Text 16709, 53 rader
Skriven 2008-06-02 07:48:22 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 16576 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Motorcycles
===================
Dale Shipp wrote to Roy Witt on Saturday May 31 2008 at 23:49:

DS> I am fairly certain that in Germany you would have to pass such a
DS> course in order to get a license to drive a motorcycle. My son taught
DS> such a course when he was there.

A _course_??? Dale, you have to pass a university study to get a motorcycle
license here!

I have an EU drivers' license derived from my German drivers' license that I
received long ago without taking any tests, on the basis of my American
drivers' license. Up to 1998, it was good for cars, trucks up to 3.5 metric
tons gross weight and a few other things (tractors), but not for motorcycles.
So in 1998, I decided to get it extended to motorcycles.

Here, that requires a specific number of practical driving hours at a certified
driving school, plenty of theory, a certain number of theory hours, then a
lengthy multiple-choice test on the theory and finally a practical driving test
under multiple conditions (highway, autobahn, city traffic) plus maneuvering
tests (riding slowly in a circle, for example).

The theory and written test include everything you need to get a car drivers'
license, plus a few (only a very few) specific questions on motorcycles. I've
had easier tests when I was studying for my doctorate at MIT.

The whole thing cost around $900 and three months' time, working maybe 1-2
hours a day on average. I passed everything on the first try - otherwise the
cost in money and time could easily double or triple.

And _that_ was ONLY to extend my drivers' license to include motorcycles. And
even then, I had a two-year probation period where I was not allowed to ride a
motorcycle with more than 34 HP (or a more powerful one choked down to that).
Only then was I allowed to ride anything that is made.

Be sure of it: driving in Germany is not a right, it's a luxury and you pay
luxury prices for your drivers' license, the yearly tax on your vehicle, the
extra-high gas taxes and your (compulsory) insurance. By the time a younger
person gets through all of that, he/she generally doesn't have enough money
left to buy anything but an old clunker - which "naturally" increases traffic
safety, but is a fact rarely if ever mentioned in public here.

How different my experience in the States... I took two driving license tests
there, one when I turned 16, and another when I was in my mid-30s. The first
one I passed by the skin of my teeth, the second with 100% in both theory and
practice. And in both cases, the cost in both money and time were negligible.
In the States, driving is a _right_, and incidently a necessary one. Try
existing without a car in the States. The situation in Germany couldn't be more
different.

Cheers, Bob

--- GoldED+/W32 1.1.5-0613
 * Origin: Jabberwocky System - 02363-56073 ISDN/V34 (2:2448/44)