Quote:
Originally Posted by jflBRZ
And driving/road skills tend to deteriorate with the reliance on technology and lack of strict training in order to acquire a license... and of course carelessness of such drivers.
Gotta learn defensive driving yourself too...
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Unfortunately, North America (other places to, but mostly NA) hasn't been very strict about training drivers properly. All you need to do is a "written" test where you answer multiple choice questions (very simple) and you need to pass that, and then do a road test which takes about 20 minutes of simple parking and lane change manoeuvres, no high speed driving or high traffic driving or anything. So, you COULD get your license within 2 days from start to finish if you're over 18.
As long as you can show "understanding" of how to park and move a car, you're considered a "good" driver. It's really quite sad.
Driving schools are offered of course, but they're not mandatory, which IMO they should be. HPDE should also be mandatory because from my experience, most people get into accidents because they can't control their cars at high speed, and some even at creepy-crawly speeds.
Most people aren't too aware of their surroundings nowadays because of automatic cars. It's a simple "accelerate-or-brake" mechanism and it's really making driving "too easy" for the people who aren't very good at it. I don't have anything against automatic cars, but the least that could be done in NA is to make doing a road test with a manual a requirement to get your license like it is over in Europe and other places. Driving a stick makes you so much more aware of your surroundings.