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.

[dmenche914]

Get the illegals off the road would be a good start, they tend to drive bad, flee from accidents ,and have no insurance (and no assets) Be sure you have plenty of un-insured motorist protection (I bought a $100,000 unisured accident policy and used every penny on it, when the bitch hit me and totaled my 914 and resulted in surgury to repair my arm.) She told me I was the third car she had rear ended! Her and her fuckin big assed SUV. Good gawd, she should have been restricted to an open top golf cart after her second "accident" not driving a big tank SUV (in which she was not injured.)

Maybe make it a law, if you cause an accident you get de-rated to a smaller less powerful car for a certain time period as punishment. Maybe remove the seat belts, make the idiot feel vulnerable, rather than protected in their big 'tanks"

Her excuse to me was she spilled her soda, and reached down to pick it up, on the expressway, yeah, smart. (and she was an adult, not a kid driver.)

So we all end up paying for the un-insured or under insured one way or the other.

Also wish the cops would start citing tailgaters, I see it all the time, yet never hear of them tickets being given out.