Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls driving licenc III- final

3) How many hours did you take before you got your driving licence?

I picked other. I had to take a 2 week driver's ed (which ended up being around 40 hours I think, of class), then Michigan instituted a requirement for a second segment of driver's ed, which was 6 hours, and then we also have to get 50 hours of driving on our permit before we can get a license. 10 of those have to be at night. It was a pain in the butt, but it is very helpful -- new drivers have a little bit more experience before they go out on their own.

Bethy

I'm on other cause it took me fourty lessons before going up for the exam. Which I passed in one time, lucky me.

I'm just not that good with real situations, learning theories is much easier. That's why it took me so long. And the rules here are very different from the US.

Saskia

I took a total of 5 2 hour sessions in a driving instructor's car. I know Ohio changed the laws just after I turned 16 - so my sister who is just 2 years younger than I am had a take a lot more hours than I did. I passed my driver's exam on the first try - 10 days after my 16th birthday (I got my temporary liscence on my 16th birthday) . I passed by one point in both the driving category and the manuverability category, but, hey, I passed . I think it helped that I drive a really, really small car (a Ford Probe) and the guy that was giving the test was a very, very big guy. He had to recline the seat back all the way just to sit down - and I don't think he could see out the window. I had been sure that I had failed because I ran over 2 cones in manuverability and also stopped 3 times. Hitting a cone is automatic failure. I don't think the guy even saw.

- Alicia - a very bad driver - and sort of proud of it .

Well, I forget how many hours the YDC course was - 30 hours or something? But as I said, I failed the first driving test I took with the examiner beside me in the car. That was in Ontario. The examiner said I failed because I didn't have enough confidence - HAH!

I finally got the stupid thing in Michigan. And how that happened was that I got a church music job in a town about 15 minutes away from the school, but of course the school was in the country, and there was no public transit to the church. So my dad and mom (who were in Africa at the time) had a bank account at my bank, and I had signature on it so that I could take care of any little things that came up while they were gone - they authorized me to use a certain amount of money from their account to buy me a car, as I certainly didn't have that kind of money in my own account! My uncle was also a student at my school - it's a long story, but many of my relatives have gone to that school, even returning there for grad school while I was there... - anyway, he took me car-shopping, and I found one I liked that he approved of, and I got it.

Now the only trouble was, I didn't have but an Ontario learner's permit, which wasn't good in Michigan, and choir rehearsal was starting the next week. So we went to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) closest to us, I wrote the written exam for Michigan, passed, and got my Michigan learner's permit. You had to take the driving portion within something like three months, and you could drive as long as you had the holder of a regular driver's license with you. So on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings, my ever-patient uncle would walk over to the dorm from where he lived in married student housing with his family, and we'd hop in my car and I would drive to the town where my church was. He'd take a book or some studying along with him, or he'd take the car and do something in town, while I was in church or choir rehearsal, and then we'd head on back to school. I'd park the car in dorm student parking, and he'd walk back to married student housing.

Well, one Sunday morning (not too long after that - certainly within a month) he got tired of walking back home after church, or he was in a rush to get back, or something. And he had me drop him off at home. Which was on campus, all of two minutes drive from the dorm. I was scared spitless that Campus Security would pull me over and I'd get in trouble, but what could I do? My uncle was going out of his way to help me - and I had a guilty conscience about how much of his time I was taking up with this. So I reluctantly and very slowly, *very* gingerly drove back to the dorm and parked the car.

And then it dawned on me - I could *drive*! By myself!

Well, the next day I called the DMV and made the appointment to take the driving portion of the test. And I passed! And I've been driving (and loving it) ever since.

Although, now I don't have a car, so I have to take public transit... That's gonna change tho' - now that I have a job, I'm saving up, and hopefully when I get back to Canada I will have enough to get some sort of a car...

Anyway, that's my story... Anyone else have any interesting 'learning to drive' stories?

Melisma (sliding back under her Rock to watch the fun)

I had to put other!

I think I had about 50 hrs worth of lessons! I wasn't very confident and eventually my mum and dad decided that the driving instructor I had wasn't really doing anything (about 30 ish lessons). So changed instructors and got a really nice guy, and another 20 lessons and passed first time with only 5 minor faults (you needed 15 to fail). Here in the UK, they've recently, ok, the last 4 or 5 yrs, (have I really been driving for 3 yrs??) made it compulsory to do a theory test before you could sit the practical. The theory test is really simple tho, 35 questions of mostly commomn sense.

Loriel

I also put other. I had some class room sessions about parts of the car. I remember I thought that was quite dull then we had a number of group driving sessions.

I'm sorry, but I put "other" because I really can't remember... I think I did have "driver's ed" class in high school, but I have no idea how much time that took. The class taught us the rules, the signs, etc. And then, as I said in the other thread, my mother took me to a big empty parking lot and helped me figure out the practical parts

Of course, it may have helped that I drive an automatic transmission! Never have learned how to do a stick shift...

PJ

<gasp> No stick shift? Pam, how could you?



Just kidding. I learned on an automatic and didn't pay attention to the theory in the book on sticks -- I was never going to buy one, so why should I bother learning about them? Then...my brother bought a stick. And this was the one that my parents mostly paid for, it was going to be the hand-me-down. To me. Gee, I hated that thing. Swore that as soon as I could get a non-hand-me-down, I was ditching stick shifts forever.

And then I got comfortable. And then I started liking it. And then I realized that driving an automatic is boring. So when that car committed suicide, I, naturally, bought a stick shift.

Bethy

I voted 'Other.' Driver's ed was a course at school, so technically speaking, I spent about 4 months learning how to drive. But not all of it was driving. Like the first month was learning all the rules, and then we rotated in and out. When I wasn't driving, I was working for the high school...I distinctly remember cutting work a lot to hang out with people. It was such a blast. When we did drive, the first time I was behind the wheel, my teacher told me to back out of space, and he threw me on a real road... I had basically no prior driving experience. We mostly ran his errands. Good times LOL.

i voted other, as well. driver's ed, just like everyone else. i think it might have been a graduation requirement. not sure. it was handy, in any case, and i got a lower insurance rate for having taken it. not sure how many hours i spent on that. did about 5 hours, give or take, with a behind-the-wheel instructor. that was much more relevant. he even gave me a sheet with all the multiple choice questions i might see on the test (they have a list of 100, and the test you take will always consist of 20 of them).

still, driver's ed taught me things i hadn't learned elsewhere... the little details of driving law that come up every once in a while.

Paul

I put in the max. I cannot honestly remember how many hours 1 semester of Driver's Ed is...

I also drive an automatic. My dad tried to teach me to drive in his stick shift. I did fine in the grocery store parking lot, but I had a lot of problems going from full stop at a stop sign/light to going again. Dad finally bought me an old automatic transmision (1980 Plymouth Volare for US$700) when he thought I was going to drop the tranny in his car.

Dunno. I took Driver's Ed and had a big brother.
Good luck.

I took like 2-4 hours behind the wheel training before I got my permit, then drove as much as I could with my family for practice.

Passed my test the first time with only 4 points missed (one for going 5 miles too slow :p )

I know my sister has to "log" a certain amount of hours in certain situations, but we didn't have to when I got mine.

-Breanna

In California, nowadays, you must take a driver's ed. course, plus 6 hours with a certified driving instructor and a minimum of 50 hours with parents or someone 25 or older who has a valid driver's license.

I'm in the 20-25, because all I did was a driver's ed course on the weekends for a total of about 18 hours and then 6 hours with my instructor.

Ja-10(who doesn't want anyone here telling DMV that I need 50 more hours of practice to complete, they'll take my license)

Wow Sunshine!

I sat down and work out the answers to all these questions and I was a bit shocked...

I worked out I spent over £875 ($1,400) learning to drive. It's not exact because it was about 5 years ago and I can't remember exactly how much I paid. Plus of course the exchange rate was probably different, and prices have gone up...

Broken down that works out as: The licence at £42 ($67) in total, that's the price of a provisional one, plus the cost to convert it to a full one. I took about a year to pass the test, with an hour's lesson a week with an instructor, I caluculated 50 lessons at £14 ($22) each, although I probably had more. I was one of the very first to take a theory test, and that now costs £18 ($28), and I took three practical tests before I passed, which cost £38 ($60) each now.

And there were lots of other costs that I didn't even start to include, like the cost of petrol, or for transport to the driving lessons....

As for how many hours I took to pass, well it's probably well into the hundreds, as well as at least 50 hours of lessons, my parents made me drive the car as much as possible.

I probably could have passed earlier, but I always got nervous in my tests, and the first two times I made silly mistakes.

Up until now I had never really added it all up, but it's a lot. I was at school at the time, and I worked at the weekends, nearly all of my wages went on driving lessons.

One of the really interesting things to come out of this survey is the differences between countries. I know in the UK they are trying to make it harder for people to pass the test, especially young people. Apparently, satistically young people, especially young men, are more likely to be in accidents. So their thinking goes stop the young people from driving and reduce accidents, by making the test harder, by putting the prices up, and by making insurance higher.

In my view all that means that there will be more people driving without a licence or insurance...

I have a feeling that some of the changes that have been happening in the UK are also because of European-wide directives....

I do remember when I was in the middle of learning to drive I read an newspaper article about learning to drive in the US. I know it varies from place to place, but still.... Apparently, there is one city where you are taken on one of two possible routes for your test, so consequently they are two of the most dangerous routes in the city, because of all the learner drivers practicing. And I may be making it up, but there are places where you don't take your test on public roads....

And I also found out from an American friend, that there isn't the equivalent of L-plates, that you have to put on the car to show it's been driven by a learner....

Of course I know some of the differences in the driving test are country specific for a reason, in the UK you have to be able to parallel park. We live on a small island, and we have lots of cars, so it's an essential skill if you are going to be able to park anywhere

Helga
(Who's amazed by how much she knows about driving tests )