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]

Don't know who started it, but a friend of mine moved to Germany, his California license was no good over there for getting a German License, so he did as his company (he moved becuase of his job) told him, and before he left, got an Arizona license. (had to turn in his Calif. license to Arizona DMV)

Germany accepts an Arizona License, but not a California one.

So is it tit for tat between germany and california???


All the license requirement in the world don't stop dumb fucks from driving and not paying attention. You can teach someone to park, use the mirrors, signal, all the rules of the road, and emplore them to pay attention, but it matters not some will never listen. I see no need for the highly restricted laws in California (compared to years ago) that prevent full driving rights until 18 years old.

Maybe fear would work better, put folks in big tank cars, make them so quite on the inside and soft riding that you loose concept of the speed, ad power steering, and an automatic, and you need hardly any effort to drive. Ad a big assed sound system, and ipod, and all the shit and soon it doesn't for some folks even seem like your driving.

I learned to drive in a 1700 lbs 61 Bug, with 40 HP, I learned to respect the big truck (the wind would moe my car as they passed) I felt the speed,(even thought thecar was slow, even 55 mph seemed fast.

I once and a while drove other fancy automatic cars, reall easy to forget you in a moving car at that point.

Cars these days really isolate the driver from the road conditions, even "small: cars today are heavy.

No a driving is not cheap in calinazifornia, the DMV is constantly raping folks of their hard earned dough. its a big money maker for the state, and a convoluted mess. (hell just waiting at the DMV ought to earn you a purple heart.)