At 12:24 PM 10/11/2006 -0700, Florian Speier wrote:
>this included thirty hours of driving with a teacher who
>has a second set of pedals. of these three are on the autobahn, five
>highway, two at night and the rest in town. Additionally roughly twenty
>hours of theory, which includes driving rules, suggestion and basic
>mechanics. failing a driving test costs you roughly 300usd.

Let's contrast that to the state of New Jersey, where I got my license in
1981...

After passing the written test, I went to the Wayne, NJ Motor Vehicle
office, where I took my "road test" on a closed course within the grounds.
I demonstrated my ability to recognize (and stop at) a stop sign, use
signals, back up, make a three-point turn,  and parallel park (flawlessly,
for the first, and so far only time in my life :-). I doubt I exceeded 8
MPH at any point.

After that they handed me a license, and turned me loose... presumably to
exit the facility and drive directly into the merge of Routes 46, 23 and
I80... one of the most notoriously congested and accident plagued stretched
of really bad road in all of New Jersey. From < 10MPH on a closed course to
full-on NJ congestion at highway speed in a heartbeat.

My sister (8 years older) refused to let me drive the car home from the
test, which may be why we are both alive today. ;-)

Tim