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by TylerE 2850 days ago
Drivers tests in the US are a joke.
1 comments

That you think it's easy to pass drivers tests in the US is a joke.
It actually is a joke how bad some tests are. In a lot of cities in Florida your test is done in a parking lot with no real world driving with other cars, and it omits a lot of things, like parallel parking. Ideally licenses should be able to be transferred across states, but tests like the majority of ones in Florida mean drivers from there may be inadequately prepared for driving in some other states like CA.
I really hope this is an exaggeration.

Still, the US is not the only place with very mixed standards for driving tests. I once heard that the easiest way to get a Dutch driving license was on the Caribbean island of Saba, where you'd get your license if you could drive around the central square without causing an accident. I knew someone who got his license there, and he didn't dare to drive a car in Netherland. Fortunately he had a Dutch motorbike license.

It's not an exaggeration. Taking a look at Hillsborough Country[1], two of the three DMVs have "on-site test tracks".

1: http://www.hillstax.org/services/services-driver-licenses.as...

The biggest problem, to my mind, is that there is no process for retesting.

IMO you should have to re-take the test every 5 years starting at 50... and maybe ever year starting from 70 or 75.

Here in NC, the road test was maybe 10 minutes long, in very light traffic. No parallel parking.

The written portion of the test consisted of sign identification and a few very easy multiple choice questions.

I did this when I was 15. That as almost 20 years ago. Have never, and will never, need to do anything else.

Your comment is ignorant and insulting, since you're basically calling him a liar.

My US driving test was a joke. I pulled out of a parking space, pulled up to a road, took a right turn, drive 100-200 feet to an intersection, took a right turn, then took another right turn into the same parking lot I had just left, then parked. That was my entire driving test.

The original comment is ignorant and insulting, since it's implying I'm incompetent enough to have failed a joke of a test twice.
The original comment never stated that all driving tests everywhere in the US are all a joke. Believing that is ridiculous: the US is a big place and things vary dramatically from locality to locality.
"Drivers tests in the US are a joke." is referring to arbitrary driving tests, and implies any driving test (including the two I failed) is a joke.
The guy is correct. MY driving test was a joke, and other people have testified their tests were a joke too. Therefore the statement is correct. He never said ALL driving tests in the US are a joke.

It sounds like you're taking this personally, and have some kind of issue because you failed two driving tests.