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I just finished the audiobook version of Ender's Game (Now I have bought one version or another of the book almost 10 times).
So a question for OSC: You said that you didn't get your driver's license until after you were 22 (Might be off by a year). You said that there was a story behind that but you didn't share in the recording. (Finally the question) Why did you end up waiting that long to get your driver's license?
For everyone else, how old were you when you got your driver's license and in hindsight, do you think it was an appropriate time to get it?
Me: Learners permit at 15 drivers license at 16.
On the way home from the driving test I almost ran over a guy on rollerblades who suddenly darted out in front of me.
For my husband: He's 28 and just got his learner's permit a few months ago. He grew up in a very teeny-tiny town where he could walk everywhere and never needed a car to get around. He could take a Greyhound anywhere he needed to go outside of town. Then went into he military and had base transportatino to take him anywhere he needed to go - so he never bothered!
When we got together, I said that he HAD to get his license before he turned 30. We live in Seattle, and it is simply not possible to get around this city effectively without a car unless you happen to live in exactly the right neighborhoods. So now he's working on it...and doing a pretty decent job of it!
The thing I think is ridiculous is that our car insurance rates won't change one bit once he's driving. Even though he's a brand spankin' new driver, apparently his age and his marital status makes him statistically hyper-responsible. Hmmmm.... Seems like a funny policy to me, to assume that a brand-new driver won't be a real liability.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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I got my license when I was 16. I think for the most part I was a pretty responsible drive. I struggled some when I first started driving my own car, because I switched for a clutch car to an automatic and kept trying to put in the clutch. I think that freaked out a lot of my friends.
Posts: 224 | Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:Originally posted by RunningBear: clutch to auto= recipe for OH NO!...
I pulled the emergency brake because I was trying to shift...
I once threw the car into neutral because I was trying to shift.
Are you used to three-on-the-tree, then?
Every car I've owned has been a manual. The next car we buy will be an automatic. I hope I don't have any mishaps. I'm a bit nervous about it. But, I've driven plenty of automatics without any problems, so who knows?
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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just make sure that there are no important levers where the gearshift used to be. like a parking brake.
Posts: 883 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Learner's permit at 15. Driver's license at 23 (written 93, driving 97). I always got around using public transportation and my bicycle just fine until then.
I remember going through the driver's handbook while on the bus to my written test. And I got dinged on the driving test because I was "too slow when making a turn", didn't go exactly in a straight line when backing up *g*, and failed to signal when making my three point turn. I guess if I'd only rounded the corner at my normal speed instead of going ~15mph I could have raised it a point, but I thought those funny DMV folks liked newbie drivers to be cautious when going into the intersection! (I really do try at being better about backing up in a straight line, and it has been getting better but... #3, well, I just plain forgot. Oops.)
At the tail end of my driver's test and I went to turn off of the street and into the DMV driveway to finish the test, I had to stop the car (flashing my turn signal as I did so), in order to let a bicyclist go by. Ironically, the car behind me in the same lane wasn't paying attention to the side of the road and honked at me to get moving, which I didn't, of course. I didn't want to fail my test! But if he'd been the one being tested, I think he'd have hit the bicylist, automatically flunked the test, and gotten hauled off the jail. *lol*
Of course, how many people have their driving instructor (be it a paid instructor, friend, or family), tell them during the second time out to drive on the highway while it was raining and overcast only to then make you pull through a fast-food drive through because they were hungry? Posts: 32 | Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by RunningBear: clutch to auto= recipe for OH NO!...
I pulled the emergency brake because I was trying to shift...
I once threw the car into neutral because I was trying to shift.
Are you used to three-on-the-tree, then?
Every car I've owned has been a manual. The next car we buy will be an automatic. I hope I don't have any mishaps. I'm a bit nervous about it. But, I've driven plenty of automatics without any problems, so who knows?
Actually, the gear shift on the automatic was on the floor!
Posts: 224 | Registered: Jan 2001
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(That is pretty common for a very rural area. If you live on a farm, you could get your farm permit at 14 so you can help with harvest, etc. It allows you to drive farm trucks or equipment while engaging in agricultural duties, and "to-and-from school by the most direct route only" when you are 14)
But then again, I had a JOB at age 14.
So I drove every day to high school, including freshman year. It ups to a regular learner's permit at 15, and a license at 16.
of course, I'm 45. The laws have all changed now.
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I started lessons when I was 18 (the legal age is 17 in the UK), passed on Sep 11th 2001. A weird day to be celebrating ...
Posts: 16 | Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Kenif: I started lessons when I was 18 (the legal age is 17 in the UK), passed on Sep 11th 2001. A weird day to be celebrating ...
I hear you there...we bought our house on 9/10/2001 and were celebrating the move in on 9/11 and it just didn't feel right, but I can always remember our home buying anniversary.
Posts: 224 | Registered: Jan 2001
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Got my learner's permit at 14. Lived in a small hick town in the middle of Nowhere, Northern Alberta, and proceeded to illegally drive myself everywhere (never got pulled over, either) until I got my license at 16.
In rural towns, it's common and as long as the kid isn't endangering anyone, don't do a thing about it. Or, at least, that's how it was then. It might have changed now that that town has a stoplight and two stop signs.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Got my permit/license when I was 22. Just never needed it before then. Always got by with a bike or a bus.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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I am 19 and still don't have a driver's lincence. I just don't want it. All my friends have cars so I manage all right.
Posts: 58 | Registered: Sep 2006
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You know, while I never complain or act the least bit bothered, I never appreciated how a number of my friends still haven't bothered to learn how to drive just because they know they have friends like me who will do it for them. Just saying...
And on a side note, I think that 16 is too young to be fully licensed. I hated the graduated system that we have in Ontario when I was going through it, but in retrospect, I'm glad we have it because I think that most people shouldn't be driving without supervision or restrictions until about 18. You see, A LOT of 16 year olds are idiots. And while I realize that there are in fact many who can handle the responsibility of driving on their own or with a car full of their rowdy friends, I think there are too many who can't. Thus I think it does less harm to make those who can handle it wait a couple more years rather than putting those who can't on the roads.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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I still cant get my driving license. Here in Poland it is very difficult. Firstly, you have to be of age (18 that is), secondly, you have to undergo a training, which costs a lot (as for Poles, its about 400 bucks), then you have to take an exam, teoretical part, 18 questions, 2 mistakes allowed. Then practical part, that is on a maneuver place, then not less than 45 minutes in the city, where you have to park thrice (forward diagonaly, forward perpendiculary and backward parallely).
I failed my exam week ago. I drove 65 km/h, and in Warsaw you are allowed only 50km. And I didnt slow down while entering a crossing too fast.
Is it more simple in USA?
Posts: 723 | Registered: Dec 2004
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I wrote the test for my G1 at 16. Took the training course then shortly after turning 17 got my G2. At 20-22.... can't remember when... I got my G license so now I don't have to get another test until i'm senior.
Canada is wierd when it comes to licenses.
Posts: 28 | Registered: Jul 2006
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I was 21. In NY when I was a kid, I think you could get your license at 17 if you took Driver's Ed, so I took the class, but there was a long waiting list to take the driving test, and I'm a procrastinator. I signed up for it but I think it was 4 months away, and then I suddenly decided to go away to college in Utah for summer term which began two days after my high school graduation, so I missed the test.
I basically lived in Utah for the next three years while I was at school and never got around to taking my test during that time; walked and bussed everywhere. I finally went back to NY and spent some time there and got my license then. I don't know why I was so unmotivated up to that point; I sure enjoyed the freedom once I started driving!
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Im 17 and my intructor just informed me I'm about 2 or 3 lessons away from getting my motorcycle license. Apparently here it's a lot easier to get a motorcycle license than a car license. With a car you need 25 hours clocked with a licensed adult on second phase Learner's to get P plates, whilst on motorcycle you just need to pass a test with an instructor.
And I just learnt you can add motorcycle hours in with the 25 to get the car P's. So I'll be getting my motorcycle license first. I'm stoked. Posts: 1138 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I got my license at age 15. Thank you Idaho. However, when I put on the insurance quote form that I was driving for 10 years and only 25 years old, the computer yelled at me saying I couldn't have been licensed that long. Stupid computer.
Got my motorcycle license this year, at age 26. Skills training was much harder than for the car. However, they assumed you already knew traffic rules so they didn't cover that portion.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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I got my permit at 15 and my license at 16.
I got both on my first try.
I actually borrowed by Grandfather's car for the test, since my father drove a 3000GT which would zoom forward at the touch of the gas petal (which doesn't work well for a driving test) of course the fact that I wasn't allowed to drive it was a downside as well and my mother drove a minivan which also is kind of awkward for a driving test.
Later on I got a 2 year old eclipse that was a stick shift, and loved it. I kept it until it was 8 years old, and it got totaled when someone hit me from behind at a stop light.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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17 for the permit. Still working on the license.
I had to go three times for the permit, but not because I failed the test! The first time I didn't have the right papers, and the second time all the computers in all the MVAs in my whole state crashed right around when I walked into the building. Cursed? Maybe.
Posts: 33 | Registered: Jun 2006
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I turned 16 in Utah, a state where you couldn't just learn to drive on a permit, you had to take a class. My high school didn't offer that class (Brigham Young High, a university-connected private school with limited curriculum), so I had to sign up and take it at the local trade-tech.
I signed up for it twice as an evening class, but both times I dropped out because it conflicted with play rehearsals. I just didn't care enough, really, to give it high priority. The class was taught in a ponderously slow manner - it was like being trapped in an extremely boring tour group. (Which, of course, I NEVER tolerate now; if I can't tour a place alone, without a guide, I just don't go in.)
So I went on exploiting my parents - mostly my dad - who drove me everywhere and picked me up after. Of course, it also meant that I had long waits sometimes as Dad actually had a life and sometimes couldn't get me until I'd been waiting for a while. When I was in college (which I started at age sixteen, so it was MOST of this unlicensed time), I would sit on the northeast steps of the Harris Fine Arts Center at BYU until my dad pulled up outside. It was indoors, warm enough, and not heavily trafficked. So I'd hold onto a notebook and write on whatever play I was working on; or, if I had my guitar with me, I'd play and sing and work out new chord progressions and picking patterns. Sometimes friends would happen by and we'd either sing together or talk. It was really some of the happiest time in my life, there waiting for my ride. Perhaps that's part of the reason I wasn't all that passionate about getting a license.
In Brazil, on my mission, it hampered me just a little not to have a license; but, being sane, I actually was grateful I didn't HAVE to attempt to negotiate the madness of traffic in Sao Paulo, which makes Rome look like a haven of driving safety.
When I got home, though, I knew I had to get the license. It quickly got old, having girls have to drive me on dates. (Though I have happy memories of the inside of the little red Volkswagen Kristine and her siblings drove then.)
So I knuckled down and suffered through the miserable class - perhaps serving as a missionary had trained me to sit through incredibly boring, pointless, and offensively stupid hour-long talkfests. I got my license just before my 23rd birthday, and, within a week, had my first accident.
Male teenage drivers aren't aggressive and stupid because they're 16. They're aggressive and stupid because they're males who just got control of a powerful machine. Basically, I had my teenage driving period between age 23 and 25, during which time I got so many speeding tickets they took away my license for a year and had me driving on a limited provisional permit. Whee-hah!
Since then I have been very careful to get my speeding tickets in states which don't have a reciprocal relationship with the state in which I happen to live.
And in the past five years - basically since turning 50 - I have finally gomered out as a driver. Whereas I used to constantly look down and find myself driving thirty miles over the speed limit, I now have the sad experience of glancing down and discovering that the reason everybody is passing me is because I'm going fifteen miles under.
Pretty soon I'm going to have to start wearing a hat when I drive, just so that other drivers will be warned that I'm dangerously old and unpredictable.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I was in the car with my mom yesterday, who is about to turn 50, and the same dang thing happened! She's gomering! She went from speed demon who never used turn signals (terrifying) to driving 50 miles per hour on the freeway, where our speed limit is 70.
It's like it's in our DNA, or something. Weird.
Posts: 6 | Registered: Oct 2006
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"Gomering". I like that. My mother recently gomered. She's always been a cautious driver, and has never been one to speed. The other day, though, she was pulled over for going too slowly--35 or 40 in a 65 or 70 (can't remember which of those two it was, since I only heard the story second hand).
I got my learner's permit at 14, after having gone through driver's ed. At 16 it was upgraded to an unrestricted license.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I drive a Ford 500. Close enough. And it was a Crown Vic for years before that. I've always preferred to drive an old man's car.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I had the misfortune of growing up in Mississippi in the 80's. (another story) At that time, you got your license at 15. You could get a learner's permit for 30 days or something like that. I grew up in the country (Toomsuba) and was actually driving at age 13. My mom let me drive all the time, in the country of course as a way to teach me. I was actually driving the the trash dump by myself quite often at 14.
I was taking driver's ed at school just before i turned 15. Don't ask me how, but I actually got my license a few days before my birthday when the driver's ed class went and took the test. Bought my first car 6 months later (with my own money earned working at Bonanza!).
Funny though, when I moved to Arkansas when I was 20, they made you take the test again to get a license. I failed it twice! Very sad, but I didn't really care until I found out if I failed it again, I couldn't take the test for another 6 months. Aced it that last time.
But when I moved to Tennessee with my wife and kids 8 years ago, I was relieved to find out this state didn't make you take the test again. LOL
Posts: 176 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:The other day, though, she was pulled over for going too slowly--35 or 40 in a 65 or 70 (can't remember which of those two it was, since I only heard the story second hand).
There is nothing more dangerous (and infuriating) than someone driving half the posted speed limit on the interstate.
I hope you will encourage your mother to either speed up to the minimum limit or avoid the interstate. Please. Think of the children!
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I started working as a janitor at the age of 14. It was a 1 1/2 mile walk from where I live. I could cut it down to 1 mile if I walked along the railroad tracks. I worked about three hours per week and made a flat $30/week (this was in 1989). Of course, I didn't save a dime (it's a problem I still have today). Most of the time, my parents would drop me off or pick me up, but there were many times I walked or rode my bike.
When I was 15 1/2 I told my dad it was time to start looking for a car for me. He asked how much money I had saved; I knew I would be waiting on a car for awhile.
I got my first "real job" the day I turned 16. Once again mom and dad were there to ferry me, or I rode the bike. This time, it was about fifteen miles.
By the time I was 16 1/2 I had saved a little and with a loan from my parents, I bought a 1977 Mustang II. I was so proud. I had a hotrod. A hotrod with only six cylinders, an oil leak, and electrical problems. When I brought it home, my mother asked why I bought a Pinto. I said, it's not a Pinto, it's a Mustang; just look at the chrome T-bar. I paid $400 for the car and $185/month for liability insurance. But I was free! Almost all of my money went to insurance, gas, and continuous repairs.
I had many tickets and a couple of wrecks since. Then, about a year ago, I noticed I stay right around the speed limit (about 5 over). Maybe it's because I am getting older, or maybe it's because I have four kids in the back. Either way, insurance is cheaper and the cars are nicer.
Though now, driving is mindless. It's just a method to get me where I need to go safely. I lost that sense of freedom. "Taking a drive" is not what it used to be.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by brojack17: Though now, driving is mindless. It's just a method to get me where I need to go safely. I lost that sense of freedom. "Taking a drive" is not what it used to be.
I hear you brother. Thats exactly how I feel too. Of course gas prices now make "taking a drive" a little unrealistic for me. And thats sad, because I absolutely love just driving around.
Posts: 176 | Registered: Sep 2006
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I have to take a class too. Its three hours a day, 5 days a week, for 2 weeks. I'm trying to free up my schedual to take it next week. If I don't manage to take it before January, my permit will expire, and I'll have to pay $50 or some such to get a new permit... and I'll still have to take the class!
Its annoying, but I'm going to suffer through it. Right now I have about a half mile walk to the bus... and then another bus... etc etc. I'd rather drive.
All throughout middle school my mother was very good at picking me up more or less on time. That changed in high school! Sometimes I'd be waiting for an hour and a half! I'm very glad that I had to wait though, because after a few weeks I noticed that the theater people were often still at school when I left. One day I went over to the theater to see what they were doing... And after that I was on the tech crew till the end of high school! If my mom had picked me up on time I never would have discovered theater, and my life would be less than half as exciting as its been.
Posts: 33 | Registered: Jun 2006
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It quickly got old, having girls have to drive me on dates.
But girls actually drove you? I would have thought having to drive a guy around would be an instant turnoff.
Posts: 781 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I never had a car until I was married. I know it was an instant turnoff for many girls. Fortunately, it wasn't for the girls I was interested in. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I got my license a couple of months ago. I'm 16 and male. I think I've been doing good, except for the couple of times I accidently cut someone off . I drive alot each day ever since I got my license, to and from school, to and from soccer practice, and to friends' houses and movies and stuff all the time so I've gotten decent experience already and I've only been honked at twice . A friend of mine drives a BMW 330i and routinely does at least 30 over and races and cuts people off like nothing.
But I'm confident in my driving ability, I usually only do 5 to 10 over and I've been told by a few friends when we're going places that they'd rather drive with me then another friend that's driving. Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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my worst bit of driving is when I cut off a cop. Of all the people to cut off, a cop is not the one to do it. Fortunately, he didn't give me a ticket...just followed me for a while.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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Both my grandmothers didn't know the meaning of the word gomer. It's a joke in our family that we're screwed on both sides, and lead feet run in the family (which explains the spate of speeding tickets my brother has had, and the couple I've been pegged with). My dad drives almost exactly on the speed limit line all the time, but never wears his seat belt (grrr!!!!), and my mom drives about ten over constantly but always wears hers.
What is it, btw, with men of my father's generation (he's 53), by and large, NOT wearing seat belts? Was there a class they all missed when they were younger?
As for myself, I got my learner's permit when I was 14 yrs, 9 months, which for some kooky reason was the law in Michigan at the time, and I got my actual license (restricted!) at age 16, and unrestricted at 17. Learner's permit means I have to have a parent in the car with me, restricted license meant I could drive alone but NOT between the hours of 1am and 6am, and unrestricted is just what it sounds like.
We had to take two classes through school, one was a six hour class followed by a written exam that no one failed because duh, everything on the test was just taught to us over the previous couple hours, then we had to take a driving course (which wasn't a test), that consisted of driving willy nilly over what amounted to a go-kart course with a brand new Malibu (seriously, most fun I've ever had while driving). Then we got to ride in the fun cars that have the two sets of brakes so the driving instructor can brake the car while you are making a left turn and try to get you killed. Nice.
After all that, you get your secondary driver's certification, which at age 16 allows you to take the actual driving test (which doesn't include a written exam that I remember, either at the Secretary of State's office or at the independent testing place), which after you pass you take your final certification to the Secretary of State's office and then you get your temporary license followed by the actual one in the mail in a few weeks.
Recently they changed the licenses in Michigan so everyone under 21 has to have a vertical license, just as a quick reminder to police that the person is under age, and then you get a horizontal one when you turn 21. I was grandfathered in, not that it matters now since I'm 22. It's a wonder anyone ever gets a license in Michigan.
Incidentally, I failed my first driver's test, mostly because I was never told half the things I failed to do. In hindsight, a lot of them were common sense things, but this was also 6-7 years ago, so, I wasn't exactly the most experienced at putting common sense to something I'd only been doing for a couple of months with my mother in the car screaming "LOOK OUT!! JESUS!" and doing that mom thing where they grab onto the handle in the car when you make a turn "Just in case" when really all it does is annoy the hell out of you. To the mothers of Hatrack, don't be THAT mom! I mean, the one time I got her Ford Windstar up on two wheels while making a turn, THAT is cause for some handle grabbing and screaming, but otherwise, chill out.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: A friend of mine drives a BMW 330i and routinely does at least 30 over and races and cuts people off like nothing.
This kids parents need to be punished! Seriously.
I hated those kids in school when I was growing up. Not only was I jealous of their car, but the fact their parents were stupid enough to buy them something like that. The kid didn't care, and treated it just like the kid above.
Thankfully, we were poor and my Mom told me if I wanted a car I had to buy it and pay for all expenses. So I did! Bought my first car, '78 Firebird (this was in 1988) for $500, yes it was in bad shape. But it was mine, I paid for it. I got the minimum liability insurance, I paid for the gas. I bought the parts for the little problems that cropped up. Point? I appreciated it, and was taught a very valuable life lesson.
Hope the kid with BMW learns something like that somewhere along the way. LOL
Posts: 176 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Omega M: One of those girls who drove me on a date is now my wife.
I think it all depends on WHY the guy isn't driving, and who the guy is, and who the girl is, and how she decides which males to value.
If "has a drivers license" is on your list of minimal requirements for a mate, then there are a lot of people in the world unworthy of reproduction <grin>.
And there are lots of guys who HAVE licenses and then drive so unsafely they put their dates at risk of loss of life or limb. So which would you rather date: A dangerous driver, or a non-driver who is not threatened by the fact that a woman is driving him on the date? (I still PAID for the date.)
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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Apparently here it's a lot easier to get a motorcycle license than a car license. With a car you need 25 hours clocked with a licensed adult on second phase Learner's to get P plates, whilst on motorcycle you just need to pass a test with an instructor.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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. I drive alot each day ever since I got my license, to and from school, to and from soccer practice, and to friends' houses and movies and stuff all the time so I've gotten decent experience already and I've only been honked at twice ![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
