it began today

I started drivers ed to get my license.

It. was. terrible.


The instructor is so intimidating, and he's the type of guy who's obnoxiously big SUV or truck means the world to him (i.e. some big dumb spiky-haired jerk in his late 30's), so it's not exactly someone I feel comfortable driving with. as if doing this didn't have me on the edge of my seat already.

Not to mention the other kid in the car driving is about 2 years younger than me, so it's weird being in 12th doing this at the same time as someone who's in 10th. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but it's just weird.


but yeah, I don't know how long I have to do this. Hopefully not long because this sucks, though at least there is a license waiting for me at the end of it.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I'm turning 20 this year, and haven't gotten my license yet.

 

It is worth it. I was intimidated by my driver's ed teacher basically the entire time, though he was a different sort--super old guy, bit crazy, fearful of my driving skills (rightly so). I also was in a car with my (then) friend and these two... weird... guys, one of them in 10th grade (I was in 11th at the time, though). It's just a weird and constantly intimidating experience, but for me it was better than driving with my mom. And it helps amazingly, I was a horrible driver when I entered, I'd only driven two or three times, by the end of it I was pretty solid.

It did still take me three tries to pass my road test, though...

Honestly I think the best way to solidify your driving skills is to drive alone on highways. I'm not encouraging you to drive illegally and it can be really dangerous if you're not ready, but driving with others in the car always sets me on edge. The highways (around here, at least) are pretty simple in that they're mostly straight, but dealing with things like merging / mergers, the fast pace (I push 70 on the highway), lane changing, and so on, it's good experience.

 

My instructor read the newspaper the entire time I drove with him, but if I did anything wrong, still reading, he would tell me.
Was a little awkward at first.
I pretty much just ran his errands haha
But he said I was a good driver and passed me in 3 days, so that was pretty neat.

It is definitely worth it, though! =)
I wish you luck!

 

...

 

My instructor was a super laid back old geezer, so zero amount of pressure there. I picked an accelerated formation, I spent a whole week driving. Well, 1/3 of it driving and 2/3 watching since we were 3 students per car. The minimum amount of driving experience required to pass a test here is 20 hours.

We only spent half of that week on the road with the geezer though, the other half we drived on the school' s private roads without any instructor. A student had shotgun and a second set of pedals, and the cars had cameras and speakers so that someone could watch us from a control tower and talk to us if need be.

I failed the first test I took (first time driving on a rainy day, lucky me -_-), took another a few weeks later and aced it.

 

I think I got lucky, haha. Worst that ever happened with my driver's ed teacher was I couldn't understand him, he had a pretty thick accent. And I wasn't in it for long; the folks had already educated me plenty, so it was pretty much practice before I took the actual test.

I was really nervous at first, but one day I looked out at all the cars on the road and thought to myself: Every last one of those people had to be certified. How hard can it be?

 

I never took drivers ed, but take your permit and go to the busiest area and hit the ground running worst case scenario you might die but you'll learn at an abnormal pace and have an advantage over everyone

 

You'd be surprised at how little that certification can mean.

 

Oh yeah no at this point I look out at all the cars on the road and think to myself "What a bunch of assholes"

 

I'm getting my license tomorrow ;)
drivers ed sucked because most of the time we watched sad videos of these teens who got paralyzed or died.

 

I tend to think "how do these morons get to drive at all"

And then I remember that we're here and our standards are so low

 

That's ok, I vacay'd in NYC once, and they actually don't notice the lines on the street. A three-lane road typically fits five cars across, four if one's a bus. And that's if you can find five cars on the road at a time who will sit still long enough to be right next to each other and stay parallel with the sidewalk. I can't decide if they drive better or worse; takes a fair bit of skill to get around in that clusterfuck without crashing.

 

Well, at least they've got the skill to commute. Most people I see on my way anywhere appear too inept to understand rules, let alone follow them.

I weep for this country~

 

Congrats!
We did too......I know it's a safety thing, but almost makes you not want one. :O

 

This is why I think everyone should skate everywhere

 

You would have to be half insane to even attempt driving in NYC. Train + subway homeslice.

 

Y'all are complaining about the way your citizens drive. Here is West Aus, people can't merge. They get to the merge point, and suddenly their skill regresses back to that of a five year old who hasn't had their nap for the day.

 

Oh I wasn't driving, I was in a cab

I wouldn't be caught dead on NYC streets

...

Well actually

 

The class itself was a pain. All I remember is that we did the same work over and over it seemed like, and that half of the people in the class didn't care what was going on. Though that was two years ago so I could be remembering it worse than it actually was.