I feel so trapped without a driving license… can’t go anywhere…
I think everyone has a driver’s license at 16 here in the US, but I’m already over 18 with no license… :(
I got my license in 2014 at the age of 19. Driving just didn’t interest me before cause only place I went was school and I had a bus to go there which didn’t charge me like the school did for people wanting to park there. Once I graduated and needed a job, that’s when I started learning to drive. My dad taught me everything by taking me to a local state park and occasionally letting me drive through town or on the interstate.
Edit: throwing this in that my gf is 33 and still never had a license. She tried in the past, but nobody took her driving and I couldn’t cause I live 600 miles away. She’s trying again since her family has more free time now to do it.
Back in the 70s, we had Driving Class in high school. My Dad also took me out to practice. I was about 16 1/2 before I got my license.
OTOH, I had a buddy who wanted to start driving as soon as he turned 16. So he saved his money from his paper route, and the moment he turned 16, he signed up for a private driving school, and he had his license within a couple of weeks after turning 16.
Shhhh, he’d also been secretly borrowing his sister’s car for a couple of years.
Me too. I did 2 of those after school driving courses in the 70’s. Got 10% off insurance for taking the course as well. I also did a 3rd course paid by my mom as it included training on standard. I already knew how but if I told my mom I would be busted for stealing my dads truck to drive around and also drove a friends standard while underage.
Edit forgot to say I went for my chauffeurs license. It opened me up to drive more types of vehicles if needed.
I was my mom’s oldest kid, she let me drive without a license to learn, as she was not familiar with the rules. Then I took a written test and driving test.
Drivers ed here was in the summers and my friend and I traveled in the summer instead, worked in the school year to make $ so that we could.
My kids, insurance cost is so high here now, they have to wait until they can pay that, I couldn’t handle a $1,000 increase in the monthly budget for two teen drivers at that time. The older ones learned after college, my younger ones got the learner permits and learned earlier, one at 15 (she is the only one who likes to drive my stick shift car) and the other at 17 (that one still has only learner permit, can drive well, but usually takes bus or bike to get around town).
I think the reason kids usually learn early here is because the bus system has been systematically underfunded for so long. It’s really hard to have a job without a car unless you are lucky and able to arrange everything close to your house. Which isn’t gonna happen if your parents live in the exurbs.
I don’t have a license, because I live in a country with great public transport and never really saw the need to driving, especially in regards to outweighting the damage it does and the danger it poses.
A driving school. Anything else is illegal here.
I was lucky that my parents paid for it. And prices have gone even more through the roof since then.
I didn’t get mine till 18, even though I went through my schools driving program at 16.
Its nothing to be embarrassed about! I literally didn’t know that vehicles would slowly move themselves when in drive until the first time I got behind the wheel in the driving school lol.
A little bit of each. Technically drivers Ed in high school. I think 16 or 17, whatever I was the summer I took it. However my dad taught me to drive stick, plus driving a car was easier since I already drove tractors and ATVs
Got mine at 22, drove twice before taking the test and barely passing
My wife got hers at 14 1/2. That was the legal age in Maine until the late 1980s.
We would steal my friend’s mom’s car when she fell asleep back when we were 12 and 13 and go to BestBuy to steal CDs… so by the time we were old enough to get a license, driving was pretty familiar.
Driver’s Ed was a mandatory course in my high school. I got my liscense at 16 a year before they raised the minimum age from 16 to 18 in my state.
Then, like 8 years ago I got a Class A and drove a school bus for about a month, but I didn’t like the responsibility of or dealing with all the kids. I’d rather take that and drive trucks all by myself, but trucking companies are bullshit these days. I can legally drive pretty much anything on 4+ wheels as long as I ain’t hauling hazardous chemicals (need a special thing/cert for that).
Driver’s ed in high school. Either 15 or 16. It was mandatory where I grew up.
They didn’t teach stick though. My dad “taught” me that. I.E. yelled at me until I learned it myself.
Well over 18. Paid for Driving instructor(cuz by then I was able to afford it at that age) . Seriously best money I have ever spent.
do not have a relative teach you. All a relative will teach you is all their bad habits. An Instructor will reprogram you the correct way and teach you how to actually pass the test.
do not have a relative teach you.
In this economy?
Nah, dad can teach me just fine, clean driving record never was in an at-fault crash.
(I’m broke af lmao, I don’t even own a car, I’d have to borrow one of my parents cars to go anywhere lol)
How nice for you for having THE one faultless parent of the world. Perhaps you’re right and if you are : consider this post wasn’t ever for you to personalize and move on. I’d Have nothing to more to say to you. Would be pointless anyways.
If not and you have doubts: read on. And if you respond we will both know you’ve got doubts :
I’ve learned of drivers who have mowed down road workers and called no fault on a bad technicality of the insurance. Some in multiple accidents PER YEAR and let off on technicality. It means nothing. They still nearly killed a person. They’d still fail a test. They are still a bad driver. They should not teach. They shouldn’t even have a license. They should be in jail and have a therapist.
Or perhaps you’re some random poster that is still stuck under the heavy illusions of thinking their parent is a superhero, that’s how a lot of arrogant drivers believe themselves to be. ‘Faultless’.
When someone is teaching you: your failure is their failure. Your faults are theirs.
If You still believe that parent is faultless and they blame you if you fail cuz they’ll believe they are perfect and that it’s you to blame if you keep flunking tests.
Cuz that parent is living under the illusion of ‘faultless’. You see how that works? You can’t be both faultless and a teacher of a failure. Cuz a ‘faultless’ title takes no blame.
Hence why I waited til I could just afford it. I knew my options were all very terrible and arrogant drivers who just said ‘well I’m not technically at fault’ and they treated driving like it was a minor thing that everyone else on the road is always at fault. A giant box capable of killing …‘no big deal’
that wasn’t good enough for me and instilled no faith.
Honestly the only pressure to drive was an illusion anyways so there’s really no such thing as ‘too old’. I don’t know why people put that unnecessary pressure on themselves. For sure living in the city did make it easier to wait. Things are much more convenient to get to.
And people should take time to learn it. Cuz learning to drive is a big deal. And it should be a heavy cost. It should be a super hard test. It’s a vehicle that is capable of killing people. It is a weapon in the wrong hands.
I Don’t regret my decision for a moment to take my time and take the extra defensive driving courses to learn in multiple license types. In some really surprising personal cases it was the difference of being in an accident and deciding technicality or not being in the accident at all.(not to say all accidents are avoidable, you just have to do the best you can at keeping the road safe)
Check them mirrors every 5-9 seconds. Stay out of the blind spot. Always check your blind spot. Know your dimension. And for the love of potatoes: Do NOT drive when tired. Nothing is so important that you need to get behind the wheel when tired. If it were: you’d get someone to drive you. And don’t play the ‘while it hasnt killed me yet’ cuz the chance just didn’t happen yet. Maybe you don’t have much value in your own life but You can kill or maim a person while asleep.
And if that doesn’t concern you: you just shouldn’t have a license and should check into some deep mental therapy on how to connect with humanity instead. Get a friend to drive you. Or take a bus. Just never take the wheel.
never was in an at-fault crash.
Right of way, but dead wrong.
Driving school in Germany. You had to be at least 18 for a driving license. Paid around 1200 €, 24 years ago.
My cousin and his wife are 57 and neither of them have a driving license. They cycle, take public transport or take a taxi when absolutely necessary. I myself was 30 when I got mine, and I still cycle or take public transport unless it’s not possible (sadly the buses are garbage where I live nowadays, but I do take the train a lot).
