No School Like Old School

The driver’s license. Every teenager’s first taste of freedom… of adulthood. To be able to go anywhere, anytime without having to beg our parents for a ride is the stuff dreams are made of. And if you’re lucky, to have your own car. It doesn’t matter if it’s a two-door hatchback with bald tires and a brown door. You have your own ride, and that’s all that matters. Grab your license, the keys, and you’re ready to go. But are we?

What does it take to get a license today? For me, and I understand this varies a bit from state to state, but my requirements were rather minimal. First, I needed to obtain a Learner’s Permit. You first get a study guide, available either online or at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Then you take the test. The test can be taken at the DMV, or on the website. Of course, the website is on the honor system and, well you can imagine how that goes. After you pass the test with flying colors, you receive your Learner’s Permit in the mail. At this point, you have 6 months (or more if needed) to log 60 hours of driving time to be able to take the Driver’s License test. The log can be done by any adult licensed driver who will sign their name attesting to your completion. Again, not monitored by any DMV representative or affiliate. Finally, you take a driving test at the DMV which consists of driving on city streets, in traffic, making turns, changing lanes and getting on the highway to show the ability to drive at 55 mph or more. As long as you don’t mess up too badly, you get your license that day. No written test required. Pretty simple… probably too simple. But that’s fine. That’s what every driver does to get their license, right?

That is not the experience that our parents went through. My father loves to tell horror stories of the trials and tribulations he had to endure to get his driver’s license. The study guide to get a Learner’s Permit wasn’t a 6-page leaflet. It was a book. It went over everything from proper hand signals for turning to what all the different lines painted on the road mean. You had to be able to identify road signs by the shape and color only. It described the correct order of procedure at a 4-way stop intersection when no light is present. And all of these were covered on the test that was conducted at the DMV. As far as the education portion is concerned, he was required to attend Driver’s Education class. This was a full semester high school course only available to Junior and Senior students. This course consisted of driving simulators, lectures, graded exams, movies with titles like “Blood on the Highway” and of course in-car driving instruction where the teacher sat in the front passenger seat with their own brake pedal in the event you were unable to control the vehicle. And because this was a full semester, he was able to experience driving in all types of weather conditions. Rain or shine, sleet or snow, he drove in it. After finishing Driver’s Ed with a passing grade you presented your school certificate to the DMV where you then took both a written exam and driving test. The written driving exam was stressful enough, but 1 out of every 10 applicants had the unlucky pleasure of driving with a law enforcement officer. My father said they all stood in line praying it wouldn’t be them. So did this make our parents better drivers? Well, they were at least more knowledgeable. They were still unexperienced, just like we are.

The driving experience probably matters more than the education. The more you drive, the more you learn. Back then, the cars were bigger, slower, harder to maneuver, some were even manual transmission needing even more driver involvement, and the only distraction you were warned about was changing the radio station while driving. Getting in and out of traffic was a bit of a challenge and squeezing into a parking space at the grocery store almost guaranteed a few door dings. But still, people were more likely to follow the rules of the road and be a bit more polite to each other, letting each other merge and take their turns at the stop sign.

The distractions we deal with today are far more overwhelming. Technology is mostly to blame. Yes, cell phones are a huge problem. But putting cell phones aside, there are far more distractions than we realize. Many of which developed slowly to where we didn’t even notice, or at least thought they were a good thing at the time. Auto manufacturers have continuously added features to our cars that were meant to “assist” the driver. Parking sensors that tell you if you are too close to something. Navigation systems so we don’t need to know how to read a map. Back up cameras so we don’t back into the car behind us or run over something in the driveway. Seems like a good idea until we become completely reliant on them and forget that we can turn our heads and look in our mirrors. Cars now have touch screens that wirelessly connect to all our devices, not only hands-free phone calls, but all our apps are now available on a larger screen for our constant use. And the “radio” is a distraction? Which one? FM, XM, Spotify, Pandora, Sirius? It could take you 20 minutes just to find a genre you like, let alone your favorite song. Our cars tell us when we are drifting into another lane or off the road. They tell us that we aren’t paying attention enough to realize traffic has stopped in front of us or is leaving without us. And if you are just too busy being distracted by everything else, you can get a car that drives itself. If the day ever comes when you have the chance to drive a classic car, you may not remember how. So now the more you drive, the less you learn.

So, are our parents better drivers because they had a better education and have years of experience? Are we worse drivers because we didn’t get any education, are otherwise inexperienced and are constantly distracted? Maybe. Is this our fault? Or did the system break down over time and the slow removal of requirements failed to provide us with the knowledge and skills we need? Did the auto manufacturers take away the need for these skills by giving us technology to do it for us? The truth is that the requirements to get a driver’s license 30 years ago were better in that you knew and understood what it takes to drive down the road safely. Knowing what street signs and indicators mean can keep you out of harm’s way. You had more knowledge and experience even before you got your license, and the DMV made sure of it. The best thing you can learn from this education is knowing when to turn the technology off and pay attention to your driving. Technology can never substitute for your own ability. None of these modern developments have made the roads safer. The biggest danger on the road is complacency. Maybe the old school wasn’t so bad.