Things I've Learned

[davidn]

Here's the list of things I've learned from my information-gathering attempts for finally getting around to obtaining an American driving licence:

• America does not have the noun form of "licence", and it is "license"
• The name for the body of people and things that govern things like this is the DMV
• Massachusetts does not have a DMV
• Massachusetts has the RMV
• An RMV is a DMV
• A DMV is probably not an RMV
• Each RMV generously has an individual page where you can see the current wait times
• Even at three in the afternoon the wait is upwards of one hour
• What are you all doing there? Get a job, the lot of you
• No RMV branches appear to have phone numbers
• There's one unified phone number for everything called the RMV Telephone Center
• The employees on this line have the voices of people who have had all their soul sucked out of them through their nose and are now disembodied brains in jars phoenetically reciting script after script along their intracranial optical fibres
• There's no distinction between an automatic and manual driving licence here
• I need to start from the beginning as a learner again because I have a foreign licence
• The theory test here happens before you even get a learner's licence, not just before the test
• From initial impressions, the theory test appears fairly laughable:

  Question #6. What should you see in your rear view mirror before attempting to return to the right lane after passing a vehicle on the left?
  1. The driver of the car you are passing
  2. The bumper of the car you are passing
  3. Your hair
  
  Question #7. After you have parallel parked, how close to the curb must your vehicle be?
  1. 18 inches from the curb
  2. wheels should be touching the curb
  3. parallel parking scares me so much I'll drive around for an hour rather than try it

• "kerb" is apparently spelled with a C and a U
• You must provide four forms of ID to get a licence
• One of these must be from the primary ID list
• Twice as many as half of the rest of these must be on the secondary ID list
• A licence expires five of your birthdays after its issue date
• Insurance is not tied to a person-car pair but to a car itself... I think
• You must have a driving licence to get car insurance
• You have to have car insurance to get a licence
• It is therefore unclear to me how you actually organize a car in which to pass the test
• "Fully Loaded" crisps means that they're cheese and onion flavour

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Up here, the testing place will let you use their car, if you don't have the use of a relative's car.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Also, is "curb" a north-american thing? What do you call them?

[davidn]

Kerb! According to that list of differences which will never be complete within anyone's lifetime. Oddly, it indicates that "curb" as a spelling is older, and the two words later separated...

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

... Huh! I thought you were just being phonetic, like you had learned the meaning of the word by hearing it used...

But, according to that link, you would still write it "curb your enthusiasm"?

[davidn]

Yes, it hadn't actually occurred to me until then that the words might have had the same origin. Much like "licence" and "license", as noted at the start of the list, that would be another place where America doesn't have separate noun and verb forms of the word but Britain does...

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

I have never heard of this "kerb" spelling form before.

I'm going through the process to get a licence here. Even in this small town, there is a one month wait to get a road test, so I hope I pass it when my turn comes.

Here, too, one has to write a test before getting a learner's licence. I wrote it. Failed it. They let me write it again immediately; presumably I could sit there all day writing the test until I passed it. I was happy enough about that. The test was pretty tricky, and honestly I'm still not sure of the answers to several questions, despite getting them correct.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I almost expected it to be answers as 1,2,c.

I hope I got answer 6 correct, as I would return as soon as i see any part in the mirror so assume bumper would be the first thing, as I would have checked out the side first and when passed, if I see it in the Rear mnirror then it means I am travelling at an appropriate speed.

Question 7 has bad answers. It should be a maximum of 18 inches away from the kerb, anything between 0-18 is correct. In the UK, I am sure the tyres can touch the kerb, as long as it does not mount the pavement.

[davidn]

You know, I'm rather glad to infer that it isn't just me who's very hesitant about multiple choice answers on tests like this due to overthinking them :) There are several on the practice site I was using which had answers that weren't mutually exclusive to my mind, even though they were intended to be.

When I think about it, eighteen inches isn't even a challenge for parking - that's absolutely miles. Anything more and you haven't even parked, you've just sort of stopped.

[kjorteo]

They got the DMV/RMV/whatever questions from the Forensics levels in Trauma Team, I see.

[davidn]

I was wondering what they reminded me of, actually - that would be it. On many of them, the wrong answers are all laughable in different ways even though only one is clearly meant to be.

On the other hand, I have to admit... compared to last time I took a driving theory test, I miss having seventeen years of picked-up common knowledge. I don't automatically know what shape and colour a railway crossing sign is.

[kjorteo]

Also, in New Mexico, it's an MVD.

[scani.livejournal.com]

(Disclaimer: Poster is from the Province of Ontario. May not apply to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or any other jurisdiction.)

Insurance is not tied to a person-car pair but to a car itself... I think

From my understanding, similar in other jurisdictions - if you have the permission of the car owner, you will be covered by insurance. Obviously the driving record of the owner and the risk of the owner dictates premiums paid. This would permit you to borrow a vehicle for a road test (as, say, most driving schools will allow you to do).

There's no distinction between an automatic and manual driving licence here

Nope. By most accounts, you're better off taking the test in an automatic - not only is it just easier and leaves you less to worry about, but some of the standards they sometimes look for in operation of a manual transmission are just outright unsafe, harsh on the vehicle, and contrary to the way you'd drive "for real" (downshifting sequentially as you slow down, etc.)

[davidn]

Thank you, that's pretty much what I thought about the insurance. In Britain, you as a specific person have to be insured to drive a specific car (perhaps a side effect of the separate licences for automatic and manual vehicles?), and you can't swap around. From the driver's manual that I was looking through last night, that appears to be the exact situation - you're expected to find a sponsor who is willing to lend you their car for the test, and who has to ride in the back during it for maximum trauma value.

I remember "learning" a lot of things about manual transmission for what I should probably now call my first driving test, that you would never actually do in real life. That is, I'm sure the rules said to downshift while slowing down, but every driving instructor will tell you not to.