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]

QUOTE (lapuwali @ Jan 4 2006, 05:42 PM)

Pulling on the handbrake, that's good.  Do they do it in mid-turn?  I don't think that's bogus at all, I think it's brilliant.  Teach skid control and to react well to sudden surprises.

It was completely un-called for.

I stopped at an intersection to turn right on a red light. I stopped, observed traffic, noone was turning left(the direction where they would be coming towards me), and only a couple cars going straight. Well, some jackass from the far right lane across the intersection cuts lanes mid intersection, and turns left right in front of me as I started to turn. Just as I go to hit the brakes, he instructor spastically pulls the ebrake, and says"should have been paying more attention, you did not even see that truck, better luck next time" (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/WTF.gif)

I was upset that I failed the test, but knew that I could retake in a few weeks, no biggy. I was more pissed that he pulled the E-brake in a 2 week old new Matrix XR-S. Not a super special car by any means, but its nice to treat new cars with respect...(specially since it was my parents first showroom NEW CAR in years. Bought it and our Jeep Liberty cash within a couple months to replace a '91 S-10(my old truck) and a '94 honda Accord EX.