4 ms·

Indeed. American car-dependency has had the added side effect of making driving miserable for everyone. Because everyone "needs" a car to get around, getting a

Indeed. American car-dependency has had the added side effect of making driving miserable for everyone. Because everyone "needs" a car to get around, getting a driver's license is laughably easy, and even the stupidest, worst drivers can easily get one. In an ideal system, getting a license would require extremely stringent road and written tests, re-administered on a regular basis. However, doing that in the US is a political nonstarter because how can anyone live without a car?

vuln 4y ago
The US tried that with voting. Didn't work out too well. Edit: Here's more information on voter literacy tests that were once conducted. The outcome kept POC from being able to vote. https://americanhistory.si.edu/democracy-exhibition/vote-voice/keeping-vote/state-rules-federal-rules/literacy-tests https://americanhistory.si.edu/democracy-exhibition/vote-voi...
- warning26 4y ago
  Totally different; a car is fundamentally an expensive luxury item, even if the US tries to justify that everyone should own said expensive luxury item via dumping tons of tax money into car-focused infrastructure. Voting is many things, but you'd be hard-pressed to argue it should an expensive luxury.
  - tablespoon 4y ago
    > a car is fundamentally an expensive luxury item Says you.
  - vuln 4y ago
    > you'd be hard-pressed to argue it should an expensive luxury. I'm not arguing that at all. I'm just pointing out that _tests_ can have unintended or intended outcomes. Testing and retesting doesn't seem like a viable scalable solution.
  - dtgriscom 4y ago
    > you'd be hard-pressed to argue it should an expensive luxury. Or, that my voting constrains your freedom.
- crote 4y ago
  The entire point of literacy tests was to prevent POC from voting. They were explicitly designed to be virtually impossible to complete successfully, and white people were exempted from them via "grandfather" clauses: if your grandfather was allowed to vote, so were you. Driving tests are completely different. Right now some states basically give licenses away at age 14 for a dollar and a handshake. If you're going to let someone operate a 26.000 pound vehicle in public, shouldn't they at the very least demonstrate that they a) understand the traffic laws, and b) are able to operate the vehicle safely? If you move to a European country, you'll be required to re-take your driver's test, and it isn't without reason. They simply don't trust the USA to do it properly and that's not entirely unfounded.

vuln 4y ago

The US tried that with voting. Didn't work out too well. Edit: Here's more information on voter literacy tests that were once conducted. The outcome kept POC from being able to vote. https://americanhistory.si.edu/democracy-exhibition/vote-voice/keeping-vote/state-rules-federal-rules/literacy-tests https://americanhistory.si.edu/democracy-exhibition/vote-voi...

warning26 4y ago
Totally different; a car is fundamentally an expensive luxury item, even if the US tries to justify that everyone should own said expensive luxury item via dumping tons of tax money into car-focused infrastructure. Voting is many things, but you'd be hard-pressed to argue it should an expensive luxury.
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > a car is fundamentally an expensive luxury item Says you.
- vuln 4y ago
  > you'd be hard-pressed to argue it should an expensive luxury. I'm not arguing that at all. I'm just pointing out that _tests_ can have unintended or intended outcomes. Testing and retesting doesn't seem like a viable scalable solution.
- dtgriscom 4y ago
  > you'd be hard-pressed to argue it should an expensive luxury. Or, that my voting constrains your freedom.
crote 4y ago
The entire point of literacy tests was to prevent POC from voting. They were explicitly designed to be virtually impossible to complete successfully, and white people were exempted from them via "grandfather" clauses: if your grandfather was allowed to vote, so were you. Driving tests are completely different. Right now some states basically give licenses away at age 14 for a dollar and a handshake. If you're going to let someone operate a 26.000 pound vehicle in public, shouldn't they at the very least demonstrate that they a) understand the traffic laws, and b) are able to operate the vehicle safely? If you move to a European country, you'll be required to re-take your driver's test, and it isn't without reason. They simply don't trust the USA to do it properly and that's not entirely unfounded.