Saskwach said:
... That being said, I do find it somewhat silly that you can die for your country but not have a beer in it's honor at 18.
You should see our driver's license laws. As a late entry to the wonderful world of driver's licensing (just started down that path) I am at the beginning of a very long road. So I intimately understand the road ahead of me (a road which, it should be noted, each successive government feels it must put extra potholes in to 'look tough with those damn irresponsible kids'):
1)Pass a basic road knowledge test. 30 questions, minimum 25 right to pass. Not very hard. Having passed you can now drive as an L-plate driver. This means you must a) display L plates in the front and rear windows of your car and b) only drive with someone in the passenger side who has had a full license for more than 5 years. You'll be doing this a lot because your next test is:
2)A driving test. This test is notoriously draconian. The vast majority of the testers are old men who've been doing this for so many years (and for whom the paperwork for failing someone is much less than for passing) that they are now crotchety and angry. I've known people who failed the test because they didn't check their blind spot as they turned into the turning lane of a median strip (if that wasn't clear, basically a turning lane for which there could have been no one behind him). You will likely have to take this test 2-3 times, with a waiting list of a few months each time.
Congratulations! You have your Phase 2 Learner's license! What does that entail? You're still on your L plates, which means you still need a 5-year-fully-licensed passenger at all times - and you need to accrue 25 hours behind the wheel, logging the times you did this (minimum 15 minutes each time). There is a 6 month minimum period in Phase 2, so don't expect that you can just breeze through the 25 and move on to P plates. Oh I didn't mention P plates did I? In that case:
3)Finish those 25 hours and pass a computerised hazard perception test and you're on P - provisional - plates. You can drive alone. Well done! But wait - there's still restrictions. For instance: you cannot drive with a BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) over 0.00%. (Hell, you could be done for the drinking you did the night
before!)
You may not drive between 12am and 5pm unless driving to or from a place of work or study. This means you cannot be the designated driver for a group of drinkers, and you cannot drive yourself home from a party that went any length of time. It's as if the government doesn't even understand how drink driving
works.
You will have red-on-white P plates (which must be displayed) for 6 months, and then you will have 'green' P plates for another 18. After this you will finally have:
4)A full license.
(The anger in that rant was at the dills who made this terrible ladder of pain and tedium, not you. Apologies if it seemed that way.)[/quote]
Wait a minute dont you have automatics over there? Why so much red tape 0_o I could fall asleep and drive an automatic its like driving a freaking bumper car.