I feel so trapped without a driving license… can’t go anywhere…
I think everyone has a driver’s license at 16 here in the US, but I’m already over 18 with no license… :(
Never. I live in a city with proper public transport, and I live close enough to the city center that I can easily walk there, or go by bike if I prefer.
I am considering getting my driving license, though. It’s useful for certain jobs, but it’s really expensive.
In Germany, I got training at 17 during my commutes to school (i was living in the countryside and my driving instructor was my neighbor) and then made my license once I reached 18.
18 from a school. Letting 16 year olds drive is insanity.
::: spoiler
:::
I had a girlfriend whose 95 year old immigrant grandmother used to walk to the grocery store every day, crossing a major road.
She died crossing that road, when she was hit by a 16 yo girl who had just gotten her license, and was on her first solo drive.
I didn’t get mine until 24. Lived in a city with public transport from 18-26.
I was late to riding a bike, too, though. I didn’t pick that up until 18.
18. Mom was busy with school when I was 16, so I had to wait. I’m really lucky I had her to teach me at all!
Late 30s ~ early 40s. From a school as it is mandatory here with twelve hours of theory and 16 hours of practice classes.
I had probably close to 100,000km of experience on the road as a cyclist before that.
Learner’s at 15, license at 16… Crucial skill for an adult. Def go finish getting it. I learned through my school.
I’m 30 and have never learned. I live in a city with adequate public transit.
What a dream
I bought a car and learned to drive for the, errr, fun of it. Just like cycling, driving feels unlike any other common experience. However, working from home made it needed quite rarely.
A side effect is that I lost the feeling of fascinating go-with-the-flow orderly chaos when looking at traffic. Now it all has meaning.
18, but I started lessons around 16. Did a bit of driving with parents, but mostly through an instructor.
Got mine at 18 in the USA. I took a driver’s ed course though my high school that included a few after school driving lessons, and my state also requires 20 hrs of driving with a licensed driver.
Never. I’ve always been poor and it’s just not that necessary living in German cities. It would help a lot to be able to rent a car once in a while e.g. for moving apartments, but it seems like a bad idea to get a license and then only drive every couple of months, you’ll never build the skills to drive safely. It’s moot, though, I couldn’t afford the license itself anyway (pretty expensive in Germany).
How much?
Haven’t checked prices in a hot minute, but I think it’s about 3000€ right now, maybe more depending on the driving school and how many tries you need to pass the test.
Holy shit
I was 17, and my parents taught me.
My oldest is 22, she still doesn’t drive.
Her little brother is 18. He’s gone driving with his mom and I a few times, but hasn’t taken the test.
13, special license in some US states for kids who live out in the middle of nowhere so they can get to school.
Learned from parents, grandparents, siblings, being around trucks and tractors and motorcycles since I was a toddler. I knew how to drive long before I got a license.
I never heard the school excuse, I thought they allowed rural kids to drive so they could handle farm vehicles.
My home state had a permit for that too, certain vehicles I could drive on certain roads under restrictive speed limits. So I could, like, drive a tractor or farm truck with the right license plates down county roads to another field.
That was separate from a school permit. The nearest school bus stop to me was miles away and didn’t go directly to my school so I would have spent 3+ hours per school day on multiple buses if I hadn’t been able to drive myself in. Not to mention sports on weekends and other stuff where the normal school day bus wasn’t running. My permit restricted the hours I could drive, it had to be to or from school or jobs, and I couldn’t give anyone rides other than siblings. I think I wasn’t supposed to drive on the interstate too.
18
Started when I was like 14 but I just didn’t care enough to get the license until 18.
I got mine at 24.
My parents flat refused to allow me to get a driver’s license, I assume because it would have given me the freedom to leave their house under my own power. I didn’t end up getting one until after I went to and came back from college.
I learned from a driving school, since my parents seemed uninterested in teaching me.
The experience of trying to hold a job or get to and from class between the ages of 18-24 is one of the primary experiences driving me to the idea that American public transportation sucks absolute asshole and desperately needs improvement. It used to take me two and a half hours to get to work. My work was a 15 minute drive from my house, but since my wonderful father refused to drive me to and from work, I would have to take a bus all the way across town to the central station and then hop another bus to take me all the way back across town to damn near the same place I got picked up at.
