Obligatory old joke:
TEXAS RANCHER: Ah could get on mah horse at sun-up, ride all day, and still not be at mah perimeter fence come sundown!
ENGLISH FARMER: Yes, I used to have a horse like that too.
This is pretty common – cross-state reciprocity is generally only for full driver’s licenses. I got my NY learner’s permit at 16, but it was only good inside the state of NY and outside New York City, which has special rules. There had to be a fully licensed driver in the passenger seat and I think driving at night was forbidden. When driving up to Connecticut with my dad, we’d have to switch seats at the state line, since my learner’s permit was no good in CT.
Very true- penalties are much harsher here than they used to be, but still pretty lax compared with some other countries. Often, one is only punished harshly if one didn’t engage the services of a good attorney.
Typically you don’t need to be re-tested if you’re still living in the same state as long as your current license hasn’t expired. I don’t know the rules for every state though, so there could be a state that requires re-testing.
The expiration date depends on the state as well. For example, when I moved to Tennessee in 2002, my license was set up to expire on my 35th birthday. Had I renewed in that state, the next expiration date would have been on my 40th birthday. A vision test was required to switch my license from Georgia to Tennessee.
Ohio, IIRC, was also set to expire on my 35th birthday (2008, by the way) when I moved there in 2004 - I’m not sure how long the renewal would have been for. I had to take a written and vision test when I moved there.
Arizona was odd though. No vision test. No written test. No driving test. And my license expires on my 65th birthday.
So the laws about what tests and how often things expire vary from state to state - I don’t know of any state that requires you to take a test every year or even every time you renew, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not one, as I’m not conversant in the laws of every state.
see this is my problem, the one thing my British teens all have trouble with is quick turns, as in emergency’s or simple parking. that stupid push pull technique drives me crazy because its so hard to break them of (and of course the parents always fight me on it)
the push pull works like this, for a left turn
grab the steering wheel with your right hand at about 4:OO and push it up til you hit about 2:00 then grab the wheel with your left hand at about 10:00 and pull it down to about 8:00
repeat 5000000000 times to actually get the wheel turned all the way to the left (if you are going that far)
hand over hand steering the same manouver
left hand grabs the wheel at 12:00 and pulls to about 8:00, then right hand at 12:00 to about 8:00 then left then right.
its much much faster and should you ever need to avoid the unexpected is definitely going to be the technique you want to use instead of push pull. I agree the push pull is probably a hold over from days of no power steering, especially in large vehicles.
as for riding a bike with your hands crossed? um bikes dont have wheels and if you turned the handle bars on a bike 360 you would be pointed in a straight line, in a car you still have around half a turn to go before you reach a full left or right.
Drinking and driving laws in America as has already been pointed out are getting stricter all the time, hell in the late 70’s you could legally drive a car with a drink in your HAND, you could seriously get pulled over and be drinking your beer while the cop talked to you or wrote you a ticket.
for your learners permit (in Washington state) the only requirement is that the person seated in the passenger seat has a valid drivers license for at least 5 years.
so you could have your teenager drive you home from a party drunk off you ass and passed out cold with a backseat full of baby’s and as long as they are all in car seats it would be legal.
When I lived in one state, I did have to go out on the freeway. When I moved states once, I had to re-take the road portion. No matter what state I’ve moved to, I’ve had to take that state’s written exam.
Maybe in your state. Not in mine.
Not just until the late 1970’s. Drinking and driving in the literal sense was allowed in Louisiana until I was in college in the early to mid 1990’s. We had drive-through liquor stores as well as those notorious New Orleans area drive-through daiquiri stores. That got phrased out (wink-wink) so that only passengers were allowed to drink in the front seat of the car (Hold this will you, I see some lights flashing in my rear view mirror). I think most of that is gone now but it is a very recent memory even for me and I am not that old.
Cop from the 70’s:
Officer: Sir, you were weaving all over the road for the last few miles. That is why I stopped you.
Driver: Ossifer, I am driving to see women. I saw them go this way.
Officer: We all like women. Have you been drinking?
Driver: I had a 12 pack this morning but nothing since them I swear.
Officer: Get out of the car.
Driver: I can’t figure out how to open it. I am not a mechanic.
Officer: You are totally shit-faced. Do you realize that?
Driver: If you want to see me shit-faced, you have come to the wrong bar at the wrong time.
Officer: Do you have any idea how severe the penalties for drinking and driving are in this state?
Driver: Yes I do, I confront them on a regular basis.
Officer: Good then. You better drive your ass straight home or we will have to start talking about a ticket.
The PA Junior license wasn’t a learner’s permit, BTW. PA had those, too. You could get them at 15 and some number of months, and you had to have a licensed driver in the car with you and so on, like your NY learner’s permit. The “Cinderella license” is what you got after you actually passed the driving test, if you were still under 18 (or 17 having had a driver ed course). You didn’t take another test or anything to get the senior license. The main difference was not being allowed to drive between midnight and 6 AM.
It was 17 for practically everybody, anyway, because you took the high school driver ed course while on your learner’s permit (generally your junior year). The last couple of times the driving teacher took you out they would have you practice running around the route they knew the cop would make you take on the test. Also telling you NOT to correct the cop if they told you to drive a different route - the teacher claimed that somebody had actually done that - “Sorry, officer, you don’t know where you’re going.” The state police who administered the test weren’t locals, so that was probably actually true, but it was obviously not a good idea to point this out to them.
I took a driving test in my home state of Washington back in 1974 at age 16. I’ve never taken another one, even though I’ve lived/ worked in 8 or 9 states now. I took the motorcycle version (which was much, much harder) in California in 1985, and I’ve never had to take that again either.
Those one-time events were sufficient to authorize every renewal since, with only a written test and eye exam required every 5 years or so.
I did take drivers education in high school, but mainly for the reduction in insurance cost – it wasn’t required for licensing.
I began driving farm equipment on the road, quite legally, at 12 years old, without any license or administrative intervention at all. All I did was turn 12, and suddenly I was qualified to drive an 5-ton 8-wheeled articulating tractor on the highway. That tractor could go 50 miles-per-hour, and took up an entire 12-foot lane. Country life is awesome.
I have the exact same drivers license number now as I did on my first license, a learners permit from 1973, although that’s because I kind of gamed the system.
As far as living and driving in other states, the ‘two out of three’ rule applies: Of your license, registration, and insurance, two have to be from the same state. So if you have a car registered in Wyoming, for example, you can either have a Wyoming license, or Wyoming insurance; or a license and insurance both from another state.
I took driver’s ed at my high school in Oklahoma when I was 15, and got a Learner’s Permit while I was there. Moved to Texas, and when I turned 16, I took the certificate of course completion (a little green card that my instructor, who was legally blind and also reffed at basketball games) to the Department of Public Safety (the folks who do drivers’ licenses in Texas) and filled out a little form. Never had to take a practical test, though I did have to take the computerized “written” test in Oklahoma to get the permit.
In Texas, you can renew your driver’s license online (you can also order birth certificates and apply to state-run colleges online), and if you are under 21, you get a license that is oriented differently (narrow and tall, instead of wide and short like normal) with “UNDER 21 UNTIL <insert 18th birthday here>” in bright red letters somewhere on it.
Moved from Texas to Arizona, got a drivers license that will expire in 2049, with an absolutely horrible picture (that somehow makes me look like a girl) immortalizing the occasion until then (or until I get around to getting a California license like I’m technically required to now that I live in Cali, but then I don’t drive, so it never comes up and hardly seems important).
Also, a question, could you elaborate on “Backing up around corners”? If it is what it sounds like, I don’t think anybody in the US ever does that, and it sounds like it’d be kinda dangerous to try.
Oh, and random driving anecdote from when I lived in Oklahoma: I used to live near Fort Sill, an army base located near the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge, home to a herd of buffalo. It was said that buffalo in the road had the right of way over anything not equipped with tracks and armor plating, because it would come out the victor in any collision with vehicles not possessing those qualities. Them things are STURDY.
possibly the dumbest maneuver in the universe. you do, infact back around a street corner from one street to another while trying to stay as close to the curb as possible, I had thought Washington was one of the last bastions of this nonsense, I am seriously bummed to find it on the British test as well.
the premise (at least here) is that you need to demonstrate that you can safely back out of a driveway into the parking lane. what really goes on is you spend as much time as possible in reverse doing this stupid ass trick that you will never use again in your entire life (unless you have the misfortune of becoming a drivers ed instructor)…the best part, we teach students to back into the driveway for safety, the state wants people to back in for safety, and then on the test you get to pretend you are backing out.
I beg to differ. This is not a stupid/dumb exercise, far from it.
The move has to be done ensuring that you do not hit any kerbs and that you finish about 6"-10" from the kerb when finished.
What it demonstrates to the examiner is that you are capable of reversing around the corner safely and it also shows him that if needs be you can park by reversing between 2 other parked cars without hitting either.
You Americans have to realise that our roads/streets are tiny in comparison with yours and the ability to reverse into a vacant parking space without hitting other vehicles is important.
The strictness and difficulty of our driving tests makes us Brits among the safest drivers in the world…so there 
:dubious:
Do it properly, not the shuffle which you describe and which has been discussed earlier, and you can be on full lock with one push and one pull.
I’m with you. It’s not just a test of being able to reverse around corners. It also functions as a much broader test of spatial awareness, especially around the nearside rear of the car, where this is most difficult.
When I moved to the UK and took the driving test I’d been driving in the US for 20+ years. Passed the theory and hazard perception tests easily, then failed the practical. Passed on the second try, and let me tell you I have never been as nervous or stressed out as during those two tests. Thumping heart, sweating and shaking hands - the works. I was in such a mess after the ‘reverse around a corner’ maneuver that I had to ask for a minute to calm down and collect myself. Even now, two years later, every time I see a learner driver I thank the stars that it’s over and done with. What a nightmare that was.
What hasn’t been mentioned in this thread is the fact that we are not allowed to drive on the Motorway (US Freeway) until such time as we hold a full licence
Do you still have to have ‘L’ plates on the car? Do you have to be with a fully licensed assenger? Are their any other driving restrictions while on the provisional.
Yes, and yes.
No motorway driving, and I think they can’t go more than 60mph, but someone else should be able to confirm.
You can go above 60 mph, and failure to do so on a dual carriageway in a test is a minor fault.
I see the point to the ‘reverse around the corner’ maneuver, and it was dead easy in a left hand drive car. The one that I think is becoming pointless is the emergency stop. In the old days you had to do it without locking up the brakes. Since nearly every car these days has ABS you just stand on the pedal as hard as you like and the car sorts itself out.
There are 2 types of “L” plate.
1, This is red and has to be displayed by a learner driver at all times.
- This is green and is displayed by a driver when having just passed their test. I don’t think it is mandatory though, it’s up to the driver concerned