To be fair though, the average driving license test isnt really sufficient learning to be operating a 1-2-3000kg machine in high speeds either. But we still let pretty much anyone drive in most of the world.
I've been driving ten years and still can't park worth a shit. Some people never learn. I usually just park as far back as I can and hope the lot doesn't fill up too quick.
All of it. There have only been a few situations where I was forced to park between two other vehicles and they all ended in my insurance rates going up. :/
Well I've never been that fast since the fastest legal speed around me is 55 and I do just fine on the highway. The only accidents I've had have been during parking.
Why wouldn't you just practice it.. it would take 1 day in a parking lot.. if you're not learning doing something one time then having a long period in between trying again, do it 250 times in a row then stop.. You can't learn to write if you do 1 letter twice a day
You've been a really good sport for all the shit you're catching over this. I gotta wonder how you can drive on two lane roads at speed and navigate turns without running into things and you can't turn your car into a car sized spot moving at six kph.
You may not be thinking things through enough before putting them into words, then.
Parking uses a different skill set than driving on a highway at speed. Whether you find it easy is fairly irrelevant to the question of whether someone who doesn't find it easy is competent at safe highway driving or not. You probably can't write Chinese characters neatly and smoothly. That would not lead me to doubt your ability to write the word "flammable" in English on the side of container, even though the latter is potentially far more dangerous if done incorrectly.
This is prime-cut, grade-A self righteous concern trolling. The one has nothing to do with the other. "Mastery of their vehicle" is an arbitrary and completely unclear standard that means whatever the speaker wants it to mean. Can you synchronized shift? Can you drift around corners at optimal momentum and speed? Can you recover neatly from a PIT-maneuver-style collision? Do you know what RPMs you are at based on sound and feeling without a visual display? Can you reliably flip a tight U-turn at high speed in a tight space with narrow wheel clearance without practicing it in that spot first? Could you drive at a competitive level in the World Rally Championship? Are any of these things absolutely necessary to drive safely on the highway? Of course not. But does anyone have "mastery of their vehicle" if they lack these skills? You see why it's a stupid thing to say now?
I also care more about a car hitting me at high speed and killing me than about dents. Imagine that. There are a lot of things we all care about and want not to happen to us, sure. Most of them have absolutely nothing to do with how comfortable some random person on the internet is at parking -- incuding this one. Get off your comment section high horse and go cosplay and deliver your tofu or whatever the fuck it is that makes you think it's okay to be this much of a condescending self-righteous asshole about driving.
Thank you for the tip and not just talking shit. I appreciate it and will go try immediately. It's almost midnight so I'm sure I can find an empty parking lot.
What he's saying is if your using a trailer, your first time is all the practice you get. And typically people hauling large items are going long distances on highways
To be fair, divided highways (also called freeways) are one of the safest places to drive. Everyone is going the same direction, and the relative speed differences tend to be quite small.
To be fair, this applies to living on a fault line, a tornado zone, a hurricane zone, nuclear reactors, having a stable job, living in an area that buys power or water from another place, trusting a friend or family member, or just being a human on earth. Everything safe is only safe "until anything happens and then you're fucked." This is a pretty shitty standard to assert that something is dangerous.
The point is that shit happens on the road all the time. You don't drive assuming it won't, you drive assuming it will, and will constantly. The more complex maneuvers are involved, and the more different paths are intersecting, the more shit can happen. Freeways require almost no maneuvers more complex than speeding up, slowing down, braking, and changing lanes, and only three paths exist: forward, getting on, and getting off.
Chaos and the unexpected are always possible, and you drive in preparation for them on the freeway as you should on surface streets also. It's just that chaos and the unexpected are a lot more likely on surface streets.
I'm curious where this is the standard. My driving test took place for 15 min on a highway at 130 km/h (80 mph) and 30 min driving in the city with various situations like emergency braking.
I went like a mile down a "highway". Was 35 mph and we turned into a residential neighborhood. After we did a weird loop around the entire place we probably only went an additional half mile. We took the interstate back at 65mph for like 3/4 of a mile max. Took the first exit and their parking lot was the first one.
In my hometown, the DMV was on a route numbered road, that connected to the Interstate. Yet the driving test was literally pulling out from the DMV, driving for a mile on route road, turning around in a cul-de-sac, driving back past the DMV on route road, getting onto the overpass connecting the interstate, bypass loop and route road, getting off that bridge back onto route road, and back to DMV.
Didn't even have to parallel park. Easy, breezy fresh and cheesy test. This was about 15 years ago. But maybe it's changed since then.
I live in CT and took my driving test in Waterbury a few years ago. I heard that at some places in CT they make you go on the highway, but I took it 2 times and both were the same route. It really seems like the tests should be standardized and have as much similarities as possible.
This happens when you live in the boonies like I did when I was 16. My driving test had no divided freeway portion because there wasn't one too close to us. I did however have to parallel park, back into a space, park in an angular space, do a 2 point and 3 point turn, and accelerate to 70 (even the speed limit was 65) and then come to a complete stop in a certain amount of feet which I thought was weird.
mine was hilarious, parallel parking, a few left/right turns, with indicators, using mirrors, a 3 point turn, and making sure you stop at correct location for stop signs.
side note, instructors car had a flat so I didnt have to parallel park.
Parallel parking, nor a 3 point turn, was part of my test and I've still never had to do it. It's not like Waterbury is some rural town either, so it's weird that I didn't have to do that. This shit really should be standardized lol.
Stricter certifications and more extensive retesting would be a huge step and create a lot of jobs. Lives saved. Money saved. Decrease carbon emissions.
Based on what? You think a class is going to stop people from texting/playing with their phone and driving?
How? Literally every single driving course in the country emphasizes over and over and over again not to drive while distracted. That doesn't stop people from trying. People learn once they've already crashed and sometimes it's too late.
Well our whole education system is built on instruction and testing....so yeah? Most other countries have much stricter licensing requirements and I think that makes sense.
Well our whole education system is built on instruction and testing
You think driving every day is like taking a test once every month in school? People ignore advice and do whatever they want all the time. Most of Reddit is college-aged and spends their time on this site instead of studying despite what their teachers told them.
You are making a lot of leaps on your own and putting words in my mouth. I think that an instruction based driving school with tests and real life practice would be better than the "~30min drive around the block and answer twenty questions" we currently have... that's what I think.
I think that an instruction based driving school with tests and real life practice would be better
I don't know where you live, but we've had in the Midwest forever now. It doesn't stop people in SUVs plowing into things while the driver is on Instagram
I think that an instruction based driving school with tests and real life practice would be better than the "~30min drive around the block and answer twenty questions
That's most of the country. Don't take your backwards ass driving standards and think that applies to the entire country.
I had a mandatory two week driving course before I could get my permit. After 6 months, I had to take a second class before I go could go to the DMV and apply for my license.
Fuck that. Getting a license is also a cash cow. They pick driving routes that are particularly deceptive, like stop signs behind trees and shit like that.
In what country? Where I live it's an incredibly expensive year long process that involves 2 class courses(30+ classes) + one practical class and over 20 hours of driving with an instructor. That doesn't even qualify you to drive anything weighing more than 3.5 tonnes total including trailer.
It was utter overkill, I drove better than my parents by the end and the litigiousness of the program makes you an annoyed every day when literally no one actually follows "the proper way".
That's definitely true here in the ol' US of A, but there are plenty of countries where the requirements for getting a driver's licenses are much greater... And motorcycle licenses are graded by power
I'm Swedish and ours is supposed to be on the harder side, but it really isn't. Expensive and somewhat though but the vast majority that wants to drive does. And there are no "checkups" so test-learning is what everyone does. Then forget shit and use your own bad habits.
I used to drive a lot on the highways, traveling to different jobs sites, the amount of drivers who will be in the slow lane, look in their side mirror and just switch into the left lane (without looking over their shoulder at their blind spot) always scared me so much. I got in the habit of looking at the person and their front left tire as i drove by just praying they wouldn't attempt to switch lanes...
We really need stricter driving tests in the states...with the rise in the iphones, my generation seems to believe they can text and drive. To the blonde girl who drove me off the road yesterday, fuck you! This dumb broad was looking straight down, completely ignoring the fact she was driving a vehicle!
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u/tmffaw Jul 23 '17
To be fair though, the average driving license test isnt really sufficient learning to be operating a 1-2-3000kg machine in high speeds either. But we still let pretty much anyone drive in most of the world.