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The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread
- Thread starter The Mom
- Start date
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
My experience here has been when I was growing up not necessary to go to a formal driving school. I did why back in 1965 after I already had my license. The benefit was for lower insurance rates. Parents usually did the drivers training. Later, when my kids were old enough I taught them how to drive, but the schools were just starting to offer Drivers Ed. and most kids took it. Here in NC when my grandchildren were learning there was a requirement that a certain number of hours on the road, with a licensed adult before one could get the first restricted license. In some places that meant no driving after dark and no driving with a carload of kids your age. But it is still pretty easy to get that initial license. Throughout the Pandemic they have not even required anyone to take a road test.
Figgy1
Well-Known Member
I had a private instructor for the first motor vehicle I got to use, the 3 of us had driver's ed in school (that plus the good grades discount were/are a major help with insurance rates), grandparents taught my parents and their siblings but the youngest 2 or 3 did have driver's ed in school
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
Wyoming you can drive either as long as you have a license. But my understanding is that manuals are hard to come by these days. One of my good friends from high school said she searched high and low for a manual to teach her daughter on and couldn't find one. When my dad died and we were going through all the ranch vehicles, I figured there'd be at least one manual there, but they were all automatic. I thought pickup trucks were generally stick, but I guess that's not true anymore. I want my kids to learn on manual, just so they can drive either. Since manuals are the norm over here, it's better that they can drive any car available. If they need to borrow a car from someone, chances are it will be manual.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
That might be true, but I'll bet very few get them and it is doubtful that law enforcement in other states would require anyone to have it while driving in a state that doesn't require it. I think it would be a good idea but where does one get a $100K+ motor home to take a test on. I suspect that it would only be a written test and not a road test. To me there is a huge difference between a written test and a road test in determining one's ability to safely handle a vehicle that size. I guess they seem to do alright because I have never come upon a motor home accident in all my travels. I guess anyone that is having confidence problems with driving probably wouldn't even attempt to try driving large vehicles. I say that judging by the number of people (I'm looking at you @MinnieM123) that lack the confidence to even drive a stick shift there must be many more that have self doubt about driving a large vehicle.
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
Over here, it goes by size. With a regular license, you can drive any vehicle up to a certain size, and pull a small trailer up to a certain size. Anything over those specific measurements, though, and you need a special license.
Figgy1
Well-Known Member
Some require a CDL
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
CDL's have a few perks. It does give a bit of a break on insurance and, of course, the ability to make money for driving larger vehicles, but there is a downside and that is that it cost more to purchase your license (here in NC, if I recall, it is three times more expensive) and you can lose it for even the most minor of violations. Even tailgating can be an automatic cancelation of that privilage even if it is with your own private car.
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Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I know it differs a LOT per state. In Wyoming, you can get a learners permit at 15, and with that permit you can drive anytime as long as there is a licensed Wyoming driver over 18 years of age in the passenger seat. You can get your full unrestricted license at 16. In South Dakota, apparently you can get your license, or at least some sort of permit at 14 already, but there are some restrictions on it. I think it's something like, you can drive by yourself if there's no one else in the vehicle with you, or you can drive with other people if there's a licensed driver in the passenger seat. But you can't just drive a group of friends around maybe? One of my best friends lives in South Dakota and she has a 15 year old, who got grounded for taking the car and going cruising with a friend, because she wasn't supposed to have anyone else in the car. My best friend lives in Colorado, and as far as I know, she can just teach her 15 year old daughter to drive, just like in Wyoming. And I know in Wyoming there's also a thing called a Hardship License for ranch kids mostly. It's a license that kids can get at I think 14 if they live too far away from town and their parents are unable to bring them to school or to other things. Or if they are needed for things like...they HAVE to get a job to help support their family, but they'd have no way to get to a job if they can't drive themselves. I'm not sure what the rules are exactly, but most ranch kids grow up learning to drive the ranch vehicles....tractors, pickups, pulling horse trailers, and they only drive on the ranch so they wouldn't learn things like parallel parking, or interstate driving, but they need to be able to drive out to a pasture to fix a fence, or pick up more hay, or drive the truck while others toss hay out the back for the cattle, etc. I remember my dad letting me steer while he and a hired hand tossed hay out the back, and I couldn't have been more than 4. I couldn't have even reached the pedals....they just put it in 1st gear and let it go, and all I had to do was keep the wheel steady. Those ranch kids get their hardship licenses so they can help with chores before school and then just drive themselves in while their parents continue to work. The parents don't have to take time out to take the kid back to the house to wait for the school bus or whatever, and the kid can drive younger siblings to school, or run into town to pick up feed or wire to repair a fence, etc. My parents divorced when I had just turned 6 and we moved into town a few months later, so I didn't grow up on the ranch or I'd have probably grown up driving and I'd have learned stick and gotten a hardship license.
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
I had drivers ed, but that was mostly in a classroom. You got very little actual driving experience. It was mostly theoretical learning about how to drive in bad weather, watching videos to scare us out of drinking and driving, etc. I think we only spent 2 days actually driving, and it was groups of 4 and we had one day where we learned how to check fluid levels and how to change a tire, and we each got a turn driving in town and parking. The 2nd day we drove into the next town over so we each got a turn with highway driving, and we each got to do a small stretch of interstate and do an emergency stop. That was it. The rest was all in the classroom. The actual driving part, you learned from a parent or sibling.