OT: State of licensing in the US, How hard is it where you live? Options

[lapuwali]

Howard's thread about the consequences of not teaching teens how to drive got me wondering.

I went through the whole driver training ritual in 1980, so I have no idea what the current state of driver training is in the US. Texas (where I learned) had a pretty good program. Run in the high school, mandatory, with both driving classes, textbook classes, and an interesting interactive movie.

I'm told that most high schools don't have driver's ed anymore, due to cost-cutting. Is this true nationwide, or only here in California? Is it even true in all of California? I see "Student Driver" cars from time to time (saw one this morning), and I'm sure it's not mandatory. I presume this is strictly a private, voluntary thing?

I also know Europe is much stricter than here. I'm familiar with the UK testing system, how's the system in Germany (Andy?), or Austria (Gustl?), or the Netherlands (Yaroooon?).

Getting anyone to pay for better training in the US is probably politically impossible, though it strikes me that perhaps having the insurance companies help out here by offering a substantial discount from the usual outrageous teen driver rates for those teens who complete an accredited course sounds sensible to me.

[rpmmaxxed]

It seems to be getting harder and harder in california. Stricter laws, now passed, making kids wait until they are 18 to get there license, is one that sticks out.

Beleive it or not, teens passing their behind the wheel test on the first try is becoming more and more rare. Unsure if its a revenue issue, but DMV "statistics" show that 48% more teens fail the first time, and blame it on not paying attention during Drivers Ed classes.

Personally, I beleive that it is a revenue issue.

I passed my drivers test the 3rd, and last possible time without waiting 6 months.

From a completely bogus move by my "instructor" of pulling the ebrake, to getting captain PMS 2nd time. all 3 trys were within 2 months.

Tests are done in "errors" now, I think this is how they have always been. Miss 15"errors" you fail. any "critical" error, results in automatic failure.

The pulling of the ebrake was a critical error(only point deduction), and that was the only thing that kept me from passing the first time. 2ND test, instructor marked me off for 19 different errors, and 3 critical errors. After verbally confirming that she has failed 18 other people, I beleive that the DMV is in fact jumping its revenue.

All said and done, I passed and received my license my 3rd try, with zero errors marked off.