Thats what I asked 20 years ago. It sure made it harder to get a job driving a 80,000 pound rig on the same highway as our families though.

Given a license to a teenage driver without a test strikes me as a recipe for disaster.

Just another hidden tax, and BS runaround.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NINOxRxze9k&feature=player_embedded

I'd take I-35 over in-town SA traffic any day. I live off of Fredrickson Blvd across from the lower part of the USAA complex. I have a 6 mile commute up Fredrickson and the I-10 frontage road to the UTSA campus. Intersections at Huebner and DeZavala roads are a nightmare. People will pull out of business entrances and literally drive straight across 4 lanes of oncoming traffic just to get over to the extreme left hand turnaround lane, instead of just pulling out into the right hand lane and going up to the next intersection to turn around. Others will pull their car out across the right hand lane and block traffic in that lane, literally shoving their front bumper within inches of the front bumper of the car in the next lane over, blocking traffic in that lane as well and forcing other cars to again let them work their way across all 4 lanes to the left hand side, stopping all traffic until they've accomplished this brain-dead maneuver.

I'm just waiting for the day when there's a semi coming down the right hand lane, and one of these idiots pulls out right in front of it to try this same stunt.

And the times I've been close enough to get a good look at the driver, 75% of the time there's been a cell phone glued to their ear thru the whole episode.

Yes, it is 3 weeks to a new career. HOWEVER, that does not mean I had you the keys to the executive washroom after 3 weeks. You have to pay your dues like everyone else.

I just talked to someone here in WI. Seems like he has to get some OTR experience before he can get the nicer routes which are more local. He investigated it and I am just reporting what he said but seems like he would have to pass thru school first. Next he had to get OTR runs which were probably long and people didn't like for a couple of years. After that, he could get local runs. I and he might be wrong so someone feel free to correct me.

My mom lives in Cibolo and drives a smart car, and she is always amazed because people will drive from the freeway to the frontage road over the median when ever the freeway slows down. She loves her Smart, but I told her to get a truck because I could see some *expletive deleted* running her over while she’s driving around her little car.

Drivers in CA are rude, and nasty, and one time I saw a car facing the wrong way on the freeway only to learn later on the evening news that the driver had been shot after cutting off some gang bangers while trying to get to their exit. So I'm in no way premoting the California Driver... but they don't drive all over the road...

Driving here seems to be extremes.. It's either in the left lane at 50 mph, or weaving at 90 mph in an F-350 Crew Cab Dualie.. Kinda why I can't wait for my "new" 126 to get here.. Even the F-350 crowd yielded to me in the old 126 lol...

Yeah its amazing but I-35 seems to be the least stressful drive nowadays. It hasn't always been like that. I used to hate driving on it especially north. Now it and 410 are the only roads that dont have intersections for someone to pull out in front of you. Merge lanes (if you want to call it that) but no straight shot across the freeway. Grant it you still have the dummys that go from the left lane across 4 lanes and just barely make the exit. All at an average of 80+ miles an hour.

I drive a 26000lb service truck all over texas and as for the semi's I've seen that happen more than I care to remember. I guess you already know the car usually loses . Two stick in my mind.

One on 281 and borgfield rd a 560sel (I think ) pulled out in front of a semi the back of the car was smashed to the back of the front door. We sat there 1 hour till air life arrived with all the yellow bags I dont know if there was any one to pick up .

The other was coming up from the valley on 77 in the fog . Us trucks were doing 25-30 mph and a minnie van flew past . I remember it was a family with kids jumping around in it. 100 miles later there was an accident . A minnie van had run under a flatbed . The same one ! no one survived.

I went up to New York last February and actually thought how courteous and well most people drove. I was the craziest there until I learned if I turned on my blinker some people actually do yield and let you over. Also the speed limit is 55 not 70 ! OOPS.

Does N.Y. waive the basic driving test??

I feel as if Pennsylvania has the formula down right.

16 you get your learner's permit for 6 months after you complete the written test. This took me 3 tries :P

Once the six months are up you're eligibile to apply for the road test with the DMV critter. It's pretty hard and I had to take it twice. The guy marked down my nervousness on the road test as a "Driver Distractrion" penalty :P This license is just a cinderella license with night time restrictions that are lifted if you have work/study engagements.

And finally at 18 the cinderella license becomes an adult one. If you opt to take a driver's ed class, which I did, there is a form you have to get notorized with the driver's education certificate and mail it off to Harrisburg. I paid the 10$ to get rid of the Junior license stamp, but some goon pocketed the check and I never got it. Either way I confirmed it was an adult license after a DMV critter confirmed it.

I know in some states like Arizona I think you can get the permit at 15 and a half. This would have enabled me to start working earlier, but I had to wait 6 months.

I'm young enough to remember how I was demonized by the powers at be for being a young driver. Getting my license early enabled me to start work at my dad's doctor's office and at a local Dairy Queen. I wouldn't have been able to afford the luxaries like gasoline and the luthier work for my viola at the time.

Most teens are responsible drivers. And I wouldn't trust a 1/4 statistic at all when it comes to accidents. They're just that, statistics and not god given facts.