TestECull said:
What, exactly, are you planning to get, a pilot's license? Holy shit that's excessive. I could save you nine hours of driving around aimlessly.
Regular car. Class B.
The government has this vision of being able to reduce traffic accidents drastically over the next years.
This particular bit is step 4.1.2: Driving in highway environments and overtaking.
The main purpose is to learn about how to overtake others and when it's appropriate.
Getting on the highway:
1: turn onto ramp
2: Fucking floor it! Fuck gas mileage, fuck smoothness, you need 100% throttle here. Get up to roughly highway speed.
3: Lift off at 65MPH, or at the curve, whichever comes first
4: Merge
5: ???
6: You're on the highway!
Sorry, I didn't mean motorways. When I said 'highway', this is the kind of environment I was thinking of:
We call it a "landevei" in Norway, but it's hard to find suitable translations for those kinds of terms so I just went with 'highway'.
(And if I drove at 65 mph I'd be pulled over)
And I'm sorry: There's no sparing me those hours. Like I said, this course is mandatory.
Plus, even driving on the highway (or motorway or whatever) isn't as easy as reading that stuff. I have a 300 page textbook of theoretic material I need to read before I can get a license, and merging requires practice. Specifically, practice in dealing with people who are dicks about the merging fields.
Driving on the highway:
1: Stay between the lines just like you do off the highway.
Passing:
1: Look over shoulder.
2: Look in mirror.
3: Look over shoulder.
4: Merge into passing lane.
5: Fucking floor it. Nobody likes being stuck behind slow guy at 65 and fast guy at 65.5.
6: Lift off when you pass.
7: Merge back into slow lane.
8: Return to your previous speed. Modern cars with cruise control will pick back up automatically once you lift off the throttle, older ones and ones without working CC won't. Obv.
In a 'landevei' environment, that's more like
1. Survey upcoming stretch of road for appropriate overtaking section. Take oncoming traffic, intersections and potential animals and pedestrians into consideration.
2. Check the lines to confirm that overtaking is legal.
3. Check back mirror.
4. Place yourself three seconds behind the car you aim to overtake and move to the oncoming field.
5. Accelerate.
6. When you can see the overtaken car in the back mirror, move back to the right side of the road.
A 'landevei' has a speed limit of 80 km/h, but there are no merging fields on it. You are expected to maneuver and accelerate in the field you're driving in.
Highway driving is so piss easy anyone who knows what the major controls are can do it. It isn't difficult, and I don't know why your local government seems to think students need a five hour drive to learn it.
There is no special classes for learning to drive on highways. The teachers deal with that by taking you out on a highway during one of the regular city-driving lessons and telling you to practice merging and keeping the correct speed and course a couple of times.
And to practice reading signs correctly and positioning yourself accordingly.
That's a four hour drive where I will be tasked with such things as controlling air pressure and pattern depth in the tires, controlling the warning lamps and so on.
Controlling the air pressure and tread depth is not somethign you do while rolling. That's something you do while parked. It is kind of hard to fiddle with a tire pressure gauge at speed, and last time I checked, only hardcore off road vehicles can adjust the pressures on the fly.
I'm assuming we'll take a break from the driving to deal with those particular bits of the class.
As far as the warning lamps go they're pretty simple. Is there a hazard? Are you the hazard? Turn 'em on. Otherwise turn 'em off. Done.
Yeah, how to use them isn't exactly rocket science.
It is however the driver's responsibility to make sure that the car is in good condition to legally drive on the roads, so every new driver needs to learn how to control that the warning lights actually work.
I don't know if there's anything to this beyond turning them on and walking outside the car to see if they work. *shrug*
God I'd hate to live where you do. I'm all for a bit more instruction, where I live the education on how to drive falls on the parents and the state takes their word for it that you got the requisite ten hours daytime 5 night instruction, but your council has gone way too far in that direction.
It probably has to do with driving conditions being more demanding over here.
As I understand it, most driving in the states happens on straight, broad highways.
Over here, most driving happens on narrow, twisting (both vertically and horizontally) 'landeveier' lined with mountains and forests (which obstruct your vision, making it impossible to see around corners. You are expected to act as if there is a pedestrian standing around every corner.), that we share with both moose, deer, pedestrians, horses, reindeer, sheep, cows and bicyclists, making overtaking other cars quite a challenge.
In addition, these roads are covered in ice, snow and slush 6 months of the year. During these 6 months, the sun practically doesn't rise either, so it's dark.
lRookiel said:
Holy shit!
I learnt to drive, not commit every bit of driving knowledge to memory, I just rolled with it and I passed fine, you my friend have some crazy ass course! >.<
I have the mandatory course, is what I have.
