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My daughter failed her driving test. I am feeling guilty I didn't know all this "new" stuff. (1 Viewer)

Courtjester

The Town Drunk
So our 19 year old has really not wanted to get her DL, I think a lot of it centers around she has anxiety around driving because she has known 3 kids who have died in the past few years in accidents. One of them passed away driving to school and was a pretty close friend with my daughter.

She has had her permit for some time and we have been working with her driving as much as we can. We have stepped things up recently because driving her to work four days a week and then college twice a week is a little hard on my wife and I. However, we have tired not to push, because that is a parent's worst nightmare to get that call if she got in an accident. She has more than enough money saved to pay cash for a car.

We felt pretty confident today that she would pass, but unfortunately, she failed. I get the main reason why, but the remainder of the deductions really confused my wife and I.

When I learned to drive it was 10 and 2 for the hands. Now it is 10 and 2, but when you turn, you can't let the steering wheel slide in your hands. You have to do some cross over, hand thing, so that two hands are on the wheel at the same time. Literally turning right, your right hand goes over the left hand and the left hand stays on the wheel to complete the turn. I tried it driving tonight and I almost went into the curb. I also learned to always look over your shoulder when making a lane change etc, but she got marked down because she looked when she made the change, but didn't follow up with another look when the change was completed. All over Colorado Springs, especially downtown, they converted some of the two lane roads to one lane roads and made bike lanes out of the other one. For years, the law was you couldn't drive in those lanes, but apparently the law changed in the last year and now they are to be treated as turn lanes. She got marked down for that because she didn't go into the bike lane to complete a right hand turn.

Now the bad, there is a thing called a shared lane. (I didn't know that is what they are called) So if you are approaching an intersection on a smaller traveled streets where this is no designated turn lane, there is that lane that runs down the middle that you pull into when you want to turn left with dashed yellow lines. My daughter screwed up and didn't get all the way into the lane and so there was a car behind her that was not able to get around her. Frustrating I am sure for them, I get it. My daughter tried to get out their way and was going to go and complete her turn. There was a car coming the opposite way and the instructor had to hit the brake, which is an auto fail. We are thankful she was safe and didn't get in an accident, but the explanation we got is you are not allowed to travel at all in a shared lane. You must immediately go in this lane and then turn.

The frustrating thing is the instructor said she did excellent and didn't get enough points against her to fail, but because of the brake, that was an auto fail. I have been driving for 40 years and have never lost a point off my license, but I feel I failed her because her mom and I didn't know all these "new" rules. Her crying her eyes out all the way home was about all I could take. :cry:
 
As confident as I am in my driving ability(grew up driving in NJ, took multiple driving classes, etc.), I enrolled my son(19) in a driving school. I am 35 years removed from any official driving criteria, and knew I was 'out of date' on some items.
 
didn't follow up with another look when the change was completed.
WTF are you supposed to look at?

Now the bad, there is a thing called a shared lane. (I didn't know that is what they are called)
That's called a chicken lane.

Driving school. For confidence, if nothing else. Also, if there's one available, the Tokyo drift type of school. Ya know, hydroplaning and things like that. She'll be much better off.
 
You have to do some cross over, hand thing, so that two hands are on the wheel at the same time. Literally turning right, your right hand goes over the left hand and the left hand stays on the wheel to complete the turn.
And I learned this in driver's ed back in 1976. When did you learn to drive?
 
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Just curious if part of the pre-license process in Colorado is the mandatory behind the wheel training with an actual driving instructor, not just mom/dad. Here in California I think it is minimum 8 hours required, though some courses will do longer, and that is just to be able to take your driving test. For our two kids, the driving instructor literally taught them everything exactly as the DMV would require it.

For my now 17 year old, I actually took him down to the DMV after a soccer game a few days before his test and we followed someone taking the test so that we could practice the route.

Agree with everyone else though, if she was going to pass except for that one main hiccup, get back out there and do it again - but, like with my second kid, now that you know the driving course for the test, get her out there and drive the area over and over so that she knows it all really well and is comfortable with the area when she goes to take the test again.
 
It's worth getting instruction from someone who knows the local laws and what's on the test. Someone who isn't up to date or isn't read up or only knows things by anecdote isn't going to help.

For example, 10 and 2 kind of surprises me... I had heard it's back to 9 and 3 because of airbags... Probably something I'd teach wrong then.
 
You have to do some cross over, hand thing, so that two hands are on the wheel at the same time. Literally turning right, your right hand goes over the left hand and the left hand stays on the wheel to complete the turn.
And I learned this in driver's ed back in 1976. When did you learn to drive?
Didn't take drivers ed, but remember using this method during my test because I read or heard it was the proper way.
1st and last time I ever used it.
Also had to demonstrate use of hand signals.
 
When I got my license, albeit in 1978 in WV, i made four right hand turns and parallel parked back at the station. That was it. I did drivers ed in high school, not sure if it was mandatory or not. Could get our permit at 15.5
 
You have to do some cross over, hand thing, so that two hands are on the wheel at the same time. Literally turning right, your right hand goes over the left hand and the left hand stays on the wheel to complete the turn.
And I learned this in driver's ed back in 1976. When did you learn to drive?
Same here, but this made much more sense then because we had to rotate the steering wheel further to make turns. Power steering in modern cars changes that. I still do it but never could get it to "stick" when teaching my daughter.
 
So our 19 year old has really not wanted to get her DL, I think a lot of it centers around she has anxiety around driving because she has known 3 kids who have died in the past few years in accidents. One of them passed away driving to school and was a pretty close friend with my daughter.

She has had her permit for some time and we have been working with her driving as much as we can. We have stepped things up recently because driving her to work four days a week and then college twice a week is a little hard on my wife and I. However, we have tired not to push, because that is a parent's worst nightmare to get that call if she got in an accident. She has more than enough money saved to pay cash for a car.

We felt pretty confident today that she would pass, but unfortunately, she failed. I get the main reason why, but the remainder of the deductions really confused my wife and I.

When I learned to drive it was 10 and 2 for the hands. Now it is 10 and 2, but when you turn, you can't let the steering wheel slide in your hands. You have to do some cross over, hand thing, so that two hands are on the wheel at the same time. Literally turning right, your right hand goes over the left hand and the left hand stays on the wheel to complete the turn. I tried it driving tonight and I almost went into the curb. I also learned to always look over your shoulder when making a lane change etc, but she got marked down because she looked when she made the change, but didn't follow up with another look when the change was completed. All over Colorado Springs, especially downtown, they converted some of the two lane roads to one lane roads and made bike lanes out of the other one. For years, the law was you couldn't drive in those lanes, but apparently the law changed in the last year and now they are to be treated as turn lanes. She got marked down for that because she didn't go into the bike lane to complete a right hand turn.

Now the bad, there is a thing called a shared lane. (I didn't know that is what they are called) So if you are approaching an intersection on a smaller traveled streets where this is no designated turn lane, there is that lane that runs down the middle that you pull into when you want to turn left with dashed yellow lines. My daughter screwed up and didn't get all the way into the lane and so there was a car behind her that was not able to get around her. Frustrating I am sure for them, I get it. My daughter tried to get out their way and was going to go and complete her turn. There was a car coming the opposite way and the instructor had to hit the brake, which is an auto fail. We are thankful she was safe and didn't get in an accident, but the explanation we got is you are not allowed to travel at all in a shared lane. You must immediately go in this lane and then turn.

The frustrating thing is the instructor said she did excellent and didn't get enough points against her to fail, but because of the brake, that was an auto fail. I have been driving for 40 years and have never lost a point off my license, but I feel I failed her because her mom and I didn't know all these "new" rules. Her crying her eyes out all the way home was about all I could take. :cry:
I don't want to sound mean, but from your OP it sounds like she just needed a better teacher. The hand-over-hand has been a thing forever. Same for shared lanes (though I didn't know they were called that). But I 100% understand you not knowing CS changed the bike lane rules assuming you do not live in or near CS.

Of course, if she takes the test again she'll pass just by fixing the one problem (where he used his brake). Plus now she knows the rules on shared & bike lanes. But passing doesn't mean she's a good driver. Timid drivers are dangerous, imo. I completely agree with others recommending she get some formal instruction from a non-parent. The confidence boost from that would be the most important outcome.

Finally, for general discussion, the rules for practicing with learner's permits vary. Here (TN) they require at least 50 hours practice including at least 10 hours of night driving. That's what I did with my kid. First we started on weekends in empty school parking lots, then driving in our neighborhood, then familiar streets around our suburb, then rural roads, interstates, then unfamiliar high-traffic areas. Many of the final practices I just had her navigating pedestrians and tourist traffic in downtown Nashville on Fri/Sat nights. She's still somewhat timid, and still won't do the hand-over-hand thing, but she's more confident and a better driver than most of her friends (and some of their parents!).
 
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Now the bad, there is a thing called a shared lane. (I didn't know that is what they are called) So if you are approaching an intersection on a smaller traveled streets where this is no designated turn lane, there is that lane that runs down the middle that you pull into when you want to turn left with dashed yellow lines.
Honestly this explains a lot. Got my license in 1990 in SoCal.
I have said for years people do not know how to use the "Turn Lane" (which is what we were taught it was). You pull in to make a left like you said. You also can turn left off another street or driveway into this lane and then merge into the main lanes on your right when clear. Helps people get across lanes when there is a lot of traffic.

Sounds like they don't teach this everywhere or anymore?


Anyway, also thanks for posting. My kid is 15 and can't wait to drive. Will use this reminder to brush up on the rules! And making sure she knows to exaggerate her looking over her shoulder and left/right so the tester sees her do it! ha
 
At schools that offer it, driver ed. classes can be quite good for learning the rules and getting some driving practice with an instructor.

ETA: Insurance companies offer discounts for kids that do that.
 
Finally, for general discussion, the rules for practicing with learner's permits vary. Here (TN) they require at least 50 hours practice including at least 10 hours of night driving. That's what I did with my kid. First we started on weekends in empty school parking lots, then driving in our neighborhood, then familiar streets around our suburb, then rural roads, interstates, then unfamiliar high-traffic areas. Many of the final practices I just had her navigating pedestrians and tourist traffic in downtown Nashville on Fri/Sat nights. She's still somewhat timid, and still won't do the hand-over-hand thing, but she's more confident and a better driver than most of her friends (and some of their parents!).
Same with both my kids that drive - started in a church parking lot, then it was neighborhood, then they'd drive to school each morning to get dropped off where I'd switch over to drive, then they were basically our chauffeurs anytime we needed to go somewhere. My now 17 year old drove us to Vegas for a soccer tournament a little before his 16th birthday. I switched over at Stateline to handle driving around the strip/hotel area, but the next year when we went out for the same tournament, he did all the driving.
 
My 16yo just got her license in MD. When I was watching her take her test she had to back in to a parking space (parallel parking is no longer required), even though we had practiced this for days it was not going so well during the test. I texted my wife "not looking so good" thinking she was going to fail the test.
Well, she actually passed after correcting herself and aced the road drive. What I didn't realize was I actually texted my daughter instead of my wife. :oldunsure: Let's just say I'm thrilled she passed or that text would not have been received as well as she took it when she passed. She'll never let me live that one down. :lol:
 
My son passed but had points deducted for something I specifically taught him to do. In my neighborhood, yellow lights mean "speed up" and red lights are a mere suggestion. When waiting at a red light, you have to do a 2 count or so after it turns green because there are frequently multiple cars speeding through on red. I drilled than into him when he was learing. The driving test guy docked him for waiting, said he has to drive immediately when the light turns green.
 
My son passed but had points deducted for something I specifically taught him to do. In my neighborhood, yellow lights mean "speed up" and red lights are a mere suggestion. When waiting at a red light, you have to do a 2 count or so after it turns green because there are frequently multiple cars speeding through on red. I drilled than into him when he was learing. The driving test guy docked him for waiting, said he has to drive immediately when the light turns green.
If you are in NY the car behind you is hitting the horn AS the light turns green. Most other places a slight pause shouldn't be considered a bad thing.


Most of us have probably been driving a long time. When it comes to our kids learning, there's the things they need to know to pass the testing and things they need to know for the real world.
 
In general this is a good thing for her. Kids often have little experience with failure. Good teachable moment on how to bounce back from failure and keep at it until successful. Particularly with something that has no consequences like this.

As hard as it is for a parent to watch there is no better opportunity for character development than getting a door slammed in your face.

"Don't give up, don't ever give up", Jimmy V.
 
So our 19 year old has really not wanted to get her DL, I think a lot of it centers around she has anxiety around driving because she has known 3 kids who have died in the past few years in accidents. One of them passed away driving to school and was a pretty close friend with my daughter.

She has had her permit for some time and we have been working with her driving as much as we can. We have stepped things up recently because driving her to work four days a week and then college twice a week is a little hard on my wife and I. However, we have tired not to push, because that is a parent's worst nightmare to get that call if she got in an accident. She has more than enough money saved to pay cash for a car.

We felt pretty confident today that she would pass, but unfortunately, she failed. I get the main reason why, but the remainder of the deductions really confused my wife and I.

When I learned to drive it was 10 and 2 for the hands. Now it is 10 and 2, but when you turn, you can't let the steering wheel slide in your hands. You have to do some cross over, hand thing, so that two hands are on the wheel at the same time. Literally turning right, your right hand goes over the left hand and the left hand stays on the wheel to complete the turn. I tried it driving tonight and I almost went into the curb. I also learned to always look over your shoulder when making a lane change etc, but she got marked down because she looked when she made the change, but didn't follow up with another look when the change was completed. All over Colorado Springs, especially downtown, they converted some of the two lane roads to one lane roads and made bike lanes out of the other one. For years, the law was you couldn't drive in those lanes, but apparently the law changed in the last year and now they are to be treated as turn lanes. She got marked down for that because she didn't go into the bike lane to complete a right hand turn.

Now the bad, there is a thing called a shared lane. (I didn't know that is what they are called) So if you are approaching an intersection on a smaller traveled streets where this is no designated turn lane, there is that lane that runs down the middle that you pull into when you want to turn left with dashed yellow lines. My daughter screwed up and didn't get all the way into the lane and so there was a car behind her that was not able to get around her. Frustrating I am sure for them, I get it. My daughter tried to get out their way and was going to go and complete her turn. There was a car coming the opposite way and the instructor had to hit the brake, which is an auto fail. We are thankful she was safe and didn't get in an accident, but the explanation we got is you are not allowed to travel at all in a shared lane. You must immediately go in this lane and then turn.

The frustrating thing is the instructor said she did excellent and didn't get enough points against her to fail, but because of the brake, that was an auto fail. I have been driving for 40 years and have never lost a point off my license, but I feel I failed her because her mom and I didn't know all these "new" rules. Her crying her eyes out all the way home was about all I could take. :cry:
These sound similar to my driving lessons, many years ago. Especially the hand over hand turn thing. I remember however when I was taking one driving trip, I aced it. But the instructor gave me a 'B' because I used a 10-2 instead of a 9-3 which was what was taught at the time. I was PISSED about that
 
When I got my license, albeit in 1978 in WV, i made four right hand turns and parallel parked back at the station. That was it. I did drivers ed in high school, not sure if it was mandatory or not. Could get our permit at 15.5
I got mine in 1994 in WV. I turned right out of the State Police barracks, 1/4 mile, turned left into McDonalds, guy bought an egg McMuffin and a coffee, I hung a right then pulled back into the barracks and parallel parked out front. Passed.
 
started in a church parking lot, then it was neighborhood, then they'd drive to school each morning to get dropped off where I'd switch over to drive, then they were basically our chauffeurs anytime we needed to go somewhere.
👍🏽 HS parking lot, then the local military installation on a weekend (it’s practically dead, perfect for practicing driving or cycling), then country back roads, then chauffeur duties. Before all that was a couple years on the riding lawn mower.

Both my oldest two passed easily. Son #3 turned 16 last week and doesn’t want to drive so we haven’t done anything with it yet. He might not drive for a long time. His choice but I do appreciate saving some on insurance.
 
My HS driving school instructor was known for being an easy pass. Yes he was a good teacher, but also he had an 'in' with all the DMV testers. He'd get the whole class together on the same day to take the DMV test together... at his house... which was on a wide, quiet, tree-lined street in a closed-off neighborhood of all cul-de-sacs in backwoods New England. When I had to parallel park, for example... there were no other cars parked anywhere in the neighborhood so the tester just told me to "pretend there's a car parked where that oak tree is, and pretend there's a second car a car-length-and-a-half behind it, and try to get in between them."

Ideal conditions for taking the test. Quiet neighborhood, no traffic, only a few stop signs, and clear wide level streets. All you had to do was take a right at one stop sign, a left at the other, make a three-point turn, pretend to parallel park, and you were done.

Except for my cousin. Somehow the tester forgot the route and took the wrong second turn and they accidentally exited the neighborhood. The tester didn't know the area and my cousin had never been there before. They got lost for 30 minutes trying to find their way back to the right development. I think they accidentally got on the freeway at some point. Somehow she didn't miss a single thing and passed :lmao:
 
My new favorite thing to say to my oldest, “Hey, drive your brother to {insert destination}.”
No joke, we were in a bind quite literally 2 hours after my oldest got his license - had him drive his brother to practice. From then on, life changing. Oh, you want to use the car, sure, but you're taking one of your siblings here, or stopping at the store on the way home, etc.
 
Just curious if part of the pre-license process in Colorado is the mandatory behind the wheel training with an actual driving instructor, not just mom/dad. Here in California I think it is minimum 8 hours required, though some courses will do longer, and that is just to be able to take your driving test. For our two kids, the driving instructor literally taught them everything exactly as the DMV would require it.

For my now 17 year old, I actually took him down to the DMV after a soccer game a few days before his test and we followed someone taking the test so that we could practice the route.

Agree with everyone else though, if she was going to pass except for that one main hiccup, get back out there and do it again - but, like with my second kid, now that you know the driving course for the test, get her out there and drive the area over and over so that she knows it all really well and is comfortable with the area when she goes to take the test again.
Yep. And my daughter’s instructor took her to the dmv and did what you did. He took her on the exact route that the test would be on.
 
In wisconsin. My 2nd just got his learners permit. Both him and his older brother had to do a course before taking a little test at the DMV to get the permit. They did a 30 lesson online course. They could only do a max of 2 lessons per day. It is interesting noting the differences between how I drive and how I should drive based on there driving course. Hardest is to actually stop behind the stop sign as opposed to where you can actually see traffic. Some of those turn lane items could get confusing. Youngest has a lot of farm driving experience but still needs some work on the driving with traffic aspect.
 
In general this is a good thing for her. Kids often have little experience with failure. Good teachable moment on how to bounce back from failure and keep at it until successful. Particularly with something that has no consequences like this.

As hard as it is for a parent to watch there is no better opportunity for character development than getting a door slammed in your face.

"Don't give up, don't ever give up", Jimmy V.
My kid handled making her appointment, scheduling her instructor sessions, choosing the drivers Ed company. All of it. . She blew it on scheduling the appointment for the drivers test. . We go to the dmv. No appointment. Next one is 2.5 months away. Kid starts crying. I sweet talk the lady and she says let me see if we can squeeze you in and walks away. Now my daughter starts bawling. I look at her and tell her to pull herself together, right now. Because if that lady comes back with good news you’re going to have to take the test. Probably right away. And that’s what happened. And to her credit she pulled herself together and aced it.
 
When I got my license, albeit in 1978 in WV, i made four right hand turns and parallel parked back at the station. That was it. I did drivers ed in high school, not sure if it was mandatory or not. Could get our permit at 15.5
Same. In 1998. The woman giving me the test was ... large. It took her multiple tries to put her seatbelt on. I think she was embarrassed and literally just had me go around the block.
 
My son passed but had points deducted for something I specifically taught him to do. In my neighborhood, yellow lights mean "speed up" and red lights are a mere suggestion. When waiting at a red light, you have to do a 2 count or so after it turns green because there are frequently multiple cars speeding through on red. I drilled than into him when he was learing. The driving test guy docked him for waiting, said he has to drive immediately when the light turns green.
A few days after I got my license, I was T-boned by a driver running a red light. I actually hesitated a bit before entering the intersection. This was fortunate, as the car was speeding when it hit my driver’s fender, with enough force my car spun completely around and was totaled. Had I left the instant the light changed, he would have plowed into my door instead. Glad I didn’t need to find out how well ‘84 Camaros fared on side impact testing.

Anyway, I argued the accident wasn’t my fault. Well, technically it wasn’t, but dad wasn’t letting me off the hook. He scolded me for not looking both ways at a green light. As punishment, my car wasn’t replaced for almost a year, and I was expected to pay my share of the auto insurance thereafter.

While I was salty about it at the time, dad, as usual, was right.

As for the OP, failure is a good thing (ETA @Sand beat me to it). Now she knows she needs to study/practice before retaking the test, which is far better than making mistakes on the road. That said, knowing 3 people who’ve died in auto accidents is really terrible, and I wouldn’t blame her for Uber ing, or waiting for autonomous vehicles to make driving obsolete.
 
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So our 19 year old has really not wanted to get her DL, I think a lot of it centers around she has anxiety around driving because she has known 3 kids who have died in the past few years in accidents. One of them passed away driving to school and was a pretty close friend with my daughter.

She has had her permit for some time and we have been working with her driving as much as we can. We have stepped things up recently because driving her to work four days a week and then college twice a week is a little hard on my wife and I. However, we have tired not to push, because that is a parent's worst nightmare to get that call if she got in an accident. She has more than enough money saved to pay cash for a car.

We felt pretty confident today that she would pass, but unfortunately, she failed. I get the main reason why, but the remainder of the deductions really confused my wife and I.

When I learned to drive it was 10 and 2 for the hands. Now it is 10 and 2, but when you turn, you can't let the steering wheel slide in your hands. You have to do some cross over, hand thing, so that two hands are on the wheel at the same time. Literally turning right, your right hand goes over the left hand and the left hand stays on the wheel to complete the turn. I tried it driving tonight and I almost went into the curb. I also learned to always look over your shoulder when making a lane change etc, but she got marked down because she looked when she made the change, but didn't follow up with another look when the change was completed. All over Colorado Springs, especially downtown, they converted some of the two lane roads to one lane roads and made bike lanes out of the other one. For years, the law was you couldn't drive in those lanes, but apparently the law changed in the last year and now they are to be treated as turn lanes. She got marked down for that because she didn't go into the bike lane to complete a right hand turn.

Now the bad, there is a thing called a shared lane. (I didn't know that is what they are called) So if you are approaching an intersection on a smaller traveled streets where this is no designated turn lane, there is that lane that runs down the middle that you pull into when you want to turn left with dashed yellow lines. My daughter screwed up and didn't get all the way into the lane and so there was a car behind her that was not able to get around her. Frustrating I am sure for them, I get it. My daughter tried to get out their way and was going to go and complete her turn. There was a car coming the opposite way and the instructor had to hit the brake, which is an auto fail. We are thankful she was safe and didn't get in an accident, but the explanation we got is you are not allowed to travel at all in a shared lane. You must immediately go in this lane and then turn.

The frustrating thing is the instructor said she did excellent and didn't get enough points against her to fail, but because of the brake, that was an auto fail. I have been driving for 40 years and have never lost a point off my license, but I feel I failed her because her mom and I didn't know all these "new" rules. Her crying her eyes out all the way home was about all I could take. :cry:
The pressure ramps up on the kids for each subsequent test they take and possibly fail. Especially if their friends talk. When you drive her to the DMV next time just let her know that if she fails once or 10 times it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. She'll eventually have her license and it will all be forgotten in a year.

Just take the pressure off. No sense in taking the test with anxiety.
 

Both my oldest two passed easily. Son #3 turned 16 last week and doesn’t want to drive so we haven’t done anything with it yet. He might not drive for a long time. His choice but I do appreciate saving some on insurance.
This seems more common nowadays, especially among girls. I was so eager for the freedom driving afforded, I counted down the days before my 16th.
 
Thanks all for the responses.

This morning she woke up and immediately texted, "I want to go driving." Her mom took her out and she managed to do the hand cross thing perfectly. My wife took her to several bike lanes and a couple shared lanes and she handled them perfectly. She drove for over an hour and just nailed it. My daughter, in the past, has sometimes let adversity and her anxiety get the best of her, but she really stepped up today. We are going to take her to the neighborhood where they did the test so she can practice on those streets.

She just drove to work with me in the car and I think she wanted to show off to dad and was a little too confident. I had to say Ah, slow down please. We are very proud of her and she wants to reschedule ASAP.

For those that have related their DL experiences, I was like a lot of you. Permit at 15 yrs and 9 months and got my license on my 16th birthday. This was 1985 and I had a fire engine red 69 Mustang that was beyond fast. We had the vehicle in our family since I was 4 and there had been some serious engine work done, so this thing screamed. On the day of the test, I get this instructor who was an absolute knockout. She gets in my car, slumps down in the seat, kind of puts her knees against my dash and said let's go. I just remember her making several, very suggestive comments as I was driving (maybe that was her ploy to distract me?) but I do remember her saying this car is really hot. At 16, I had zero game, so I responded, yeah, it tends to overheat sometimes. :wall: At this exact point, I was going like 15 over in a 30 and she brought me back down to earth and told me to slow it down. I passed, but I won't forget the DMV lady and I still have my Mustang sitting in the garage to this day.
 

Both my oldest two passed easily. Son #3 turned 16 last week and doesn’t want to drive so we haven’t done anything with it yet. He might not drive for a long time. His choice but I do appreciate saving some on insurance.
This seems more common nowadays, especially among girls. I was so eager for the freedom driving afforded, I counted down the days before my 16th.
Same. I had my permit for almost a year before getting my license. Mom is blind, dad worked and sister was in college. So I was her chauffeur all year. Sister took me for lunch during the first day of band camp, I came back driving and drove friends afterwards.
 
My son passed but had points deducted for something I specifically taught him to do. In my neighborhood, yellow lights mean "speed up" and red lights are a mere suggestion. When waiting at a red light, you have to do a 2 count or so after it turns green because there are frequently multiple cars speeding through on red. I drilled than into him when he was learing. The driving test guy docked him for waiting, said he has to drive immediately when the light turns green.

Agree and I taught my son that when the light turns green, you just don't immediately gun it. I told him even before the light turns green. pay attention, observe the traffic pattern, how people are driving, etc. and then when it's safe only then should he proceed through.
 

Both my oldest two passed easily. Son #3 turned 16 last week and doesn’t want to drive so we haven’t done anything with it yet. He might not drive for a long time. His choice but I do appreciate saving some on insurance.
This seems more common nowadays, especially among girls. I was so eager for the freedom driving afforded, I counted down the days before my 16th.
15th for me. People don't believe me on that one.
 
I waited until I was 17. I was younger than all my friends and they had cars. I knew how to drive from working on a horse ranch as a kid and my dad taught me how to drive when I was very young. He had me sit on his lap and steer from Portland OR to SF when I was around 10. With him working the pedals and chain smoking the whole way. It’s a pretty awesome memory.
 

Both my oldest two passed easily. Son #3 turned 16 last week and doesn’t want to drive so we haven’t done anything with it yet. He might not drive for a long time. His choice but I do appreciate saving some on insurance.
This seems more common nowadays, especially among girls. I was so eager for the freedom driving afforded, I counted down the days before my 16th.
15th for me. People don't believe me on that one.
Alabama was relaxed about giving horse and buggy licenses.
 
A couple of years back.... I actually had to do a driving test again. The reason being that because of an accident and my stupid primary Doctor CYA'ing herself and screwing me over.... the state of Illinois requires me to periodically have a medical form filled out and provide a compliance report for CPAP. This because after my accident, which I had a panic attack and passed out on, my primary had me go to every specialist in the world to do every test possible.... the only one that came back with anything was the sleep study with a 'moderate case of sleep apnea'. My moron primary at the time wrote the report in a way that basically listed the sleep apnea as the medical cause of me passing out. And thus, I have to deal with this crap seemingly forever until I can get a report saying I don't have sleep apnea anymore. No one told me this and I missed the letter in the mail or never got it (Chicago USPS is absolutely horrendous). Eventually, I found out my licensed was canceled. And thus, I had to not only provide the medical form again and compliance but go through the entire licensing like I was a brand new driver.

During the drive test, my instructor kept yelling at me for the smallest things, on pretty much anything.... if I was an inch further than what he deemed to be behind the line on a stop for example. Being a driver for decades, I got to say, it actually kind of started to get to me and making me nervous. I can only imagine a kid taking a test with that guy.
 
My son passed but had points deducted for something I specifically taught him to do. In my neighborhood, yellow lights mean "speed up" and red lights are a mere suggestion. When waiting at a red light, you have to do a 2 count or so after it turns green because there are frequently multiple cars speeding through on red. I drilled than into him when he was learing. The driving test guy docked him for waiting, said he has to drive immediately when the light turns green.
That pause when the light turns green and look both ways before pulling out was one of the first things I taught my daughters when they were learning to drive.

That habit/rule has personally saved me from being t-boned twice in my driving career.
 

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