As far as rites of passage go, passing your driver’s test is right up there with, uh, another important milestone that probably happened within a few years of that time, and possibly also involved a car. Everyone remembers their first time, which was hopefully your only time (reminder: I am talking about taking your driver’s test, not the other thing). Like a lot of you, I aced the test on the first try. Or tests, I should say, since there’s that written exam too, but what I’m Autopian Asking ya’ll about today is the far more intimidating road test.
I don’t recall what model car I took the road test in, but I do remember the guy scoring in the passenger’s seat (not a sex reference) had a strong aura of I don’t want to be here, which did not bode well. I was already on high alert for any potential test-ruining goofs, but I notched it up a little more as it seemed this guy would relish failing me.
He didn’t waste any time, either. Before I had even swung the door shut, he was encouraging me to “just go ahead and pull away.” Not before I check my mirrors and we both put our seatbelts on, thank you very much! The hand-signaling portion of the test went on way too long, and he chose the tightest possible situations for the parallel parking and three-point turn tests. There was no power steering to help me out, but I met the challenge. When he opened his door to check the distance to the curb after I parallel parked, I could sense his disappointment when he saw the gap was just right. Now give me my license.
I asked the gang if they had any road-test stories to share. Mark had some hard luck, but persevered:
Took me three tries. We had one tester in my hometown who failed EVERYONE, and I got her twice in a row, and she failed me for piddly shit like parking too far from the curb. Third time, I got the “nice” one, and aced it.
Brian got his license with nary a point to spare:
It was my 16th birthday, and my mother drove me to the testing site in Goshen, New York. I took the test in her white third-gen Honda CR-V, which I knew wasn’t a very good car even then.
The test went off without a hitch, or at least I thought so. I stopped at every light, signaled correctly, and parallel-parked flawlessly. Little did I know I’d made a wide right turn somewhere along the test route, for which I was docked five points. Thankfully, I still passed. I’m sure I’d do far worse today, for some reason.
Your turn!
How Did Your Driving Test Go?
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
I passed my driver’s test about 5 hours before my appendix was removed. I had what was called a transverse appendix and I thought I just had a bad stomach ache for a couple of days. I delivered papers, cut lawns, and along with my twin sister, went down to take my driver’s test, riding lying down in the back seat.
This was in PA, where you went to the State Police barracks and a Trooper took you on a test course out back. After passing the written test, I went out on the test course and while putting the column shifter in reverse for the three-point turn, I let out a grunt of pain.
“Don’t worry son, you’re doing fine,” said the Trooper in his mirrored aviators and Smokey Bear hat.
As a bonus, I am officially licensed to drive a car in Pennsylvania with acute appendicitis.
I personally don’t get, that the driver’s licence (here in Germany) is such a problem for many people.
I passed my test for passenger cars in 2007 and in 2022 I did the C/CE licence, so the european variant for commerical vehicles above 7.5tons. Easy going, enjoyed it both times.
I don’t think I’ve shared this story online, as I got my license in the early 2000’s. At that time I was living abroad with my family, so I didn’t do the rite of passage learners permit and student driving like probably every other reader on here has. While overseas, my dad taught me how to drive our family car (1991 Honda Accord 5 speed stick shift) and I was always obsessed with cars and driving so learning the controls was easier than learning how to ride a bike.
Unlike most others, I just never had enough time in the summers to study and attend drivers ed classes as a teen. I waited until I was 21 to get my license, all I had to do was take the written test (easy pass) use a learners permit for a few weeks then take the test.
My parents were teachers in that community for nearly 20 years before we moved abroad so we knew the driving instructor tester, he was a family friend who I knew since I was young.
As fate would have it, the day I scheduled to take the road test, there was some big front coming. I did the parking lot section, parallel parking, etc with no problem, then when we did the road portion the sky started to turn dark.
At that time cell phones were expensive but, as some of you may recall, there was a walkie talkie type function where you could sent short verbal messages. I remember the instructor’s wife frantically saying over the flip phones speakers: “just pass the kid and get home, there are tornado warnings…”
He kind of rolled his eyes and we finished the test and I passed, he just reminded me about proper place hands on the wheel while turning. I don’t recall if it rained or not that day, but it sure added an element of intrigue on what was for me a very momentous day!
When I got my motorcycle license a few years after that, I had already been riding (perhaps somewhat illegally) for years in China. After my dirt bike was stolen, I kept upgrading sport bikes and had moved to riding a Ducati (in Beijing) by the time I went to get my motorcycle endorsement (in Michigan). I was expecting some cool bike, like a Harley or something, to ride at the testing site, but it was just a 50cc moped.
Interestingly enough after I got my motorcycle endorsement I stopped riding in China and to this day, I have never driven a motorcycle in the US except for that test.
As for my Chinese drivers license, after I got my US license I could use that to take the test and get the Chinese drivers license. This was 2006 or 2007, and I had been driving my friends cars and my motorcycles with no driver’s license for like 6 year at that point and I knew my luck wouldn’t last for ever. Also I wanted to buy my own car.
For the written test I studied hard, as the questions are very random and confusing. There are 100 questions and I got a 99% so I’m pleased with that. Of course to go to the testing center I drove myself (with no license) and have been driving legally since then. My Chinese driver’s license is now valid until 2053 or something, which beats Michigan, I think it needs to be renewed every 3 years or so, and expires on my birthday, so usually I return to the US in the summer with an expired drivers license.
Got 100% on a test i broke the law multiple times. I used the rule of “drive normal”. So I passed a bike on the wrong lane w no passing, etc.
Dad was old enough that he drove himself to his driving test and waved at a cop on the way. Certainly not ok by my time.
I passed the first time. No parallel parking needed. I was in a neighborhood that had a service road that intersected a boulevard and it was unclear whether you stopped before or at the service road. I got a couple of points knocked off. I learned to drive on my mom’s brand new 1979 Mustang 5.0. My parents were a little nervous having me drive their new car.
When my son took his test… well first of all we helped him buy a car when it was time to practice for his learner’s permit as we had atypical cars for learning to drive (Nissan Leaf & brand new Range Rover; before that it was CTS-V stick & Hummer H2.) We went to a different DMV from where I took my test. Several weeks before his test, we spent an afternoon trailing a few of the drivers being tested. My son was a little bit embarrassed by it, but we knew what to expect. Only tricky part was those railroad crossings near a signal where there is space in front of the tracks, but you stay at the red light behind the tracks. He passed the first time. One of his classmates failed by running a stop sign in the DMV parking lot.
My friend who was a senior was supposed to take me, but she bailed at the last minute. So with the “blue slip” in hand, I walked to the train station and swiped the old man’s car while he was at work downtown. Drove it to the Secretary of State’s office illegally. Got my license anyway.
I’m a fraud.
My driving test went great. Passed with flying colors the first time.
Learning to drive with my dad, not so much. One lesson and we were both over it. My mom taught me from there. He did give me a lesson on his 31ft bus style rv this summer before I borrowed it to go to Gridlife at Laguna Seca. 30 years of driving made it go much better lol.
My test? Well I climbed in on the wooden bench, put my bare feet down, and started pushing forward the cylindrical rock with a timber running through it as hard as I could, and I passed!
Not good the first time. I was failed for touching the curb with a tire (didn’t curb rash the wheel) in the parallel parking test, which was in a tight, town center environment I had never driven in. I blame not enough practice. I was basically free-range growing up which was a good thing. But it was hard asking for dedicated time to supervise driving practice, basically driving nowhere. So, beyond the short, public school-provided driving class, my only driving before taking that test was driving the same 10-mile route to church and back several times once a week. We were going to church anyway, so it’s not asking mom or dad to make extra time for me.
Though I was a car geek at the time, I was even more a bicycle guy. I also knew I wouldn’t have a car to drive (and didn’t through college), so I just got a state ID instead. I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 20. It was a piece of cake to pass the second time at a different DMV office in a less crowded environment.
The memory is faded but three parts I can recall.
1. I was well into my 17th year on earth; was a little late to the party.
2. It was an all day event. Long waits and long lines of smiling kids next to their parents’ cars. My Dad let me use his Accord.
3. I ran a stop sign. Oh I stopped, but the instructor told me the bumper cannot break the plane of the imaginary line where the stop sign is implanted in the ground. Passed anyway. Cool! Not really; I was at the bus stop that smelled like pee the next day.
Now I’m 24 and stupid. License was revoked for over a year and I finally got pulled over. That stop sign thing from the test stuck with me. I stopped AT the sign, and then pulled up slowly because that damn bush blocked visibility of the intersection. Cop two blocks away didn’t see it that way and ticketed me for not stopping, and kept my license. “It’s now property of the state” he said. I could’ve went to jail but instead I ended up at the bus stop again with the added benefit of not being able to buy a pack of Camels because I now had no ID.
Finally went to the courthouse to take care of this nonsense only to find out the bad news. I gotta take the test again. Didn’t want to do it in the Geo so got my pops to lend me the same Accord. It was kind of embarrassing sitting there with the 16 year olds but at least now an appointment was required which reduced time at the dmv.
Neither of of these two tests gave me the joy I had years later when I got a cdl to drive the bus. I smiled so hard in the picture it looked like I was constipated.
Shortly after getting my learners permit, my dad pulled over to the side of the Katy Freeway one fine Saturday afternoon and told me to take my very first drive on a public street in my entire life right then and there (granted, a smaller and less trafficked Katy, but with a 70 speed limit… and people wonder why I drive like a stereotypical Houstonian). After that the test itself was pretty much cake with the biggest question being which car to take it in: mom’s 1968 Town & Country on which you could land a Cessna or dad’s 71 Impala with the disappearing trunk act – you couldn’t see a blessed thing further back than the top of the back seat. The wagon won because I could see the tailgate for parallel parking between poles.
A few years later I’m at the DPS to take my motorcycle driving test and as we’re walking around the scoot the trooper asks “where’s your inspection sticker?” Turns out the aluminum plate it was on had fallen off on the way over. I was able to avoid the ticket because he bought my genuine surprise and I showed him where the remaining bits were between the plate and the bracket. I was then able to jump the line when I returned because there was a nearby inspection station.
For the car test I got the notoriously grumpy one of the police people assigned to driving tests. Did take lots of notes. Then near the end a cyclist made a dumb move, and we both jumped our brake pedals. At the end there were some grumpy noises filling out papers, and I was handed a slip of paper. Nothing spoken, but the paper turned out to be a temporary license.
For the MC test I had trouble hearing the radio with directions.
Which made me make a strange manoeuvre that caused an oncomming police patrol to hunt me down, as it looked like I was trying make a run as I spotted them. Asked for a license I could only tell them to ask the guys three cars back. (DriverEd vehicles are unmarked during tests.)
Also misheard the directions of where to do the drop anchor brake test… Got to hear swear words from a police person, but passed the test.
September 1995 for me.. used dads 93 dodge ram long bed 318 automatic. I had been driving work trucks and panel vans since I was 10 (usually off streets) so it went well.
The instructor used the truck’s cigarette lighter when we got back to the DMV. Fun times.
Mine went well. Got my permit the day I turned 15 then took Driver’s Ed in high school. It was a team of 3 or 4 instructors – 1 with half the class in the classroom, 2 with half the class out on the test course lot, and 1 with 3 students driving on public roads. I was one of the stronger drivers in the class so unfortunately had less drive time than the kids who needed more practice, but we at least got to drive to/from the school and neighborhoods on public roads. The weaker drivers with more seat time were mostly relegated to neighborbood roads. Don’t remember my written test score but I passed it the first time. And I’m racking my brain on what the car was but my school had a fleet of bland silver automatic sedans. Flawless run up to the very end when pulling out after parallel parking and I left the car in reverse before pulling back out. Blipped the throttle, realized immediately & corrected, my instructor grinned and joked about ruining a perfect run. That knocked me down to a 98% and a written referral to show the DMV that I passed the drivers ed course. Then I got my license the day after I turned 16 cause the DMV was closed on Sunday.
That said I was driving ATVs and go carts since I was 5 or younger, moving the company trucks around the yard since I was 10, and he had me shift gears for him while he was driving since I was 12. And our drivers Ed teachers were pretty relaxed and fun guys. So I couldn’t have been more prepared and fortunately had a super unstressful DE class.
I can’t tell you what my passing percentages were (that’s lost to the sands of time), but I passed both written and driving test on the first try. Of course, my dad started to teach me how to drive a manual when I was twelve, and we still had drivers’ education in high school, so the stress level was pretty low, which probably helped.
The written test went fine, other than finding out for the first time that my eyes sucked – the guy at the DLC let me keep retrying the vision test until I was able to guess well enough to pass and gave me my permit with the understanding that I visit an optometrist ASAP. The driving test took two tries, I forget what I failed on first time, but it was some little nit picky thing
Just fine. Passed the written test with a 100% and the driving portion with as close to perfect as the examiner would give. I had practiced all my driving and parking in my dad’s 3/4-ton truck, but took the test with my mom’s tiny Subaru, which made everything easy.
I had an instructor that looked just like Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince. He put a hot cup of coffee on the dashboard, I think it was a Chevette, and basically said “If the coffee doesn’t spill, you pass. If it spills, you fail.”
The cup tipped over at the very end and fell right into his lap!
Thankfully it was empty.
And that’s how I got my license. To drive.
Excellent reference!
Damn it. I know the reference, but don’t remember the movie.
“License to Drive”, I think.
Depends on which time.
See, I was not aware that getting 2 speeding tickets and getting caught by the highway patrol doing a wheelie across a main highway in a skid steer (which they called “improper operation of equipment) could cause one to have to re-take driving school.
The first time was smooth as silk, I was calm, cautious, and well-practiced, piloting my 1996 Geo Tracker. ( I thought running a 5-speed for my drivers test would score me bonus points, it did not)
The second time, though, I was no longer a nervous 16 year old, I was an overconfident, smart assed 19 year old, and I showed up in a 1996 F-250. Rattle-can paint, 35” tires, a 460 with straight pipes, and an 8” flatbed. Now, in the woods, or on a gravel road, I could make this truck dance. I was completely confident this was going to be a cinch. What I didn’t count on, though, was just how close together those cones would be, and how that flatbed was every bit of a foot wider than the truck itself, making my mirrors useless, and completely obscuring the cones in the maneuverability portion of the test.
I’m pretty sure I bumped a cone or two during the test, but looking back, my saving grace was probably that poor license bureau worker never, ever wanting to see me, or ride in that hillbilly shitheap ever again.
It’s been a minute – I don’t remember the car (’76 Nova with bordello red interior or ’84 Celebrity), but I do remember my examiner’s name.
Her tag read: B. Mello
I took my test in a 1964 Pontiac Tempest. The lighter didn’t work, which irritated the Highway Patrolman to no end. He asked me for a lighter and promised not to tell my parents if I had one. He rummaged through the glove box looking for matches. He found a screwdriver and poked it into the car’s lighter trying to fix it. Once in a while he would tell me where to turn but he was paying no attention. All this with an unlit cigarette hanging from his lips. When we completed the drive he had me park in a no parking zone right in front of the office instead of the parking lot. He trots inside without telling me anything. I followed him in and he was getting a light from a desk clerk. The clerk motions at me and says, “What about him?” The officer said, “Cool kid. Give him a license.” Welcome to 1971.
I can see it clearly. At least he didn’t fail you for inoperative essential equipment!
I took my test in my Mom’s 1981 Ford LTD Crown Victoria. It was pretty uneventful. I bumped the curb while parallel parking, but the tester let me try again and I aced it. I think I got a 96?
My motorcycle test tho…
After taking the MSF class, I drove Mom’s LTD to the DMV, and Dad rode my KZ 440 LTD there. The instructor said “One honk for left turns, two honks for right turns. Just drive around and I’ll judge you.”
I got on the bike, Dad and the instructor got in the car, and off we went. First intersection, I hear a honk, so I set up for a left turn. Two seconds later, there’s a second honk. So I’m wondering am I supposed to turn right, or am I supposed to turn left and they don’t think I heard the first honk? So I just ended up driving around for a while. Still passed.
My oldest son, though…
He was taking driver’s Ed, so we went down to the DMV to take his written test to get his permit. When we pulled up to the cinder block building, painted on the side in 18″ block letters was
1. PARK CAR
2. COME INSIDE
We looked at each other and both had the same thought. Anyone needing that level of instruction proooooobably shouldn’t have a license, even if they can pass the test.
The tester, who was a a cop (a state trooper?), farted audibly and…olifactorally?… in my mom’s e34 525i, which is what I took the drivers test in. I think he passed me in spite of accidentally speeding 10 over the limit because it was a real stinker.
My tester took off points because I didn’t keep both hands on the wheel…I took the test in a manual.
Just think how many points you would have lost if you used your ding a ling to shift lol.
Probably about as simple and uneventful as it could be. In the written test, I remember that it asked me the same question 3 times but worded slightly differently each time.
I did the driving portion in my mom’s 2006 Sentra (It was a special edition!) in an industrial park with very little traffic. All I had to do was leave the parking lot, drive in mostly a straight line, stop at a stoplight, turn around in an empty parking lot, then go back and parallel park. I lightly touched the curb on the parallel parking but which should have been an insta fail but the guy gave it to me anyway