot I had this. There's a reason our state had to enact the Stupid Motorist Law. People here see so little water that they don't understand what it can do.
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Dec 11, 2013 23:10
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IOwnCalculus posted:There's a reason our state had to enact the Stupid Motorist Law. People here see so little water that they don't understand what it can do. This is from the same stupid roundabout I posted earlier. 
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Dec 11, 2013 23:12
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It took me three tries to pass my driving test in California. The first time, I was making a right turn on a red light, and someone in an Accord fastback from the 80s blew through the intersection at 60 mph after I started the turn. I braked, and the instructor yelled "STOP". Did you know that if the instructor has to "intervene", which includes telling you to do what you're already doing, you automatically fail? (Side note: taking the test in a 2nd generation CR-V when you're used to driving a Volvo 240 is a really lovely experience) The second time was when someone started to back into the side of my car from on-street perpendicular parking. Swerving to go around them counted as a dangerous maneuver. The third time I passed it, and the instructor told me that he had to take his test three times before he got his license on the fourth one, and now he runs the test.
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Dec 11, 2013 23:15
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Galler posted:Maybe all the bulbs are burned out including whatever bulbs might signal that the bulbs are burned out Nope. After a honk and a twisting hand gesture out the window, they finally turned them on. Ran a red light in front of me, too, so I guess the person driving it was just a loving idiot. Really wish I bought that retired CVPI just to make idiot drivers nervous.
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Dec 11, 2013 23:21
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My CDL test consisted of the air brake test, full inspection, standard maneuvering (parallel parking, moving straight back and forth) and then a trip around the block (it was a big block, including a dual lane state highway). Ended with me taking a tight right back into the BMV (hitting a curb is an auto fail so this is actually pretty tricky). The full inspection on the CDL test is a bitch. Luckily I wasn't doing a combination vehicle so there were only 80-odd items to point out, instead of 127 or so. The fear of having to memorize that poo poo again is what keeps me renewing my CDL despite not driving a commercial vehicle in almost 3 years.
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Dec 11, 2013 23:22
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some texas redneck posted:Here, they have a letter card much like what you'd read at an eye doctor's office, except it's inside a machine (kind of like a microscope) so that only you (and the DMV person) can see it. They supposedly change the letter cards around at random, so you can't really memorize them (or have a friend memorize them). These things have left and right eyeports, and it may not be obvious to most people, but some of those letters are only on the card for one side, not both. I'm blind on one side (not completely) and so the ones on only that side are invisible. Since you need to retake the test when you move from one state to another, I've had DMV staff for two different states show me (without me asking) how to fake it. (You pull your head back and look down the wrong eyepiece with your good eye while pushing the little trigger bar, that's supposed to turn the thing on when your head is in the right place, in with your hand) E: it would've been amusing for a DMV tester to have me try to check the oil or the washer fluid, I think in the Toyota Space Van I took the test in both of those require lifting the driver's seat
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Dec 11, 2013 23:30
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Maker Of Shoes posted:Forgot I had this. Yeah, I really hate it when I see people driving HHRs and PT Cruisers too. They're awful cars and driving one says volumes about the driver's taste.
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Dec 11, 2013 23:33
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ijustam posted:My CDL test consisted of the air brake test, full inspection, standard maneuvering (parallel parking, moving straight back and forth) and then a trip around the block (it was a big block, including a dual lane state highway). Ended with me taking a tight right back into the BMV (hitting a curb is an auto fail so this is actually pretty tricky). You left out the best part of the CDL test, going to the DMV to taken the written part of the test and noticing there is a loving moron taking the test that looks a lot like a baby shape toy but with roadsigns and the person is listening to the test questions on tape. At least that's what I loving remember.
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Dec 12, 2013 00:47
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Virginia does it where you take a simple written test, get your learners at 15 1/2, drive on that for 6 months and you have to log 30 daylight/10 night driving hours. Generally public schools have a driving class during this period which is about 80% class 20% actual driving, so you do that, take your final practical exam and another written test, and then you go to the courthouse with a few dozen other kids and listen to the judge give a stern lecture about safety, at which point you are given your real license. For my practical test the driving instructor (a faculty member of my high school who I had driven with a couple times previously) had me drive to a local sandwich place so she could get her lunch, and she bought me a sandwich too. I guess I did pretty well  .My learners permit driving log had over 40 hours of daylight and a "claimed" 15 hours of night driving. It was actually closer to 30 hours of night driving because my stoner friend loved to come over to my place late at night, get baked as gently caress, and then toss me the keys (I didn't smoke back then) and we would just drive all over our rural county at 1am. Yes, it was pretty loving stupid but I loving love driving and took any opportunity to do so. Terrible Robot fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Dec 12, 2013 |
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Dec 12, 2013 01:07
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Ha when I was a teenager you only need to have a learner's permit in California for 30 days. 
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Dec 12, 2013 01:39
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I failed my test (California) the first time for "coming out of a complete stop in 2nd gear". I didn't come to a complete stop at all, the light had turned green well before I got to the intersection, and my car wouldn't even go into first because I was going too fast (I took it out of gear to get ready to put it into first for the stop, the light turned green, it wouldn't go into first so I put it back into second) Pretty sure the lady didn't want to do the test, she looked like Mimi from the drew carey show. Second time I was going 45 in a 40, took turns too wide, and passed just fine. That was the first time I'd ever driven the full sized boat car that I took the test in.
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Dec 12, 2013 02:07
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Dead Cow posted:I failed my test (California) the first time for "coming out of a complete stop in 2nd gear". Isn't that default programming on a bunch of Chrysler autos? Plus in my old pickup you never start in granny first anyway. They seriously fail you for that?
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Dec 12, 2013 02:22
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Dead Cow posted:I failed my test (California) the first time for "coming out of a complete stop in 2nd gear". I didn't come to a complete stop at all, the light had turned green well before I got to the intersection, and my car wouldn't even go into first because I was going too fast (I took it out of gear to get ready to put it into first for the stop, the light turned green, it wouldn't go into first so I put it back into second) A friend of mine took his driver's test in a Honda Accord 5 speed and failed for "shifting too late" when (according to him) he shifted at 2.5-3K. He retook the test in an automatic car and passed easily.
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Dec 12, 2013 02:32
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This was in my Saturn so probably. Among my friends it was a joke that if you passed the first time you were a terrible driver since all the worst drivers we knew got it in one, but we all had two or more tries for usually inane reasons.
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Dec 12, 2013 02:48
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atomicthumbs posted:The second time was when someone started to back into the side of my car from on-street perpendicular parking. Swerving to go around them counted as a dangerous maneuver. Not terribly surprising, considering this is how the police tend to enforce traffic laws as well. They'd rather have you take a far worse hit and/or lose control completely and get severely injured or killed than attempt to avoid the accident in the first place because "the law says..." FWIW I'm sure you would have failed the driver's test if you would have remained stationary and let them back into you.
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Dec 12, 2013 02:56
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I failed my first attempt before the instructor even got in the car. Signal light burned out.
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Dec 12, 2013 03:27
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I had to drive around a couple blocks, do a K turn, and parallel park. poo poo was easy, because I learned to drive (and do all those things) in a dodge ram 2500 van with a turning radius measured in parsecs and crummy visibility, and took the test in a mid 90s sedan with visibility for miles 4-wheeling taught me more about driving, situational awareness, and being aware of the size/shape of my vehicle than anything else.
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Dec 12, 2013 04:14
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