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I would agree that getting a license in the US is significantly easier than in Europe. I'm American, but I lived in Scotland for 7 years and go my first drivers
by jplahn 12y ago
I would agree that getting a license in the US is significantly easier than in Europe. I'm American, but I lived in Scotland for 7 years and go my first drivers license there. I was told the pass rate was around 40%, which may or may not have been the truth. It was about a 45 minute test. Fast forward a few years to when I returned to the US for college and my drivers test was about 5 minutes long and an absolute joke.
As for the last point about American roads being larger and safer, I'm not sure the second part is true. They are definitely larger, but there's been research done to indicate that larger != safer. I'll try to dig up the article, but I'd tend to agree with the sentiment. I've seen significantly more accidents on large laned freeways in America with a 55 mph speed limit than skinny backroads in Scotland with a 60 mph speed limit, even with adjusting for the larger amount of traffic on the American freeways.
- thirsteh 12y agoI guess it's possible that small and curved multi-directional roads are safer than larger, mostly one-directional roads (or in a grid system) simply because they force you to pay attention.
- aragot 12y ago"Why 12-foot lanes are disastrous for security" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8439977 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8439977