Tl;dr
USA:
- Terrible drivers
- Big ass trucks
- Minor punishments
- No sidewalks
- Texting while driving
Europe:
- Reasonably decent drivers
- Moderately big vehicles
- More or less severe punishments (still too low)
- Sidewalks everywhere
- Texting while driving
Road design also matters. European roads with heavy pedestrian traffic are often too narrow for speeding or have obstacles. American roads often look like a high way and only the signaling may suggest otherwise.
Is there any evidence that Europeans are better drivers than Americans? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’ve just never seen any kind of data about that.
Also I’m not sure where you got the idea that the US doesn’t have sidewalks.
Edit you mean there are places in the US without sidewalks? Ya don’t say!
Now overlay Europe over a map of the US to see just how much larger the US is. And then tell me that everywhere on the entire continent of Europe has sidewalks.
The person I replied to was suggesting that sidewalks are a rare thing in the US and that’s absurd.
Well I did some checking. Lots of what Google says nowadays in the first answers is hallucination though so feel free to correct if you know better.
But “in a vast majority of states” as long as you’re over 18, all you need to do is walk into a DMV and pass a “knowledge test” and a vision test. Then you get a learner’s permit. Sure, you’re not allowed to drive solo with one, but the supervisor just needs to be an adult with a license (and “capable of driving the vehicle” ie “sober and alert” but eh drunk driving laws in the US are a whole other mess, damn Murica just give your cops breathalysers. here they sell disposable ones at every register in supermarkets).
In most states you can get that at 16 afaik.
Here in Finland, when I went to driving school, it lasted weeks. You have to sit theory lessons, risk lessons, and then do driving with an instructor for a dozen hours or so and then you get to go take a driving test and if you pass, you’ll get a license.
In the US they usually don’t even require parallel parking.
I had to parallel park in a steep hill and then hill start from there while not stalling the engine.
And after that, you get your phase 1 driving license. It gets taken away easier for fines, you can have like 2 in a year or 3 in 2 years iirc. I mean, you can’t. You can have 1 in a year or 2 in 2 years but 2 in one year or 3 in two years iirc and you get your license revoked and have to do a driving test all over again.
Then when you’ve had your phase 1 license for at least 1.5 years and have completed both night driving training and slippery driving training (you get taken to a rally track with hills and bends and it’s all covered in either water and ice or in the summer soap and oil and water) then you can have your permanent license.
So you know, by the idea that more training and higher requirements and harder to pass driving tests would mean better drivers unless there’s a maaaasssive disparity in the populations and Americans are just naturally so much better drivers that they compensate for the difference training makes. Which… they aren’t, let’s be honest.
Oh and most cars are manual. I feel like saying that a majority of Americans wouldn’t even know how to drive a manual probably isn’t a controversial statement, right? You’re allowed to go through driving school with automats but then you won’t be allowed to drive manual cars.
Also, several different classes of vehicles and licences. At 15 you get M class, for moped or “moped-cars” (fucking rich kids, pappa betalar) at 16 you can get a A1, that’s bikes up to 125cc and 11kw, then at 18 you can go for B which is regular cars, and nowadays I think only C1, but I did C. That’s heavy good vehicles, large “semitrucks”. C1 is smaller, lighter, semitrucks, they sort of split the class for some reason.
Most of the American “trucks” the insane sized pickups would probably C1 if not C.
If you want trailers then you have to also do E for them, and that’s for each (but not bikes obvs) so for instance you can have ABEC which would allow you to drive a large trailer behind a regular car, but not a massive one behind a semitruck. (You can have a small one with C, just like you can have a small regular trailer or a camper with B if their mass is low enough). But to have full semitruck+trailer you’d need CE. Then there’s also D which is buses. So you could have ABECEDE. (My dad had that I think.) A1 upgrades to a and A with “driving experience” which is just counted in years since you got the license, even if you didn’t drive for that time. So if you drive A1 license at 16 you get a-license at 18 and A at 20. Lowercase a is bikes up to 600cc and 25kw (but people often remove the limits from it being 25, but will be very costly if you get caught, for insurance).
TLDR the requirements for a driving license in the US are about the same as for a moped license here in Finland, and the requirements for a Commercial Driving License in the US are about the same as those here for a regular license.
Sooo… yeah. I think we can infer.
Also, there’s these:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0386111211000033
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12544-014-0131-7
Also I’m not sure where you got the idea that the US doesn’t have sidewalks.
I think they mean “curbs” actually. Or curbed sidewalks in general. And even if they don’t, I’ve heard from lots of Americans how simply some places aren’t walkable. As in there is literally no sidewalk, and you can’t step off the road, as there’s no “right to roam” in the US so someone could technically just shoot you for trespassing in the worst case, forcing you to practically walk on the road, which is being driven by massive and unsafe SUVs. SUV’s which wouldn’t care about most European curbs probably, having such large tires. But most average sized cars do.
That was a super long response and I am not OP but I have heard that you can learn to drive with a private tutor in France, I think it was because they need to educate better drivers.
Oh you can do that in Finland as well. You just need to have an extra brake pedal installed on the passenger side, for emergency braking. You also need an extra mirror, and a permit to teach. The requirements for a permit to teach are nominal, it’s just that you have at least 5 years experience with the class of vehicles you’re teaching (as you could teach a BE as well for instance, not talking about installing extra brake pedals on motorbikes lol), you’re at least 25 years of age and have a “clean driving record”. I’m not sure what disqualifies one with the record. I think it’s probably somewhat subjective. Like a DUI definitely disqualifies you, but some minor speeding prolly won’t.
It’s been increasing a lot here. Like when I learned to drive I knew of no-one in my age or near it who’d done it. But my sister is 15 years younger and when she did it my stepdad (her dad, she’s my half-sibling) taught her. It’s doubled since 2014.
And I think the driving schools have less theory and driving lessons as well, we had tons. Probably dropped it so that it’s faster for the schools to get more people in and out. Ie capitalism loosening safety regulations in the name of profit. Thanks, right-wing government of however long ago it was! ^(/s)
Thanks, right-wing government of however long ago it was! ^(/s)
Haha!
Also, did your father install all that extra? It sounds expensive.
Well, step-father, to be accurate. I’ve never even lived with him, I moved out when my little sister was born or thereabouts. And I still had a dad long after that, so that’s why I don’t call him dad or father. (This paragraph was prolly more for me than for you, tbh.)
But yeah, I used to think it was expensive, and it used to be, afaik, as you had to basically either buy and old drivers-ed car or extensively modify your own vehicle.
However, someone came up/allowed it to just be a pedal on the passenger side that’s bolted on the floor and which then has a hydraulic hose going to the actual breakpedal. So all you have is a pinky-sized hose going between the seats. You can either just let it sit on the console as it doesn’t bother anything or you if you really want, take some panels away and put it through there.
And I still had a dad long after that, so that’s why I don’t call him dad or father.
Sorry for getting it mixed.
I wonder how they will handle EV or other cars which has paddles connected by electronics. Perhaps a new cable hooked to the same as break will suffice.
Ok so the thing is, when you get hit by small car you usually tend to roll over the top w some injuries. You can’t really do that when its a giant truck/SUV the height of you and you end up rolling under their BIGASS SUSPENDED VEHICLE
fun fact there’s a standard bumper height that all cars have to respect exactly for this reason, AND such that cars always collide bumper to bumper, not bumper to hood, or bumper to windshield
GUESS WHAT FUCKING VEHICLE CLASS IS EXEMPT FROM THAT FUCKING GUESS
also guess what EVEN FUCKING SEMITRUCKS ARENT EXEMPT FROM THAT IN EUROPE. SEMI TRUCKS HAVE TO HAVE A CERTAIN HEIGHT ON THEIR BUMPER TO MATCH CARS, WHILE AMERICAN SUV’S DON’T
I’m sorry but this is fucking infuriating to me. I gotta log off now bye
There are very harsh fines for driving with a phone elsewhere. And smaller vehicles and better infra for pedestrians.
Yeah I’m pretty sure this is why https://vger.to/lemmy.today/post/55397665
Screenshot for compatibility reasons on fedi. So that it’s loud and fucking clear
Big Trucks and SUVs are much deadlier than proper cars in case of accidents. Pedestrian infrastructure does not exist in most parts of the US or is very dangerous to use and those parts of the US that do are often unaffordable for regular people to live in. People also do not expect pedestrians even if there is infrastructure of that kind. Roads in the US are designed to maximise the danger to pedestrians even if there is pedestrian infrastructure because of car first regulations …
We have pedestrian friendly infrastructure and we don’t drive penis size compensating trucks. Cars close to pedestrians are forced to go slow and if they would swivel off the road, the curbs and other stuff like trees are there to stop cars before they hit anyone, or force the wheels away from the sidewalks to steer the car back on the road. So even when people are dumb enough to be on their phone, the risk of a fatal accident with a pedestrian is limited. Giant trucks just ram over and through everything, splashing any pedestrian in their path. Especially if there aren’t any sidewalks and cars are allowed to drive really fast. Contrary to the US we actually value human lives so we built our cities to be safe for bikes and pedestrians.
All fair points and true, but those trucks are still a sizable minority on the road. I think the infrastructure and low speeds are the main reasons
Include SUVs in your computation and rerun the numbers. Yes, the big fuck off trucks are still a minority, but they push everything bigger the bigger they get. And bigger is the only thing they’re getting.
I drive a MINI, bought it in 2018. Then, I was comfortably in the majority of car sizes (new minis are comfortable hatchbacks). Now, there’s maybe 10% of cars that I’m comparable to, everything else has windows with bottoms that are at or above my roofline.
