Roughly 40 years have passed since I took the road test to get my driver’s license, but I still remember much about that life-altering, spring morning on Long Island – especially the nerves.
I knew I was well-prepared. I knew I could perform all of the maneuvers necessary to pass the test, even the dreaded parallel parking requirement. I also knew most of my buddies had already gotten their licenses.
And that was the problem.
What if something goes wrong? What if I bump the curb while parallel parking? What if I fail?
When you’re 16 years old, getting your driver’s license is more than a rite of passage. It means everything. It means freedom.
“That part hasn’t changed,” said Lori Bloom, the Driver’s License/Department of Motor Vehicle Operations Manager at the Indian River County Tax Collector’s Office. “The kids are still nervous.”
The part that has changed?
The road test itself.
Not only have the requirements changed – no maneuvering in medium-to-heavy traffic, no hand signals, no parallel parking – but they’ve gotten easier, so much so that it’s naive to believe those who pass the test are ready for the road.
“The assumption is that if you have a driver’s license, you can drive,” said John Bolen, owner of A Treasure Coast Driving School, which will begin teaching Driver’s Education classes to students at the county’s public high schools in January.
“What that average person isn’t aware of, however, is how easy it is to get a driver’s license in Florida,” he added. “Passing the road test does not necessarily demonstrate a proven ability to drive correctly. It doesn’t correlate.
“It’s just a maneuverability test.”
Bolen ought to know: He has been teaching people to drive for more than 25 years. A past president of the Florida Professional Driving School Association and the current Southeastern U.S. Vice President of the Driving School Association of the Americas, Bolen also teaches courses used by the state to train prospective Driver’s Ed instructors.
With the addition of Vero Beach and Sebastian River, his company will teach Driver’s Ed classes at 14 public and private high schools in the Treasure Coast area.
“We’re called A Treasure Coast Driving School, not A Treasure Coast Get-Your-Driver’s-License School,” Bolen said. “That’s what a lot of driving schools do – teach what you need to know to get your license.
“For us, the test is an afterthought,” he added. “Our job is to teach someone to drive proficiently, and that goes far beyond the skills you need to pass the test.”
Even Bloom conceded, “Passing the road test means only that you’ve met the minimum standards to drive legally in Florida. It doesn’t mean you’re a perfect driver.”
Or anywhere close.
It doesn’t mean you’re ready to drive in rush-hour traffic, or on a highway, or on a city street where parallel parking is the only option. It doesn’t mean you’re able to handle many of the situations you’ll encounter on the road.
It doesn’t mean you can’t, either, but there are no guarantees – other than that you possess the skills necessary to operate a motor vehicle under controlled conditions in a parking lot with enough mastery to meet minimal standards that go only slightly beyond the ability to drive a golf cart.
Truth is, we don’t know. We don’t know what you don’t know. Maybe you don’t know what you don’t know.
And as Bolen put it: “That’s very scary.”
It’s scary because these rookie drivers, most of them teenagers, are on the road with us – and because they are, we trust that they belong there.
But do they?
The list of maneuvers drivers are asked to perform during Florida road tests include navigating a three-point turn; pulling into a straight-in parking spot; coming to a quick, safe stop on command while traveling 20 mph; backing up 50 feet at a slow speed; stopping at stop signs and proceeding when safe; driving within lanes and making proper turns.
Alexis Bakofsky, press secretary for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said the parallel parking requirement was eliminated in 1990 “because there were very few areas around the state that had a need for it.”
In our county, road tests are conducted on standardized courses at three locations – at the County Administration complex, at the Vero West Commercial Center on 82nd Avenue and at Sebastian Square on U.S. 1.
Bloom said all first-time, driver’s-license applicants take the same road tests, which usually take no more than 15 minutes to complete. She said 75 to 80 percent of applicants pass on their first attempt.
“We’re looking to see that a driver can maneuver a vehicle to meet the minimum standards required by the state,” Bloom said. “In some people’s minds, the test should be more difficult, but it’s a thorough course that covers all the requirements.
“I’d say about 75 percent of those who take the road test are very capable drivers, but whether someone passes or not, we go over the entire test with them and tell them what they did wrong,” she added. “I think the testing is very fair and accomplishes a lot.”
But does it accomplish enough?
If you spend any real time on our roadways, you can’t help but have serious doubts. You see a lot of antics that make you shake your head. And, especially in our community, not all of the lousy drivers are rookies – or even teenagers.
New drivers, though, lack the years of experience to know how to react to the bad driving and potentially dangerous situations they might confront.
“Insurance rates show that the more experience you have,” Bloom said, “the better driver you become.”
The DHSMV has tried to better prepare young drivers by making more challenging the written test applicants must pass to get their learner’s permits. The new tests, which began in January, were in response to statewide statistics that revealed an alarming increase in crashes involving teen drivers.
From 2010 to 2013 – the most recent DHSMV figures available – the number of traffic accidents involving teen drivers jumped from 26,000-plus to 36,000-plus. That’s a 35 percent increase.
Worse: An average of 78 teen drivers have been killed annually on Florida roads since 2010.
“The written test has become very difficult,” Bolen said. “When they first changed it, about 70 percent of people taking it for the first time were failing it.”
The passing numbers have improved since February, when the state tweaked some test questions and removed others that were worded in a way applicants found confusing. The DHSMV also updated the driver’s handbook and made it more accessible on mobile devices.
Still, through the first six months of this year, only 41 percent of the test takers passed. Only 40 percent of applicants failed in 2014.
The current test consists of 50 questions, both written and with signs, and applicants must answer 40 correctly to pass.
“You get an hour to finish,” Bloom said, “but the average time it takes to complete the test in this county is about 30 minutes.”
The questions on each test are not identical, though every exam covers the same material. The state strives for a 70 percent passing rate.
Is it possible that, in today’s litigious society, the state doesn’t want to take on the liability that surely would accompany any vehicular damage or personal injury sustained during a road test?
Is that why the road test doesn’t include driving on highways, where applicants would be required to merge with high-speed traffic, or on busy in-town roads, where an unprepared or unqualified applicant might panic?
Asked if it’s now impractical to require a more extensive road test, Bolen replied: “I don’t think so. Other states do it. They take people out and test their driving skills, not just their ability to maneuver a vehicle.
“What’s impractical,” Bolen added, “is expecting people to know how to drive if they’ve never been taught correctly.”