Driver Education - Is it good enough in the USA?

[Heracles 417]

Do you realize that after you thought that, you typed it, and then you pushed the "add reply" button?

That makes no sense at all. Don't educate, just legislate?

Hefty fines are a good thing, but education (prevention) is equally if not more important.

I may be going out on a limb here, but your strategy reminds me of the folks who are anti-abortion, anti-sex education,

but pro death penalty. Nothing for prevention, save the time and money for punishment....wow!

Don't teach kids to cross the street...when they get hit hard enough by a car...that'll learn 'em.

We need a combination of both. This strategy works well in the state of Victoria which has a population of 5 million yet only 330 deaths per year. They realized that each year 18 to 25 year olds accounted for one third of the states road fatalities so they have taken the measures mentioned earlier to minimize this risk. On top of that research found that the more passengers a younger driver had in the vehicle, the chance of being killed increased exponentially. Thus the one passenger limit for probationary drivers.

Allowing kids, as they are kids, to drive at 16 is just wrong. At 18 you become an adult and begin to mature enough to be permitted to drive a car. The thought that a 16 year old can get behind a high powered vehicle capable of killing many if handled wrongly is scary. Just the other week two 17 year olds decided to drive down the wrong way of an interstate while high, hit another vehicle head on and consequently killed the drivers two young girls.

The other thing is education or government intervention goes against the First Amendment here. Overseas the government can legislate to protect the majority of people when they see and identify a clear hazard. Yes even those who don't want to be protected. Whereas here they face the it goes against the first amendment retort.

Here are some of the commercials the government has on TV in AUS educating the drivers there. Never seen anything like that here.

Edited December 4, 2008 by Aficionado

[Laura+Tom 2]

I'm not sure if they upped the age to 18 now but previously you applied for a provisonal license from the age of 17. Doesn't matter how old you are you have to have a provisional license to learn to drive. You aren't allowed to drive by yourself, you have to have someone over the age or 21 with a full license with you.

It's very tough in the UK though. If you even touch the kerb doing a manouver it's an automatic fail. They recommend you take at least 24 hours of lessons before you attempt the 40min test. Took me 36 hours and two tests to pass as I touched the kerb whilst parallel parking. I'm glad it's hard as I think it makes you a better driver. I believe they have added more elements so now you take a theory test, practical test, hazard perception test and are also tested on certain engine parts.

It took me 7 attempts to pass mine. I even failed once with 1 major fault (getting stuck behind a broken down bus that looked like it was pulling out - you couldn't see one of the hazard flashers because of the angle) and 2 minor faults.

Failing with 2 minor faults is pretty much unheard of.

Are you allowed something like 15 minors before you fail? Unfortunately hitting the kerb is classed as a major, which sucks as I only lightly touched it. The annoying this is they don't even tell you you failed until the end. So if you did it in the first 5 mins you have to go through the whole thing knowing you've failed.

[Laura+Tom 2]

Do you realize that after you thought that, you typed it, and then you pushed the "add reply" button?

That makes no sense at all. Don't educate, just legislate?

Hefty fines are a good thing, but education (prevention) is equally if not more important.

I may be going out on a limb here, but your strategy reminds me of the folks who are anti-abortion, anti-sex education,

but pro death penalty. Nothing for prevention, save the time and money for punishment....wow!

Don't teach kids to cross the street...when they get hit hard enough by a car...that'll learn 'em.

We need a combination of both. This strategy works well in the state of Victoria which has a population of 5 million yet only 330 deaths per year. They realized that each year 18 to 25 year olds accounted for one third of the states road fatalities so they have taken the measures mentioned earlier to minimize this risk. On top of that research found that the more passengers a younger driver had in the vehicle, the chance of being killed increased exponentially. Thus the one passenger limit for probationary drivers.

Allowing kids, as they are kids, to drive at 16 is just wrong. At 18 you become an adult therefore at that age you should be permitted to drive a car. The thought that a 16 year old can get behind a high powered vehicle capable of killing many if handled wrongly is scary. Just the other week two 17 year olds decided to drive down the wrong way of an interstate while high, hit another vehicle head on and consequently killed the drivers two young girls.

The other thing is education or government intervention goes against the First Amendment here. Overseas the government can legislate to protect the majority of people when they see and identify a clear hazard. Yes even those who don't want to be protected. Whereas here they face the it goes against the first amendment retort.

Here are some of the commercials the government has on TV in AUS educating the drivers there. Never seen anything like that here.

I've seen a couple of ads like that here in the UK. Some are quite shocking.

[Ling Ling 22]

Here are some of the commercials the government has on TV in AUS educating the drivers there. Never seen anything like that here.

WOW, thank you for sharing these. Very sobering. Makes me take pause for some of my adventures over the posted limit.

Bravo to your government taking a strong stance on investing in making these films to educate her citizens.