There are many errors that one may commit in the name of driving, some illegal, some serious, and some not so much. Some errors happen while taking the government-required driving test. Tonight we will have a look at some driver fails.
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Pick up your free orange croissant below, but please...no driving and eating!
As of 2010, the record for the most attempts to pass a driving test goes to Cha Sa-soon of South Korea. The 69-year-old spent the equivalent of $16,500 US for 960 attempts and various fees. She actually passed the driving portion of the test on her 10th attempt; the 960 refers to the written exam, which she tried and failed almost daily for 5 years.
A UK record looks easy by comparison: a 26-year-old woman from South London failed her written test 90 successive times by 2011.
Not to be outdone, "Britain's worst driver" has failed 107 attempts, and has yet to pass (as of 2013).
An article on the Driving (Canada) website describes "The top five biggest reasons for failing a driving test". According to Tim Danter of the DriveWise school in Oakville, Ontario:
- Parallel parking: The bane of every new driver, and one of the things that is bound to be on the schedule of a driving test. I remember the old days before power-assisted steering and brakes were taken for granted. The steering motions back then required significantly more manual action than with today's technology assists. Now I find parallel parking pretty easy, but then I've had a few decades of practice. The new thing coming along is self-parking cars, with the on-board computer system using the views from several cameras to (presumably) park smoothly and automatically.
- Dangerous action: This covers a wide range of sins, from pulling out in front of another car to making a lane change without signalling. Apparently getting honked at is a sign that you've done something dangerous or stupid. Fortunately, I have very little personal experience with getting honked at.
- Lack of confidence: Driving way too slow or cautious for road conditions can be an indication of this. I have personal experience as a passenger with a family member driving who, as a grown adult, drives very timidly. My advice to such drivers: don't drive at all. I know that's a bit of tough love, but if you don't have the confidence to drive properly, after all these years, you probably shouldn't be on the road. If you don't start out with confidence, you might not accomplish getting your license (this is one of the things Driver's Education is for).
- Collision: This one is pretty obvious. But in many jurisdictions, if you are involved in a crash while taking a driving test, the test automatically stops and you fail, regardless of who is at fault. If another driver is totally at fault, you will be allowed to rebook and try again; if you caused the collision, you may also be charged according to the laws of the road where you live.
- Too many errors: This category is the most common cause of failing a driving test. The article explains that, for example, the Ontario driving test breaks down a lane change into eight distinct movements, and you could be marked up for failing any one of them. There are also the common faults of exceeding the posted speed limit, no matter by how little, or breaking any of a long list of traffic regulations.
Where you take your driving test does matter. Danter says that city people sometimes do go to smaller communities to take the test. Part of this is because driving on busy city streets is naturally more challenging than driving in rural areas. More cars, more pedestrians, more distractions, more everything. Unfortunately, passing an easier test might end up with some people getting a license to drive under challenging conditions, without demonstrating the skills to do so.
Speaking of driver fail:
Recently, a video of a 92-year-old Wisconsin man hitting nine cars in a parking lot in about a minute went viral. He drove off, after ramming them both in forward and reverse. The most stunning part? No charges were laid. Here’s a guy who only needed one more car to score a perfect strike, yet telling police he panicked is good enough.
No, it's not good enough. Take this guy off the roads, now.
What about when you're finished driving, and it's time to park? Do you know anyone who commits these crimes against humanity?
I'll summarize a few parking offences along with some familiar examples.
- Parking between the lines: Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm had an episode dedicated to this. A "pig parker" is someone who parks across the lines in a parking lot, taking up 2 spots. So the next car has to park out of alignment too, then the first car leaves, and the second car (Larry's!) gets the blame.
- Just visiting: In my city, some new apartments being built in a redeveloped part of town have no permanent resident parking provided. The builders are counting on residents either using public transit 100% of the time, or purchasing parking elsewhere. You just know that there's going to be a lot of "visitors".
- Driveway hogs: Our neighbor on one side had a party one time, and one of his guests parked blocking 75% of our driveway, literally making it impossible to get out of our own driveway. I asked politely to have the car moved, and it was. But who the hell does this?
- The Flasher: You know the type, they pop into a store for just a moment, parked wrong, and leave the flashers on to tell everybody I'll be right back. And yet, on a regular basis, we hear on the local news "a car was stolen with a baby strapped in the back seat while the driver dashed into a store...". It happened again here about three weeks ago. There needs to be harsher punishment for these idiots. And the thieves too.
- Bringing home the work truck: We have another neighbor who does this. Usually on weekends, and this monster work-related truck sits either in front of our house or across the street much of the weekend. Take it to an industrial park; this ain't it.