Learning to Drive
 

UK vs US and stuff.....

In the UK, we learn(ed) to drive at 17. we are/were taught at home. Mostly not by parents -this is the time to hire a private instructor -about the only thing UK parents will uniformly agree is worth private tuition fees.

In the old days -when I took my test- there were a few theory questions after the practical, I believe that now they may have a theory test first (not sure -I'm so old I've been driving for 20 years). But the practical test was hard and many people take two ot three tries to pass and from what I've heard there's been no let up. I have taken a US (Michigan) driving test -it's the law. It was scarily easy. I had to reverse park in a space the size of an aircraft hangar, and turn on the radio while driving. the tester told me that I was the third brit she had tested that week (we came en masse) and she loved it, we were so easy to pass. Well hell i should think so, we're old enough to have children we've been driving forever on a tiny crowded island in Europe..

But I digress...

BrianR's recent comment in the truck strike/slow down thread about the way car drivers treat trucks got me thinking -you have all this driver's ed in school -do they not teach this or is it simply that kids don't pay attention because it's school? I remember very clearly in the 10 hours tuition I had, being taught how to pass trucks (lorries), how to join the freeway (motorway) safely from the ramp (sliproad) and hard shoulder (at speed, not from fucking standing, folks...) ...also how if you get in the wrong lane at an intersection, you don't stop traffic waiting for some sucker to let you in but you carry on, turn round and come back ...this maybe more of a cultural difference, though.... ;)

You have all this driver's Ed in school which seems like such an awesome idea, but what do they actually teach in it? Are the lessons good and you all know the theory, you just choose to express your freedom by not applying it? or is it just a way to keep the kids quiet while they get the necessary expeeriece hours to get they keys?

Wasn't this a Tom Petty song?

When I took the North Carolina test at 20, I thought the driving part was ridiculous. I got in the car and the examiner said, "Drive to the intersection, come to a complete stop, activate your right turn signal, wait for traffic to clear, and make a right turn." Ummm... lady... this is a test, right? Wouldn't it be better if you don't remind me what I'm supposed to do?

Oh, come on... you've lived here for a while now.. what do you think the answer is? (IMO it's all of the above, plus a generous helping of self-centered arrogance. Check out some of my commuting rants! Yes, once again, people, you are not entitled to be let through if you attempt to make a left turn out of a parking lot in the middle of the block on a 5-lane highway.)

In my experience, driver ed was taught by a gym teacher/coach of some sort and was 98% film strips about drunk driving. It was unpossible to fail.

She's right... The only thing I learned in driver's ed was how to drive a stick... Oh, and not to sit in the back seat of a Malibu when your stupid co-student is trying to learn how to drive a stick... It's the reason I'm so obviously brain-damaged.

I didn't actually take driver's ed. I clearly missed nothing.

I took my first test 50 years ago in july. Wouldn't give me the drivers test because didn't have 2 red reflectors on rear of pickup. So off to Western Auto for 2. :lol2:

well, I have to say I had a different experience. We had both many hours of in class and in-car instruction. School sponsored, but with a private instructor. Many people didn't pass the actual driving part the first time. (I still have a hard time backing around corners. But parallel parking is no prob.)

This instruction was meant to be supplemented by parents or other experienced drivers during the learners permit stage. My mother taught me a lot about freeway driving.

always that one sandal in the road at the scene of the crash, and the camera gets right down in front of it, and in the out of focus background, you see the stretcher roll toward the ambulance with the sheet pulled all the way up.....

My HS driver ed course consisted of, 12 hours of classroom with no gory film strips, and 9 hours of on the road. 3 of the 9 hours was driving, and the other 6 hours watching some other kid get yelled at, by the Gym Coach.

My high school offered driver's ed, but no one took it. It was faster and far less painful to take it through a private company with a bunch of kids you didn't know. Plus, I'm pretty sure the school district couldn't afford real cars, you had to practice with a golf cart. The private companies had cars outfitted with secondary pedals on the passenger side, so the trainers could take over if it became necessary. 10 hours driving, 10 hours observing.

Plus, if the (accredited) company said you had completed their training, you didn't even have to do the state driving test at all. Just take a stupidly easy 10-minute multiple-choice test, and walk out with your license.

Requirements differ from state to state, I'd like to point out.

Back in the day, when I walked to school, uphill, both ways...
Every HS had at least one driver ed car, with a big advertisement on the back, for the car dealer that donated the car.
The dual controls were a bolt in item... and no seatbelts.

I started driving my folks' cars at 14, when my mom decided that she didn't want to have to drive to the store for milk and bread. My previous experience had been driving a tractor on my uncle's ranch, and operating my cousin's car. I never really found it the least bit difficult. Studied the book, took the test the day I turned 16, got my license.

I took driver's ed at 17, after I'd been driving for three years anyway. It was stupid. We had driving simulators, which were useless as they had zero feedback of any kind. There was a film projected on the wall (that all of the simulators used as their front windshield view), and it just did what it did, and you were supposed to do what it was doing. So, when the view would start to turn, you had to start to turn, and when the turn stopped, you had to stop turning...except that by the time you reacted to the film you were watching (since you weren't actually *doing* anything), you were inevitably deficient in some way. "Didn't stop fast enough" "Turned too far to the right" "Accelerated too sharply".

It was a complete waste of time.

The thing is I've been here long enough to not know what is cultural and what is generational. maybe it's just the same back in the UK now.... not that you get much opportunity to pass trucks as the sheer volume of traffic has turned most freeways into parking lots. perhaps i'm just reaching the old fuddy-duddy category? maybe it's time to trade my minivan in for one of those huge old boxes in which i can't see over the dashboard but that doesn't matter cause it's my goddamn right to drive over whatever i please? :lol: