Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site l5.uucp Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!decwrl!sun!l5!gnu From: gnu@l5.uucp (John Gilmore) Newsgroups: net.flame,net.auto Subject: Re: Driving as a right or privilege Message-ID: <216@l5.uucp> Date: Sat, 26-Oct-85 07:55:48 EST Article-I.D.: l5.216 Posted: Sat Oct 26 07:55:48 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 28-Oct-85 03:48:56 EST References: <189@ucdavis.UUCP> Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco Lines: 47 Xref: watmath net.flame:12519 net.auto:8566 In article <189@ucdavis.UUCP>, ccs020@ucdavis.UUCP (Kevin Chu) writes: > In California, it is far too easy to get your license, the test is > just too simple. The written part is all BS and the practical part > barely covers anything really practical. As one who has taken driving tests in about 6 states, California is the hardest one I've come across. I got "Chauffer's Licenses" in several of those states because it was trivial to do so and it might help me get a job sometime. Usually they just give you a different written test, and you are then licensed to drive everything from a moped up thru a double-trailer 18-wheeler or school bus. In California, to get a motorcycle license, you have to drive a motorcycle in front of them (and take it around a small obstacle course without putting your feet down). To get an 18-wheeler license, you have to show up with an 18-wheeler and take a test (or have your employer certify that you can drive one, which I suspect 99% of the people do). A license to drive a delivery truck for hire does not let you drive a school bus or a tractor-trailer. The Calif. written tests are about the same as everywhere -- the usual "what color is a stop sign" and "how many feet from an intersection are you allowed to change lanes" and all the other ignored numbers and rules of real-life driving. My favorite "written" test was in New Mexico, where the test is given by a machine that shows you a slide of a road situation and then asks a multiple choice question. It picks 20 out of 100 slides at random and grades your test automatically. They also require eye tests in Calif, though I don't know if you have to retake them occasionally. In many states the AARP has successfully avoided making older people stop driving when they can't see any more. This leads to things like "the usual" way for a motorcyclist to die being to have an old lady pull out right in front of her. This has happened to me 3 or 4 times; I avoided the collision (with difficulty), and screamed at the driver at the next intersection. Mostly they just say "I didn't see you" either as an excuse or a justification of almost killing me on the spot... One word about tickets and "the punks with all the tickets killed my sister and they should all go to jail". I've never injured or killed anybody with a motor vehicle (as a motorcyclist, the stats are definitely against me ever doing a car driver or pedestrian any harm). That doesn't stop the damn government "public servants" from issuing me plenty of tickets. If speeding is "a danger to the public" then why is more than 50% of the public doing it? The Feds have to keep threatening to cut off highway funds if the states don't bring the "complicance" with 55MPH above 40%...