I don't care what they age is, only that the standards be tightened strongly. Driving a mile and turning back into the parking lot doesn't show you can handle an automobile.
You don't have tests on the actual road in Pennsylvania?
Hardly. Our local DMV is in a shopping center down at the end past the grocery store. The test was 1. check your signals knowledge (e-brake, wipers, lights, etc.), 2. parallel park, and 3. drive out of the shopping center, a quarter mile down the road, turn left across traffic, make a u-turn, make a right back onto the road, drive a quarter mile back, make a left turn into the shopping center, and go park. I mean, you need some driving knowledge to pass, but it doesn't really test you extensively. Especially considering that the kid taking the test is going to go out that night, drive 20 miles to the mall with friends in the car, drive a hell of a lot faster when the test guy isn't in the car, etc.
I'd like the following:
1. Mandatory 10-15 hour road instruction covering all types of roads (single lane, two lane, interstates) and in all traffic conditions.
2. Work in simulators that simulate bad weather conditions and teach kids how to handle a vehicle in snow, ice, rain, and fog.
3. Comprehensive driving test that demonstrates situational awareness (changing lanes, maintaining speed, passing vehicles, merging into traffic, etc.) and comprehension of traffic laws and signals.
The third step should be sufficiently hard enough that somewhere around a third of people fail it the first go around (which would necessitate a secondary course of maybe 5 hours more of road instruction).
The biggest problem with how drivers tests are conducted in my state is that they aren't challenging enough and in the six hour road course that is optional to take through the schools, the instructor basically spends half the time teaching you how to parallel park and the rest practicing the test route that he knows the DMV guys will make you take.
Poll
