# Educating the first highway drivers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607 "2023-03-02T18:34:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/21 "2023-03-03T16:38:38Z")
Here’s an educational film from Ford about highway driving. The cars shown suggest it was probably made in 1961-1962, but I’m sure there were similar films earlier. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Y-6UWwsynyw/maxresdefault.jpg "1950s FORD MOTOR COMPANY DRIVER'S ED FILM DRIVING THE SUPERHIGHWAYS 88124") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-6UWwsynyw) ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2023, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/22 "2023-03-04T10:30:39Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > We all know what it was like when we first learned freeway driving Actually, I don’t recall what it was like. In 1969 it seemed pretty easy to me. Just drive straight. Left turns on busy city streets were more complicated. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2023, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/23 "2023-03-04T18:11:37Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Actually, I don’t recall what it was like. In 1969 it seemed pretty easy to me. Just drive straight. I remember learning the on ramps. It seemed really counterintuitive to me to pull onto a busy highway going full speed, instead of pausing to get a better look at the traffic. (Yes, I understood it once I thought about it; but I had to at first overcome a strong instinctive desire to stop or at least slow down drastically at the beginning of the merge point.) The rest of it’s pretty simple; it’s mostly a matter of planning for not being able to stop for significant distances, and remembering that if you miss your offramp you may be stuck for an extra 80 miles or so round trip, or if you missed the right exit in a city you might find yourself in tangled downtown traffic in an area you hadn’t studied the maps for and can’t just turn around in because nearly everything’s one way. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2023, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/24 "2023-03-04T20:20:52Z")
Is that mortared stone, or something pretty covering poured reinforced concrete? ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/25 "2023-03-04T20:33:01Z")
I think it’s masonry; the architectural database Structurae has an [entry](https://structurae.net/en/structures/rudolphstein-bridge) for this particular bridge. ---
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/26 "2023-03-05T00:07:18Z")
My dad made sure I had lots of experience controlling the standard shift cars we had, learning on quiet, empty roads before I got a permit. Somehow we understood that in CT, you didn’t need paperwork once you were 16. So my first highway experience was on I-95, just inside the NY/CT border during morning rush, in an older Volvo with my parents and two subs, car over-packed (bikes on front and back, bags on the roof) for a month on Cape Cod. I think I pulled on from the breakdown lane and once I got to the center lane and into the highest gear, I stayed there and was ok. But it was pretty tense for a bit. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/27 "2023-03-05T08:56:37Z")
In Iowa in the 70’s you could get a learners permit at 14. We went on vacation to visit family in Seattle and I did part of the driving on I-90. I don’t remember doing interstate driving during drivers ed. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/28 "2023-03-05T20:03:59Z")
Nit - It’s PA 309, & it’s was not nearly as bad as many of the NY Parkway entrances are, despite having a stop sign at the top of the ramp. HS driver’s ed last practical was supposed to be Lincoln Dr & then onto the Schuylkill. Of course, when you’re an athlete & your coach is also a driver’s ed teacher, & doesn’t want you to miss practice he might, ahhh, be willing to sign you off despite never having gotten behind the wheel at school. Insurance discount for the win! ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/29 "2023-03-08T17:17:16Z")
Traveling to China several times a year at the beginning of the current century provided me with a first hand view of seeing an entire population learning to drive and drive on freeways for the first time. On one of my first trips there, the freeways were relatively empty, with so few drivers. On one drive from Shanghai to Foshan, we passed a woman pulling a cart by hand in the left hand lane. I wondered did she think what a wonderful thing that the government built this nice paved road for her to easily pull this cart from one city to the other. By around 2007, the freeways became congested during rush hours just like other large metropolitan cities around the world, this was through the encouragement of the government for citizens to buy cars. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/30 "2023-03-08T18:14:52Z")
Not just encouragement, but force. Many major cities in China banned motorcycles and scooters. 20-30 years ago the thing in China was crazy number of people riding bicycles, but investment has been in roads for cars, and cycling has suffered a lot too. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607/31 "2023-03-08T22:02:57Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > I think it’s masonry; the architectural database Structurae has an [entry](https://structurae.net/en/structures/rudolphstein-bridge) for this particular bridge. Never mind that, I want to know if that’s an open top bus or just a weird paint job. The car appears to be open top also, not unusual for the time period. I wonder how fast the average bus could go back then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educating-the-first-highway-drivers/980607.md?page=1)