The best thing today

[LoobyG]

Ahh Michy, I know a couple of people who've been involved in accidents, and both of them now try to avoid driving when they can, and even then will only drive familiar routes and avoid motorways. The loss of confidence can be really terrible. I passed my driving test last year shortly after my 23rd birthday but it took me seven attempts I failed for my parallel parking at least twice, and reversing round the corner twice, and bay parking, amidst a couple of other things. Even now my parking is terrible lol. Those tests were the most traumatic things I've ever undergone, even driving past the test centre now makes me feel ill

[Vanessa]

When I took my test, we didn't have to do the parking thing, just reverse around a corner. I didn't have to take a written test like they do now either. If it's any consolation, I can't park either - I just drive around looking for a large space!

We don't have driver training in schools in the UK (well, not that I'm aware of) and we can't learn to drive until we're 17. I'm not sure whether they're thinking of increasing it to 18. Most people in the UK learn to drive with a manual - your licence then covers you for both driving a manual and automatic car.

[Michy]

We had to do parallel parking and I didn't do badly; even now, my parallel parking isn't too shabby. But driving backwards around a corner?! Yikes! I'm glad they didn't make us do that! And what is "bay parking?"

That's interesting that in the UK your licenses make a distinction between manual and automatic transmissions. Not so here in the States -- at least, not in California, anyway, or any other state that I've heard of.

I'm not sure that they have driver training in the schools here in California, anymore. I think it was cut some years ago due to funding issues. I think nowadays parents have to pay for private driver training for their kids. Thank goodness it wasn't that way when I was growing up. My parents definitely wouldn't have had the money to pay for driver training for me, so I don't know when I would have finally learned to drive!!

[MLE (Emily Cotton)]

We would have had to pay for driver training for our kids, when they were in high school. We solved the problem by handing it back to them: they could pay for their own, or wait until they were 18, when a class wasn't required. All three opted to wait.

I had to go take a test last month to get my license renewed, and I was shaking in my shoes. they have passed so many new laws about teenage driving -- not on freeways, no underage friends in the car, not after dark -- and although I think they are a good idea and have saved lives, I couldn't hope to pass a test with all the changes on it. Fortunately, the only thing they wanted to test was my vision. Whew!

So to get back on thread, count that as a belated 'best thing'.

[SonjaMarie]

Very late starter. I'm in my er... mid 20's.

I don't drive and I'm going on 37, so no worries

I was thinking that if you were 16 or thereabouts that you are one well read teenager!

SM

[Ludmilla]

Like most Americans of my generation, I had a driver training class in high school. Three of us plus the instructor would go out driving at a time; and, of course, one of the three just happened to be one of the cutest guys in my class, so naturally I was a nervous wreck! Especially because our driver training car had a manual transmission. Looking back, I really didn't do too badly. At the time I was mortified because I laid rubber once or twice, but hey, I managed a hill start from a dead stop in the snow, without slipping a bit!!

The school later ditched the car and got one with an automatic transmission, after burning through I-don't-know-how-many clutches and at least one driver training teacher getting whiplash. I don't know why they ever went with a manual in the first place, very bad idea for a bunch of teenagers learning to drive!

We had driver's ed in high school, too. I assume they still teach it in public schools where I live, but really haven't checked lately whether that's the case.

In retrospect, I wish I had learned how to drive a manual first. I learned on an automatic. Around the time I was dating my husband, I drove this lemon of a car that always had something going wrong. My husband (then boyfriend) taught me how to drive a stick shift over a weekend so I could buy a new vehicle. All I could afford at the time was a very basic pickup truck. To this day I think it was the best money I ever spent getting rid of that wretched car and getting the truck which never let me down for the six or seven years that I had it.

[LoveHistory]

Nefret, I'm in my late 20s and don't have my license. I've gotten my permit twice but life keeps getting in the way.

[Madeleine]

I passed second time, we didn't have the written test then either, or the parallel parking, you just had to reverse into a space. I think the UK driving test is much stricter than the US one; also, cars in the Uk tend to generally be manual/stick shift - automatics are still fairly rare here, and often much more expensive.

[LoobyG]

Bay parking is reversing into a space between two lines, rather like when you park at the supermarket Michy

[Nefret]

Nefret, I'm in my late 20s and don't have my license. I've gotten my permit twice but life keeps getting in the way.

I'm surprised at the number of people who told me they didn't learn until later. Good to know I'm not the only one. I think I failed the permit test when I attempted it in High School. Got a little driving practice in then though. This time I passed barely, on my last try, on the last day I could take the test.
I will be happier when I actually get the license.

I don't drive and I'm going on 37, so no worries

I was thinking that if you were 16 or thereabouts that you are one well read teenager!

SM

I've wanted to get mine for a while. I don't like taking the bus.

Hehe! Thanks! I can still sorta pass for a teenager. Though sometimes I wish I still was one.