Re: Daytime Running Lights

[orin@netcom.com (Orin Eman)]

Me too.

> Man! A topic close to my heart.  Being an ex-pat Brit, I have experience
> of the driving tests on both sides of 'the pond'.  When I moved over to
> Maryland I couldn't believe the pathetic driving test.  In the UK, you spend
> (when I took it anyway) about 30 mins on the road.  The test includes,
> amongst many other things, being able to back around a bend following 
> the curb, an emergency stop (triggered by the tester) and being able to 
> start off on a hill with zero rollback.  Nothing truly amazing - just showing
> that you can control your vehicle under normal conditions on the road.

...and make pretty much any mistake and you fail.

> When I came here, however, I found the test comprised about 5mins in
> the back parking lot of the MVA, and involved stopping at a stop sign and
> a (very easy) parallel park!  Even the written test was 20 multiple choice
> questions, where obvious clues were given by the drawing illustrating the
> question. For instance: Drawing: A car stopped in the left lane of a 4lane
> road (dual carriageway), waiting to turn left into a side road across 
> approaching traffic.  Question: when can you stop in the left lane of a 
> 4lane road?  Ans Choices: (A) anytime, (B) when waiting to turn left, 
> (C) never.  Its truly incredible.  How can anyone expect safety when it
> so easy to get a license without knowing the first thing about vehicle 
> control?  How come the Insurance companies don't jump on THIS 

At least the WA state test which I took is a little better.  You do spend
10 to 15 minutes on the road.  They score you out of 100 with a pass of 80(!).
Each mistake you make deducts about 4 points.  I scored 92 on mine and
would have failed the British test on the 'mistakes' (not looking properly
at an uncontrolled intersection which wasn't properly explained in the
WA Drivers' handbook and backing around a corner where I went a little wide).

So, you can pass here if you can't back up, can't parallel park, drive in the
wrong lane, screw up on uncontrolled intersections etc..  At least if you
do anything they could cite you for, you fail.

Interestingly enough, the parallel park part of the test isn't (wasn't?)
in the British test, but would be far more applicable there than here.

Orin.
> instead of Radar Detectors and pathetic speed limits?  Bah!
> 
> (Writer gets slowly down off soapbox.)
> 
> -Mark Quinn
>