In the hour after I got my driver’s license, I almost took off half my car pulling out of the DMV and nearly hit a tomato truck getting on the freeway to go to school.
In order to get my driver’s license, I had to drive in a residential neighborhood for approximately 10 minutes and prove my competence behind-the-wheel with turns, intersections, lane changes, pulling to the side of the road and backing up.
You can make up to 15 mistakes, and, as long as you use a seat belt, don’t violate any signs or signals, fail to yield to a pedestrian, drive onto a sidewalk or curb or get in an accident, you will pass your test.
Before taking a driver’s test, a minor must obtain a driver’s permit, at 15 and a half years of age or older, by passing a 40 question written-test covering rules of the road without missing more than eight. I missed nine and, yes, I had to retake it.
You are then required to have six hours of behind-the-wheel training with a certified instructor and a total of 50 hours of driving practice, including 10 hours of night-driving.
A person under 18, who has completed all these steps and passed his or her driving test, can receive a Provisional Driver’s License: a driver’s license that has various restrictions, such as not driving from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. and not driving anyone under the age of 25.
According to the U.S. Census, California has the highest rate of fatalities due to car accidents out of all 50 states in the U.S. at 3,081 in 2009 and was the source of 1,087 speeding-related fatalities out of 10,591 in the U.S. in total.
As excited as 16-year-olds, myself included, always are to finally have the freedom of driving, it’s terrifying. What’s more terrifying is the lack of driving ability one must demonstrate to get a driver’s license.
There is not a day that goes by where I don’t drive on the freeway, and, for all the DMV knows, I could have never been on the freeway when they issued me my license.
As much as it pains me to say this, the driver’s test itself should be made more difficult. Not more difficult in the sense that one cannot make as many errors or where lots of points are taken off for the smallest errors, but it should test drivers on situations they need to know how to handle to be safe on the road. For starters, going on the freeway!
The process is set up to teach minors how to drive; whether or not the 50 hours of driving are actually completed is unmeasurable, supporting why the test should be held with such significance.
Junior Chandler Aubrey said, the driving test does not test a driver’s ability enough to make a verdict on wether or not they should have a driver’s license. With some of the new drivers, you just have 65-mile-an-hour, out-of-control missiles.”
Luckily for me, two days after I got my license, I received a seven-page contract on my desk written by my parents reiterating all the rules I must follow about driving and what will happen if I do not abide by these rules.
However, for those kids whose parents have not drawn up a contract to be signed and returned clarifying the dangers and repeating how vital being safe and conscious on the road is, making the driver’s test more difficult would be beneficial to all on the road.