Answer me this, is a US licence issued in say, Texas, valid for use in all the other 49 states.
I imagine it is but please confirm
All U.S. driver’s licenses issued by a state are recognized by all other states. The same holds true from vehicle registration and vehicle inspections. There are some small complexities involved. I live in Massachusetts. If I get a speeding ticket in Rhode Island, Massachusetts will eventually find out about it. However, if I get one 2000 miles away in Idaho, Massachusetts may never find out about it. The systems aren’t that well integrated except where the are most needed.
I just thought of something I am not sure of though. I got my driver’s license on my 15th birthday in Louisiana which had the lowest age for a full driver’s license. I am not sure what would have happened if I made a long trip to New York City at that age because New York City has a minimum driving age of 18. However, we lived right on the Louisiana/Texas border and it was fine for 15 year olds from Louisiana to drive into Texas where the age was 16.
You got a FULL licence at aged 15? :eek:
I was still riding my bike at aged 17 
although I knew how to drive
I and I was GOOD too. Louisiana raised the age to 16 now (mine was in 1989). Sixteen is fairly typical but there are some odd ones like Massachusetts (16 1/2) and New Jersey which has some weird multi-step program with a full driver’s license granted at 18 which is the highest in the land I believe.
People laugh at our pitiful little licensing programs but that isn’t really looking at it from the right angle. The way the U.S. is set up, most people really NEED to drive. The catchphrase is that driving is a privilege and not a right which is probably technically true but it certainly isn’t a luxury. You can’t live in the vast majority of the U.S. without a car or access to someone that is willing to drive you in theirs. There is nothing else. Residents of New York City, San Francisco, or maybe even suburban New Jersey may not realize that fact clearly but it is painfully apparent to the good people that live not only in most rural and suburban areas, but also many cities as well. Try living in the Dallas, TX metro area without a car or access to one for example and the word “sucks” will be your new favorite.
I actually needed to drive at age 15 and I actually started driving by myself at age 14 out of necessity. We lived on a huge chunk of land out in the middle of nowhere and my mother had a 120 mile one-way commute and wasn’t really home during the week. I had to shop and take car of my younger brother most of the time so she got me a crappy car when I was 14. I never got stopped but the police knew me and would have understood if I did. Those types of stories aren’t unusual.
I life in a greater Boston suburb now. Boston is known to have some of the better mass transit it the U.S. Not in my area. There is none and I have to drive no matter what. Our entire lives, the way they are built now, would collapse like a house of cards if me or my wife couldn’t drive. That includes schools, church, work, everything. That applies to a whole lot of people as well. States could state making the driving tests arbitrarily harder but that would start destroying lives and may not go over so well.
I got a full license in CA when I was 16- that was the norm. Now, I think that under-18s get a provisional license that is quite restrictive- curfew (can’t drive past a certain time of night), requiring an adult to be in the vehicle at all times (no tooling around with nothing but under-18 friends), etc.
I don’t think anyone under 18 should have a driver’s license, for two reasons. One is maturity, the other is liability.
I have not retaken a written test since I passed the first one at age 16 (I am 40). I have also never had to take another driving test, even after a conviction for DUI in 1990 (my license was suspended for 30 days perhaps, then I had a “red” license which allowed me to drive to and from work, then a lecture series telling me what a bad person I was, and a $1200 fine- then off I went).
When moving back and forth between states, as long as my current license wasn’t expired, they just handed me one in my new state. However, my husband allowed his CA to expire while we lived in CO (mine did not), so when we came back, he had to retake the written test! Took him two tries! 
Because my CA license hadn’t expired yet, they just reissued it.
At one renewal, I had to take the vision exam, perhaps because I had a “must wear corrective lenses” notation on my license. Now that I have had Lasik surgery, I may take the vision exam again to get that notation removed next renewal.
In the past, this was not so unusual in agricultural states (Iowa, remember) where having teens drive the farm truck or tractor is practically required for the farm to operate.
Nowadays most states (33 at least) have moved the “graduated licensing” where you can’t get a full license until 18. From 16-18 you can only drive under certain conditions (such as, daylight hours, no passengers under 18).
This website gives an overview of the Wisconsin program:
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/drivers/drivers/gdl/gdlfaq.htm
As usual, whenever you ask a question about “How they do it” in the US you get 50 different answers.
Not all that different on family-owned British farms - there’s a separate driving test for (small) tractors, which can be taken at 16, and the legislation for off-road use allows for 13-year-olds upwards to operate suitable vehicles. Link. (They don’t call us Tractor Boys for nothing 
)
Shagnasty Of course I do realise that use of a car in the USA is an absolute essential given the bloody size of the place. I think that fair number of UK residents fail to appreciate that while we can just nip to the corner shop or even the supermarket and be there and back in an hour, you guys have millions of acres to negotiate.
An example would be: From my home I can travel 25-30 miles in any direction and be in another town or city, you fellers would just be at the bottom of your driveway
Something I find a trifle odd is whatEJsGirl said, she had her licence suspended for 30 days after a DUI, in the UK your licence is withdrawn for 12 months, sometimes longer if you fail a breath test., you are also hit with a megabucks fine.
To get your licence back I believe you have to re-take your test again and even if you do get it back your insurance premium will be sky high.
I’m a good boy, I never drink and drive, not even after 1 beer, it aint worth it
I obtained my UK license at 18 and proceeded to get a significant number of traffic tickets. Back in the day (and maybe still today) a summary of the tickets you receive were printed on the actual license so that a traffic-stop-cop can see how bad you have been.
These are denoted on the license as ‘Endorsements’.
When I came to the US and showed the lady at the Motor Vehicles my UK license she commented that I must be a very good driver because of my ‘endorsements’ lol.
I didn’ tell her.
Are endorsements still printed on the UK license? And how big is the actual license now? Does it have your photo?
Chowder, for too many years in the US there was an ambivalent attitude towards drinking and driving. It seemed to be viewed as OK as long as you didn’t get into trouble. IMO, this was a cultural attitude although reinforced officially by lax punishment. I believe that it used to take several DUI convictions before someone lost their license. Note that EJsGirl’s experience was in 1990.
The attitude is changing and there are increasingly stiffer penalties for driving while intoxicated, but it is still nothing like the penalties in most of Europe.
MrFloppy, funny story!
There’s two parts. The credit-card sized one with your photo, signature & details, and then a paper counterpart which is similar to the old ones with endorsements listed. Supposedly the two parts should be kept together, which kind of defeats the purpose of having the card, so the paper part is invariably left at home, with the photocard either staying with it or being carried with peoples’ various other cards.
Y’know summat?
I don’t have the CC sized one, I just have the paper one.
AFAIAA there is no legal requirement to have both
Are you saying (above) that there is no legal requirement to have the actual license (either one) when driving?
Do the police (on a traffic stop) still issue HORT1 forms that require you to produce your documents at the local police station or is it somehow computerised?
Man, I had hundreds of those I think lol.
I’ve never been stopped but I do believe that “producers” are still issued.
There is nothing in legislation that states your licence must be carried with you when driving, as a matter of fact mine hasn’t left the house in yonks
That’s not quite true, it mixes up two things. One: When you fail the driving test three times you have to wait three months before going at it a fourth time. Usually you make sure you pass that because each test costs about 300 Euros (about 450 US$).
Two: If you’ve lost your driving license for grave offenses (e.g. for the third DUI) you have to attend something called an MPU (“medical psychological examination”), which are various tests, including an interview with a psychologist.
Kind of correct. The old-style ones weren’t replaced, only if you have a reason for the DVLA to issue a new one (endorsements, or change of address, for instance) would you have to replace it with a photocard one. Of course, us young whippersnappers have had photocards since getting our provisionals 
Yes.
Only 43% pass the practical part of the car test. Source (pdf): www.dsa.gov.uk/Documents/publications/A4_Pass_Rates.pdf
Thanks for clarifying that.
Regarding “full” license, and cross-state recognition of licenses:
When I was first licensed in PA, they issued something called a “Junior Operator’s License” which you could obtain after passing the test at age 16. It was commonly called a “Cinderella license” because it did not permit you to drive between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 6 AM. If you had completed a certified driver training course in high school, you could apply for the junior license to become a full-fledged one at 17, otherwise it became one automatically on your 18th birthday.
NY state refused to recognize the Cinderella license, and would ticket you for driving in their state on it.