Jonas posted what to me is an absolutely fascinating post yesterday:
People often ask me, what – in my opinion – is the biggest of all differences between European and US-American societies. Most expect me to answer along the lines of crooked politicians (sorry, no difference, there), or the food, beer, and wine quality, but nawp. The most fundamental of them all, the mother-lode of differential lifestyles, the one thing that gives the deepest, most sincere, look into the respective societies, is the drivers test, and the DMV in general.
He then goes on to describe the amazingly different approach that Europe takes with people before letting them get behind the wheel of a car. To sum up:
- A six- to nine-week class (minimum).
- Actual in-car learning doesn’t start until around week three.
- Mandatory test driving situations, “including night-drives, driving in bad weather, and the no-hold-barred-no-speed-limits-anywhere Autobahn.”
- First-aid and roadside assistance training and testing is madatory.
- Final driving tests with an approximately 20% failure rate.
- A two-year probationary period after receiving your licence. Infractions within this time send you back to driving school.
That system is so much better than the ludicrously simple system we have here in the states. We get, what, a written test that a badly-trained monkey could pass, and a driving test that usually involves going around the block a few times? Then we’re allowed to get on the road, no holds barred. It’s really frightening when you stop to think about it — or when you get cut off at 65MpH on the highway.
Jonas sums it up quite nicely at the end of his post:
We expats get to hear a lot about the Second Amendment and its application back home. “They give guns to everyone?”, my friends ask. “Don’t mind it,” I usually reply, “they do much worse. They give cars to everyone.”
So true, so true. Most Americans haven’t a clue about driving. They think car control is using both hands. I taught my brothers wife how to drive and he almost shit when he found out I was making her put the car into a slide and recover from it. This was in Alaska and there is snow and ice in the roads in the winter and cars do slide but he thought I was crazy. He said ” I didn’t ask you to turn her into a race car driver” I’m sorry but I think everyone should know how to pull a car out of a slide.