How Long Did It take you to learn to Drive

Got my permit last August, my License June 7th.

Really wasn't too bad except one of my instructors was deaf in one ear and decided all the other instructors were wrong and he would basically tell me everything I learned the previous week was wrong. But I still passed the test first try.
 
If I were to guess by the drivers I see on the road around me, most still haven't learned, and they've been driving for anywhere between 1 and 50 years.
 
Driving wasn't too hard but my first car was a standard so it took me a while to master that.
 
I think it took me about a month to get comfortable behind the wheel...

parallel parking... that's a different story.
 
A few weeks to get the basics, and I'm still learning more years later.

It's experience based. Drivers ed and road tests will be good enough to get started but from then on out it's all random experiences that will teach you.
 
So many people never learn how to drive. One guy actually sped up today so I couldn't make my merge, and drove me nearly onto the soft shoulder. This was up to a red light.

One thing that you should always remember when driving is that people will always do idiotic things while driving, but getting angry and reacting puts yourself and others at risk. You'll never see them again.
 
Took me a week or two to get by, never had a problem and I've been driving for over a year and have had no accidents so I think it's going well so far
 
My parents wouldn't let me skip school to get mine. Luckily a week ish after we had a freezing rain storm that shut down schools. My dad was like "Are you not coming". I was thinking WTF? Like you're going to let me drive in this shit. Freezing rain on back mountain roads in a park preserve. I learned to drive pretty quickly as I didn't have much of a choice. It was probably for the best as I have no problems driving long distance in shitty weather now.

 
I've had a license for well over a decade now, and still find myself in situations that I've never been in before.

If anyone thinks that a couple weeks of drivers ed means that you know how to drive and are completely ready to hit the road, you're an idiot.
 
I had a fisher price jeep when I was 8. Got it christmas morning, was driving that bad boy up and down sidewalks by noon. So....4 hours? You don't really "learn" to drive. You just drive. You learn stupid useless textbook nonsense, like stay back 500 feet from a firetruck. Who cares
 
16 lessons of 1.5 hours before I got my license. And then I also had a theory exam (quite hard-ish). I did it pretty fast.

In the Netherlands you are required to take driving lessons with a certified instructor and when he feels you're ready to take your drivers exam, you can take that (through the government). I think it takes the average person about 45 hours or so to get their exam. Most people fail their first exam.

But not I actually know how to drive. When I lived in the states I didn't have my license and I was a better driver than most people. Automatic is too easy though. Everybody drives stick in Europe.
 
Yes, I drive standard because it's more difficult and not for the increased control. I just want to make sure everyone knows how skilled I am when I tell them about my ride.

Drives for 15 min in Jerz with parents, better driver than everyone in the whole country.

 
Let's get real. The most important skill is driving in the snow. If you are good at that. You are a good driver in my eyes.
 
All my uncles live on farms so i grew up driving ride on lawn mowers, quads moving up to trucks and driving them around before i was legally allowed to drive so i think i had a pretty good grasp of it before getting my license. in alberta you can get your learners license when you are 14 and you have to have your parent in the passenger seat, then you can get your full license at 16.
 
After about five months of learning, passed first time.

Two weeks later I left my car on it's side in a ditch on my way to school...
 
Teen drivers arent bad at driving, we just are stupid and reckless a lot. When i first started driving i thought it was cool to peel out of the school lot in my honda accord, some people learn later than others that shit like that makes you look like a tool.
 
No trust me they are. From what I've seen, kids at my school let their egos get in the way and pull dick moves like using merge lanes on the right to pass you and shit like that.
 
my dad took me to a ranch in texas and we took a truck out. Lots of room for error until they got on hunting seats on the front. then i was worried about running him and my uncle into a cactus but it wasnt bad. Basically about 10 minutes to get the basics down and have been progressing since.
 
This is actually footage of me from the first time that I ever drove a car:

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Just wait for them to crash/die. Survival of the fittest at it's best.

But seriously though, any school will have those people. Just wait for them to do it by a cop, and laugh, laugh a lot. My school seriously does not have very many cocky drivers
 
Stupidty and recklessness isn't a substitute for bad driving. Teenagers are terrible drivers, and I'll be the first to tell you I did stupid shit behind the wheel my first two years of driving. Once I gained a lot of experience driving, long trips, snowy roads, etc. I became a better, more conscious driver. Every day is a learning experience in a car/truck. Overall, teenagers are bad drivers. Ask your insurance agent why you're a high risk and he'll give you the stats.
 
I would quote the snowy part, but i'm on mobile.

A big part of why teens are bad drivers in bad conditions is how many times they drive in that stuff. I was lucky and had defensive driving classes scheduled on snowy days, but even so there has only been one time in my 6 months of having my liscence that i have had to deal with ice. I did horrible, i was sliding past corners and through stop signs. However, after 10 minutes i was completely comfortable and had no problems stopping, accelerating up hills, or turning.

The main idea is, how we learn to drive and who we are tought by vastly effects our driving skills. For example, my Mom has been living in Colorado for 20 years and still cant drive worth shit in snow and ice. She never had a good baseline teaching on snow so she doesn't know how to drive in it
 
it took a few weeks for me to feel pretty comfortable on the road- waited for license and yeah no accidents i think i'm pretty safe/cautious. still a little shaky on manual, i've only been out a few times in it though.
 
If you're in the US, you WILL NOT fail the test, you would have to try to fail on purpose to do that.

As for the teenage driver thing, that would be me. I am actually decent at driving mountain roads and snow and stuff because berthoud pass is where I did probably half my permit driving. That said, I'll admit I'm pretty bad a heavy traffic driving.
 
Fuck accepting reality. I accept that i am probably not a good driver, but i am not some soccer mom texting while spanking her kids while sipping on her starbucks while going 20mph over in her 4 ton SUV. I was blessed by my parents with a great driving school and having me drive at all opportunities. Not all teens are terrible drivers, just not very good

So who is worse, me or my grandma who can barely see over the dash in her boad sized Caddy and cannot read the speedo or see the lines painted on the street
 
Cool generalization, Hansel. When I was a teenager, I liked to drive fast and corner hard, just like any other kid, but I was certainly not a shitty driver. Whether you think that's up for debate is fine, but I was taught to drive with an awareness of my surroundings, I didn't eat, text, talk on the phone, or any of that shit while driving (I still don't), and I always drove defensively in traffic. My driving record is 100% clean 9 years later, with the exception of a few parking tickets. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I'm willing to bet there are more kids like me than idiots crashing into things and fucking shit up.
 
Yeah for sure. I think the biggest thing is learning how to drive a car before trying to drive fast etc.

Many people get behind that wheel and abuse their freedom. They don't respect what they're driving and it takes a few years, and a couple crashes for them to realize it.

I knew one girl who went totaled at least 2 and crashed 5+ I think with a couple years. Can't believe her parents bought he new cars.
 
This. I've had my license for almost 4 years (still not a long time) by have a perfect record (one small speeding ticket that was deferred and dropped) and am an excellent driver in winter conditions. So much so that on road trips, if my mom (dad doesn't have this problem) encounters ice or snow, she makes me swap over and drive
 
I got my class a and class m permit on my 16 birthday. 2nd week driving I drove to NY 6 hours away and back perfectly fine.
 
A couple days to get comfortable just driving, probably a few months to get comfortable in traffic, and I'm still learning. The driving test should be way harder, judging by the insane amount of shitty drivers I see pretty much every time I'm on the road.
 
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