Well, first you buy a box of cereal…

Where I live in the US most people get a learners permit when they’re teenagers, then when they’re ready they take a written and driving test at the DMV to get their regular license. I got mine when I was 16. Is that not how it’s done elsewhere?

United States: $60 written/oral test for Learner’s Permit. Allows for young drivers to be on the road during the daytime with their legal guardian. 80 hours of road time and one year of Learner’s Permit required before drivers can apply for full license. Some local governments restrict driving privileges for minors, regardless of license status, like curfews.

US is pretty much a cake walk by many western standards. Take some classes, get a “learners permit”, drive with an instructor for a while, drive with an adult for a while, take a written and easy practical driving test, and you’re done for life.

I’ve got to qualify that it varies a little by the state it’s done in, some states are easier than others.

I’ve driven in a couple other countries and, while everyone has their idiots, the US has an over abundance of them thanks to the ubiquity of cars and what amounts to pretty lax enforcement of any sort of rules or car safety requirements. IOW, pretty much every idiot drives, they often drive unsafe cars that are either maintained poorly or modified in unsafe ways.

In my province in Canada it’s a written test, 1 year driving experience supervised, a practical test, then you can drive with just one friend in the car for another year, and then you take another practical test and have your full license.

Curious about how it goes in your area of the world.

Driving is generally taught by family in Australia, but using a driving school is a requirement now.

Australia 2006ish: take the theory exam after you turn 16 years old and 6 months. if you pass the test you get your Learners permit. After 6 months you may take your practical driving exam. If you pass you have a Provisional license for 3 years which has some restrictions like 0% alcohol or no more than 1 person in the car that is not a relative. After 3 years of holding a P plate you get your Open license.

Australia now; according to my nephew: at the age of 16 you are permitted to take the theory exam. once passed, you get your Learners permit. in order to qualify for the practical driving exam you need to fulfil the following requirements.

• Have 100 hours driving logged. 30 of those hours must be done at night or during wet weather
• 30 hours logged with a driving instructor. Driving lesson with a driving instructor the time with the instructor is worth 3 regular hours and
• hold your learners license for 1 year.

If you pass the exam you have your Provisional license for 3 years. after 3 years you get your open license.

In the USA most places have no viable transportation alternative to cars. As a result drivers licenses are a critical factor in functional independence and fundamental human needs. Even though there are permitting and test requirements to get a license, there is no effective limit on how many times the written, or driving skills tests can be taken. There is also no chain of accountability between those administering the tests and the drivers they approve for licensing. This means that anyone can take the written test a few dozen times until they have seen the finite number of questions several times over and eventually pass. Likewise, taking the driving test many times will inevitably result in the person encountering a “forgiving” skills test proctor.

The Department of Motor Vehicles or DMV, like every government institution in the USA has been subject to a continuous political assault by the Republican party of the oligarchs. The workers are understaffed, underpaid, and it is a notoriously miserable place to work. The results of such an inadequate and negligent political structure produces predictable results.

We also lack any effective mechanism to take the elderly off the road, and because losing a license ends their independence, we have a large number of elderly pushed to drive when they do not qualify.

• Mandatory driving school as early as 14 years and 9 months of age (this is offered in most public high schools as an elective with credit(s), at local municipality sites, as well as through private sanctioned programs).

• After completion of driving school, one must log hours driven with a chaperone (who holds an active driver license) – the log differentiates between highway and surface road mileage and one must complete a given number of hours for each.

• As early as 16 and after completing both the above, one may sit for a written driver’s exam and then a practical driver’s exam. If both are passed, the individual is issued a limited driver license.

• Until the age of 18, there is a curfew on what times the limited license allows for driving by oneself. At 18, those restrictions are lifted.

In the UK, you can get your provisional licence (learners permit) when you’re 17. You need to take a theory (written) test and a practical test, and most choose to go through a driving school but you -can- just be taught by your parents or other adults over 21.

Generally speaking though it’s better to go through the instructors as they’ll teach you what you need in order to pass the practical test, which is apparently one of the strictest in the world.

After you’ve passed the real learning starts, as if you drove like you have to for the test you’re in for a bad time.

When someone turns 16, they can get a permit, which means they can drive with parental permission, and after a year, they can get a driving test done in front of a tutor. The tutor grades skill as well as potential red flags, and you get your license after a few weeks of passing grades. And then you have joined the driving community.

However, in the very rural areas here, I’ve seen field workers let their very young teens drive, like some aren’t even in high school yet. Definitely not legal, but it’s normal and hasn’t led to any issues yet.

In my area (New Brunswick, Canada) you do a written test (+eye exam) to obtain your learner’s permit (class 7.1) which costs 25 dollars.

With a class 7.1 permit, you must be accompanied at all times by one (and only one) passenger who has their full licence and minimum three years of driving experience. At this level, there’s a zero-tolerance policy for BAC above 0%. Additionally, driving outside the hours of 5:00 a.m. to midnight is forbidden. After a year (or 8 months, if you choose to attend a driver training school & graduate) you’re eligible to take a road test for your class 7.2 licence.

With a class 7.2 permit, you’re allowed up to three passengers, with no need for them to have drivers licences. You’re now allowed to drive between midnight and 5 a.m. but only for work/education purposes or if accompanied by a passenger with their full licence (unless you’re above 21 in which case no night time restrictions) Zero percent BAC still applies until age 21 at this level.

When you’re 18 years-old or older and have minimum 2 years of driving experience, you’re eligible for your full (class 5) licence. This might all sound like a lot when written out but it is extraordinarily easy to obtain a permit here. I messed up decently bad on my road test and the instructor basically said “eh, don’t do that OK? Alright you pass.”

We need to read the whole thing, or just scroll to the end, tick the box at “I agree” and click “ok”.

It’s state-by-state in the U.S. When I was a kid, it was way, way too easy in Louisiana. You had to be 14 and pass the tests. (It was a relic of the olden days when farming families needed their kids to drive things to market. Reforms kept being blocked by rural interests.)

That was reformed when I was a teen but phased in. So, I just had to be 15, take driver’s ed (which was offered at public high schools), and pass a written and basic driving test. I drove a stick shift during my test and the tester was like, “You pass.” So, I didn’t have to parallel park or anything but I think some people did.

My younger sister had to be 15 (I think) to get a learner’s permit and wasn’t allowed to drive at night or without an adult for a period. So, it’s phased in now. I think 17 is when you can get a real driver’s license now and the driving test is more rigorous that mine was.

I renewed my license recently and I just had to take a vision test and prove my address (with a utility bill) and that I’m insured. There’s no upper age limit.

It’s funny people talking about how things are done in the U.S. and giving different answers.

It would sort of be like saying how it works in the E.U., then describing how the process works in France.

In Pennsylvania, you have to be 16 years old. Initial permit and 4 year license costs $45.50

You need a physical and a form filled out by the doctor.

You need an adult to fill out a form, then you study the drivers manual. When you’re ready you go to the DMV, get a vision test, and take a knowledge test. If you pass, you’re issued a permit that allows you to drive with an adult driver supervising you.

You have to wait six months before you take the road test. You’re supposed to drive for 65 hours driving at different times, in different weather, different traffic, different roads, etc. However, it’s on the honor system. When you take the driving test, the driver who had been supervising you fills out a form stating that you’ve completed the 65 hours. I suspect the vast majority of parents just lie.

When you’re ready for the road test, you discover that now the true challenge begins: scheduling the test. They tell you to schedule your road test for six months after you get the permit, but I can’t imagine anyone would be able to get 65 hours of driving done in 6 months. So, if you can’t manage that, you have to schedule the appointment when you can, and that is another miserable task. The DMV open appointments at 4am, and they’re all taken by 4:01am.

We managed to get our oldest tested at e DMV. He failed during the parallel parking because he didn’t realize he could back out and try again. The examiner told him after he failed that he could have tried up to three times. When he retested, he passed.

When we were going through this with our next child, we paid a driving school to administer the test. The price included a 1 hour refresher course in one of their cars, then another instructor took him out for the test.

In my case, I did do the 65 hours driving with two of my kids, and it was brutal. It’s tough finding that much time. For my last child, the pandemic hit as she was at about 20 hours. I had to work longer hours, and it was tougher finding time to drive with her. We ended up renewing her permit, then eventually had to re-take the knowledge test and start over.

By this time, she was over 18, and I wanted her to have her license so she could drive at college. I took her to a driving school. I described the situation, and they recommended they take her out to see how she does. After the evaluation, they gave her a list of things to practice, and we spent a few more weeks driving, then she went to the school to take a road test and passed. I never got to 65 hours with her, but by the time she got her license she no longer had to do the 65 hours because she was over 18.

If you’re under 18, you get a junior license. You’re not allowed to drive between 11pm and 5am, and you aren’t allowed to have more than one passenger who is under 18 unless they are family. After six months, you’re allowed to have up to three non-family passengers under 18.

When you turn 18, the junior license becomes an unrestricted license.

In Poland:

• driver’s permits are not a thing. In general, it’s illegal to drive without a professional instructor (with parents, for example) before getting a driving license, though a lot of people, especially in the countryside, will still do so,
• you can only drive after turning 18. You can start the course a few months earlier, but you can only take the final exam after you turn 18 (there exists a category that allows you to drive after turning 16, but it’s limited and IME extremely unpopular),
• you need to go to a paid course, which includes theory classes and at least 30 hours of driving with the instructor,
• most people drive in a car owned by the instructor or the driving school, as the car must have another pair of brakes for the instructor,
• you need to pass a theoretical and a practical exam in one of the centers (Wojewódzki ośrodek ruchu drogowego),
• the theoretical exam is just closed questions. You need to get 68 out of 74 points, but (AFAIK, this has changed over time) all the questions are known, so people will just cram them,
• the practical exam is first some maneuvers on the center grounds, and then a ride around the city. The exam is rather objective and is failed if you do any big mistake or fail any exercise twice,
• the exams are not easy. The data I found is for each WORD, but in general I feel like the pass rate is around 50% for the practical exam and 70% for theory. It’s not incommon for somebody to only pass their practical exam on like 5th attempt,
• there were supposed to be some restrictions for new drivers, but they had been discussed for a long time, even back when I passed my license before the pandemic, and I have no idea if they ever actually came into force,
• some people think that the system is super flawed. Here’s some discussion by the Supreme Audit Office in Polish: https://www.nik.gov.pl/aktualnosci/system-szkolenia-kandydatow-na-kierowcow.html,
• costwise, it’s apparently like 4000 zł for the course right now. Exams are paid per attempt, 50 zł for the theory and 200 zł for practice. 1 euro is 4.33 zł as of writing, but you need to take into account the difference in purchasing power and it’s probably not much cheaper than Germany even if you pass both exams the first time.