Actually in California you only need to be 18 and breathing to get a license and that's not much of an exaggeration. There is no cross referencing to see if the license driver is driving an insured vehicle or if a vehicle is registered to a licensed driver. Moreover, undocumented aliens in California are able to get licenses because the DMV doesn't ask about citizenship or immigration status. The quality control of drivers in California is horrific.

I know the the system in some middle eastern countries (saudi arabia for sure) is utter bull****. Apparantly (and i cant confirm this) its just for ward, back ward, brake and turn. there you go abdullah, have a blast. If you drive there you really can tell some of them have absolutley no idea what theyre doing (dont say i dont even know cause i was there for 11 years)

My Driver's ED teacher was the biggest most arrogant dumb**** ever.
And he didnt know the difference b/w RPM and MPH to boot.

Driver Education in Countries.
 

Hey folks, I need a favour. I'm currently doing a persuasive speech for English, where my chosen topic is: "That the Australian Federal Government should do more to adequatly train drivers."
What I would like to find out are various driver education programs in different countries, especially those in Germany, UK, Sweden and Japan. I would like to know programmes initiated or heavily promoted by your respective governments and what you must do in order to obtain your driver's licenses, if it's no trouble.
Thanks in advance for your help guys. http://www.germancarfans.com/images/forums/beerchug.gif

I did a Driver Training Corse with my classmates about five weeks or so ago, and I tell you it's changed my life. I used to be a pretty cocky driver, and thought I knew everything. But bloody hell, I was the first person in my grade to do the wet braking corse and I absolutly crap myself. 60 km/h locking the brakes in the wet is not something I wouldn't like to make a habit of, and in a Proton of all cars! And when I say I crap myself, I alsmost did, I was almost in tears because I thought I was going to die. They used cones to represent people on the day, and I think I killed about 25 people, which is no laughing matter. By the end of the day I walked away with a lot more knoledge, some pretty graffic and horrific images of car crashes, and an ego that was pretty much dinted. But one day this could save mylife. I think the Aussie Governemnt should make this mantitory, because everyone that did the corse that day walked away with a hell of a lot of knoledge. Not sure if this might help, but I thought it might be worth typing, as in a perspective from someone that's done a corse in Australia.
I strongly recoment these corses for anyone of any age http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emthup.gif

Would you by any chance know the name of this driver training course, and possibly even an accompanying website?

SDT (Safe Driver Training) and it's located at Willowbank, Brisbane.
Phone: (07) 3801 3222 Web: http://www.sdt.com.au
Really recomend that place to you. They even give you a certifigate which can help you get money of your insurance costs http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emthup.gif

Over here the wet course/track is mandatory, in fact I think you have to do
it twice. Nowadays it is usually included as part of your driving lessons, but
you'll have to come back in 6-24months after receiving your full permit.
We also have night time and snowy/icy condtion training (AFAIK the latter
one isn't mandatory though). I would assume they use a similar system in
Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia?
I did the wet/night Training Courses late last year, and personally I really
enjoyed "raping" the brand new (at the time) MKII Focus on the wet track http://www.germancarfans.com/images/...lewinkgrin.gif
(which I belive is very similar to the course Hornbag did, with obstacles,
cones and stuff. A lot of the driving was done with the ABS/ESC switched off).
The night training on the other hand.. not so funny. Got up at 6:30am and
drove around on some really twisty roads in the middle of nowhere. Oh, did
I mention it was pitch black and done during a snowstorm? http://www.germancarfans.com/images/forums/crying.gif

The U.S system is complete crap.
You only need 30 hours of actual classroom education (Which you can also take online in only 5 hours). Then you only need 6 hours of in-car training on the road (With the "instructors" teaching nothing at all). And then finally, the actual license test probably only lasts no more than 10 minutes on quiet, neighborhood roads.
No woner there are so many bad drivers in the U.S http://www.germancarfans.com/images/forums/1zhelp.gif

and i also think that the driving age should be the same in all 50 states. not different in each state. all other "adult" things are federal laws, like smoking, drinking, voting, etc. so why not driving. it would put everyone on the same skill level of driving. also, reading zweis post, i had no idea it was so simple to just get a license like that. it needs to be improved.

Yup the US system sucks, after taking my test which was a left turn, right turn, parallel park, reverse all on the DMV's track I am scared while driving knowing that a caveman could pass the test.

so they just expect you to automatically know how to drive on the highway?

They dont test for highway but in the 6 hours of in car training about an hour is spent on highway driving. The testing procedure really needs to be harder.

Are you sure it's 6 hours of driving? I had to do 10 hours, all of which had a different topic and driving style. Maybe this is a NH only thing?
I do agree that the US driving course is quite easy.