Since many of you were kind enough to share your driving test stories, I’ll share mine.
I don’t remember a thing about it. I know it happened, because I carry a laminated piece of paper in my wallet to prove it, but I couldn’t tell you a single detail. I do remember the driving school I attended. It was on the second floor of a bulding in a small shopping center in Newtown, CT, right above a cigar store. The place reeked of smoke. I’d come out after a three-hour classroom session and my clothes would smell of cheap cigars.
Like many teenagers, I was a smart enough driver to behave when someone was watching and dumb enough to drive like an idiot when I thought no one was. Also like many teenagers—especially males—it is but for the grace of God I am not dead by now for having driven like an absolute moron.
Now that I am older and value my life more, I drive differently. I don’t own a car and therefore drive much anymore, but when I do I am about as cautious as one can be while still technically driving. Needless to say, I don’t think that driving school or the license test had much impact on me, other than giving me a lifelong disdain for the smell of cigars. It was other stuff, like getting slammed with a speeding ticket in Virginia and gaining the perspective of a pedestrian and cyclist, that taught me to behave on the roads.
Which is to say, I’ve always been suspicious of the idea that formal driver training or the licensing exam accomplishes much of anything. And after Georgia suspended the driver’s test during the pandemic, I decided to look into whether this suspicion held any water. On and off for the last year, I’ve researched and called around with experts on the subject. Then I asked you all for your driver test stories. The end result: Abolish the Driving Test. I hope you’ll give it a read. But if not, that’s OK too. We’re all busy and the article is....not short.
Here’s a cat I saw last night on the way to the grocery store.
Have a good one,
Aaron