The states vary, but when I was 16 in Maryland I had to do classroom training for some number of hours, then when I got my learner's permit I had to do some number of hours of driving with an instructor, then some number of hours driving with a licensed adult. Only after all that, and I think some minimum time limit, could I take the 20 question multiple choice test and a parking test to get my driver's license.
So why are you making a sweeping claim about all US drivers tests, given that you only took one of them? The one you took was clearly bad. The process I went through in Maryland is apparently one of the tougher ones. 30 classroom hours, 6 hours one-on-one with an instructor, 50 hours daytime driving with an older licensed driver, 10 hours nighttime driving, and then you can take the written and driving tests (which require you to parallel park). After that you can drive on your own but still can't have any non-adult passengers and can't drive past midnight or your license is suspended for a year. After 18 months of driving with no moving violations and no other criminal convictions, you finally get a real driver's license. The whole process takes a couple of years.
I learned to drive at ~24. I think I did 10-12 hours of lessons before I took a test. The driving instructor was cool with showing up at 7am or some time like that and doing an hour of lessons before I had to leave for work. They were also relieved to be teaching an adult (relatively speaking).
Most US states require more than 20 hours in the classroom (usually a week or two), plus 8+ hours of actual driving with a driver's education teacher, plus some number of years with a learner's permit, where driving is only allowed during the day with a licensed driver 21 or older supervising in the vehicle. Then written and driving tests by the DMV must be passed to get licensed.
In practice, the classroom study usually isn't all that rigorous, and the testing is likely too easy.
But the requirements on paper aren't typically any easier in the US.
What's most needed is probably refresher quizzes for license renewals to remind drivers of commonly forgotten or new driving laws. Like who has right of way at a 4 way stop, or how to zipper merge.
It varies state-to-state. I grew up in Florida, where I started learning to drive at age 14. I was taught entirely by my mother, and I earned my learner's permit at 15, then was fully licensed at 16 after passing the tests.
About five months after I was issued my driver's license by the state of Florida, we moved to North Carolina, where driver's education is compulsory for people under 18. They would not issue me a North Carolina driver's license unless I completed driver's ed., even though I was already licensed in the state of Florida.
As a result, I enrolled in driver's ed. via my high school. Classes took place in the afternoon after all my regular classes were finished. Then, while my classmates were waiting for their rides, I got in my car and drove myself home. For the on-road portion of the coursework, I drove myself to and from the school on Saturday mornings and hopped in the "Student Driver" car. My instructor, knowing I already knew how to drive pretty well, just had me drive him on his errands -- grab a coffee at McDonald's, return some tapes to Blockbuster, deposit his paycheck at the bank, etc.
It was bullshit, but I had to do it to obtain an NC driver's license.
Of course, after college I moved to northern Virginia for work, and getting my VA license was as easy as filling out a form and showing them my NC license. Done! The VA DMV puts the NC DMV to shame in many ways, including efficiency. (In NC, we also have separate DMV offices for licenses and tags. Pain in the ass!)
Terrifying, but I drove for only two hours before getting my driver's license in California. At the time (and possibly still) you didn't have to have driver's training courses to take the test if you were 18+.
In my state you can’t get a learners permit until 16. You get your drivers license after having your learners for 6 month, completing a classroom and a road driving class. There is no road driving test involved at any point.
I'm not sure what state you're talking about, but most I know are way less. presuming the learner is over 18 the requirements tend to be something like
1. A written exam, takes ~30 mins to 1 hour at the DMV
2. A 5 hour class (when I took this the 5 hour class clearly hadn't been updated for decades)
3. A driving exam that took ~30 minutes end to end
My understand is that most states are like this, though it gets a bit more stringent if you are under 18
I can tell you this is pretty vastly different now. I also grew up in Illinois, and after passing the theory test you are only granted a learner's permit. To obtain a license you need 50 hours of supervised practice behind the wheel, at least 10 of those hours being at night. You're then given a practical test at the DMV where you take public roads with a designated instructor.
At least, that's the process to get a license before you're 18, I think after 18 you just need to pass the practical test. And since usually the person filling out the 50 hours sheet is one of your parents it's definitely possible to just lie about it.
Heh, I'm dating myself, but I got my first license at 14 in Idaho. The only thing I needed was a 10 minute practical exam and to pass the written exam. There was no minimum required hours of driving (Scary, I know!)
They've since changed it to 16 with 50 hours of supervised driving.
Why did it take you two years and a small fortune? It took me some reasonable number of hours over ~6 months (at the time in CA you could get your learner's permit at 15.5 and license at 16) and a couple hundred bucks for a driving instructor.
In New Jersey, there is classroom training as part of school curriculum that is typically done in public school around the end of age 15 going into 16 (since people generally get a license while they are still in school). This training consists of teaching the material issued in this booklet[1] which is the official NJ rules and regulations for driving in the state. At the end of the training, there is an exam (typically computerized these days).
If you are past the age where you'd be in school, you can get the official state issued driving booklet and self study or you can attend a third party school which teaches the booklet. Either way you take the same exam.
Passing that exam entitles students to receive a learners permit that allows limited driving privileges (tags must be placed on the car indicating the driver is on a learners permit, restricted hours driving, must be accompanied by someone with a full license, etc.)
Permit holders must complete at least 6 hours of practice over a 6 month period under supervision.
After a year a driving test is conducted and that determines if you are eligible for a probationary drivers license or if you require more training time.
If you pass, you are upgraded to a probationary license. The probationary allows unsupervised driving but with other restrictions (time curfew) for 1 year. No incidents during that year allow you to graduate to a full unrestricted driving license.
- at ~16, you become eligible for a driving permit which allows for supervised driving only
- getting the permit requires you to "pass" a pathetic 10ish question exam for which the literal questions and (multiple choice) answers are publicly available
- after 6-12 months (again, variable) you become eligible to get your full license
- to get a license, you usually need a guardian or affiliated adult to sign a form saying they taught you for over 40 hours of supervised driving.
- sometimes you also need a "safety class" or possible a "driver's education" class. Driver's education can be useful, since it's literally just a teacher riding around in a car driven by students and pointing out where the students go wrong. Safety classes are almost invariably useless, since they mostly just regurgitate rules of the road and obvious safety tips that most students immediately forget.
- Once you become eligible for a license, you go to a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the same place where you got your permit. Schedule an appointment, and an employee will take you for a driving test. In the driving test, you have to show your mettle at serious challenges like parallel parking a car, stopping at stop signs, looking over your shoulder while changing lanes, and looking both ways before making a turn at a stop. This basic test has a less than 50% passing rate, but you can take it as many times as you like so even the worst drivers eventually jump through the hoop.
So basically the process you imagined but with more time and hoops where the government gets to charge you $$.
For the license or the learner's permit? Where I'm from (Alabama), the learner's permit is just a multiple choice exam, but the license itself still requires a driving test. Not a hard one, but at least it's there.
Where I learned in the US, we had a few weeks of driver's ed classes in HS, then practiced with an instructor for a bit. After that, getting a permit then a license was simple enough. At this point, I don't get anything more than vision tests and I don't actually have to renew my license until I'm 60 or something.
I'm almost 39 and I did pass my driving test last year for the first time in my life.
Not sure how things work in the US, but where I am, we get a standard package of 30 driving hours before we can do the exam.
For me that wasn't enough,so I had to take additional hours,which did help a lot and removed knowledge gaps.
In a nutshell,the older one is,the more hours will be needed.
https://learndriving.tips/starting-out/how-many-driving-less...
My advice is to get a bigger number of hours so the instructor would have enough time to teach properly. Also I did on a manual, which is way less popular in the US, however it does help a lot understanding how the car behaves,etc.
And to be fair, it isn't that much wait in some places.
In Indiana, for example, drivers education lets you get it about 6 months earlier than if a relative teaches you. Without drivers ed, you can get a learner permit at 16 as long as you pass the "knowledge test".
Driving school wasn’t required, though you can take a “driver’s ed” class in high school to skip the exams at the DMV (you take them as part of the class). The exams are free (IIRC), you just have to pay to get the license when you pass. You only have to pass a written exam to get your “permit” (limited license). You need a certain amount of hours of driving to get a full license; but these aren’t really tracked. You just need a guardian (if you’re under 18) or a license holder to sign an affidavit saying you drove the hours. I definitely hadn’t actually driven the number of required hours when I turned 16 and my mom signed off on it.
It varies widely by state, of course; I started driving in Alabama when I was 15. I just recently had to pay WA to transfer my license from Colorado, I guess that was just administrative fees.
I think it's pretty normal to get a learner's permit like a year before your license, so you can theoretically do the 50 hours with a parent. But I've never seen that part formally enforced, you could just do nothing until you're of age for the license driving test. Mostly depends on your parents.
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