This article came out today in the Post-Gazette.
No wonder there is so much bad-driving on the streets... is this the root of the problem? Or a place to start in re-educating drivers to be safer in the road not only for their sake, but for the cyclists & pedestrians on the road?
Study finds 1 in 4 Pa. drivers don't know rules
Scores on yearly test 'not getting better
Discuss:
Thanks so much for posting this bikeygirl. I took the test and got a 90%. I got the safe following distance question wrong, I erred on the side of caution. Don't mind missing that one. Why am I not surprised that there wasn't a cycling related question. (grrr)
It's okay to pass on the right in a multilane highway? Excuse me?
The standard 15-of-18 test is WAY too easy as it is, and people still retake it too many times. My brother failed three times before passing, and has been in countless accidents in the past 8 years. My foster brother failed four times already and is currently not studying to take it again. I'm dumbfounded that my parents even consider letting him drive.
Seriously. 100 questions. 95% to pass. No retakes. $250 application fee. That'll fix most of our problems.
100 questions. 95% to pass. No retakes. $250 application fee.
I lie it, except that I have no problem with retakes, so long as the fee is paid each time and the 100 questions are drawn from a larger pool.
Let's add a 5-year renewal test, where it's free if you pass, but you start over if you fail.
I took it while reading the paper this morning. I got 100%. I loved the question about when it was okay to drive off the paved roadway. You can just see people thinking, "Well sure, if it's wide enough..."
+Eleventy!!! on the retakes. I know personally, my driving skills have ebbed and flowed over my life. (Mostly through periods of lots of driving to little driving an back.) Not saying that I would have flunked at any point, but getting a lower score would have been a wake up call.
I never took the actual test, but still, I drive. If this test is similar to an actual test, I must say that knowing the answers to most of the questions would actually not help me. Not at all. I guessed most of them, I got 18 good answers!
But how is it going to help me to know that "Keeping your eyes moving to look for possible hazards" is called "driving defensively" ?
Plus, when you drive and have to make a choice, you must decide quickly, and not from a choice of 3 answers.
That thing is totally unadapted.
AARP cant kill the renewal tests if the renewal tests arent age discriminatory. Everyone takes them, no exceptions. I also think reflex and proper eye tests should be required(not read 3 letters from a viewmaster). Its not about discriminating, its about safety, period.
no, aarp would surely kill the renewal tests. not through the court, but just from their tremendous political clout. there are more than enough older folks who refuse to stop driving and would fail any such test to give them reason to block renewal tests.
my friend who is a cop and cyclist has pulled 2
people over on the Turnpike GOING THE WRONG WAY.
1 was drunk
1 was old.
The old person, he is not legally allowed to pull
their license. All he can do is recommend to a
judge that they need to be examined by a doctor.
awesome.
AARP could kill "sending flowers to your mother on her birthday". And when you get AAA involved...
ok, I'd like to point out what the 1 in 4 is based on. A poll of 5000 drivers across 50 states. That's, stupidly assuming equal numbers from all states, an average of 100 drivers from each state. So that could be 25 drivers in PA that failed. I'm just saying it's not necessarily a true representation - we don't know where they pooled their subjects from. Are online intelligence tests to be taken as representative of the population at large?
I got a 95%... I missed the question about passing on the right. I was (and still am) pretty sure you are not supposed to pass on the right on highways.
"not supposed to" != illegal
you definitely get a ticket for it. I was also doing 95mph though.....
you are not supposed to pass on the right on highways.
I interpreted this question as referring to limited access, two or more lanes in each direction, divided by a barrier or median, interstate type highway. Think of I-270 for about 15 miles out from 495 near D.C. Six lanes each way? No way you can avoid passing cars to your left at times. That is not illegal. Imagine all the lane shifting that would have to be going on if it was.
I'm ashamed to admit that I got a 85% on my test...
I got wrong the #15 'fog' question, the #16 'following safe distance' question, and the #18 question 'what to do when yellow"...
Granted, I have admitted before that I'm a 'speedy gonzales' when I drive.... : /
EDIT: I'm a recovering 'speedy gonzales' 
I can't even imagine following a car with 10 seconds of buffer. That's a LOT of room! Somebody could overtake me, then I'd have to slow down even more to get back my 10 seconds of buffer again!
@joe.... I know. I just don't have a sense of 'time' in questions like this, 3 seconds -strictly speaking- sounds like such little time -know what I mean?
