Behind the Wheel

Last week was full of exciting events. First we had some rain – that always causes a bit of a stir, especially as late as April. Secondly the TV receiver was back in time to catch Whitechapel on BBC America - the highlight as far as I am concerned of the viewing week, and thirdly the teenager passed her driving test! She’s now officially US licensed.

 A mere ten minute drive around the block with an examiner and that’s it, she can hit the road! How did she do it? Well it’s all down to her mother of course – who else?  Who sat there patiently encouraging, guiding, and leading by example? Demonstrating the correct maneouvers, stressing the importance of the indicator and the need to slow down and stop at a red light. 

Over here the onus is on parent to teach their young to drive.  Six hours of professional instruction is all that is required, the rest, well it’s entirely up to mom and pop. I’ve seen the way most moms and pops drive and quite frankly, it’s frightening. Half of these people should never be allowed to drive a car themselves, let alone pass on their skills to impressionable young adults.

More seriously, another downside of learning to drive in the US is lack of L plates. In the UK learner and newly qualified drivers are easily identified by a warning sign stuck on the car; other drivers know they are following a learner and generally make allowances for their mistakes and give them a wide berth.  LA drivers tend to be particularly aggressive and inconsiderate at the best of times, car horns regularly beep at you if you take more than a second to make a turn across traffic or hesitate at a light.  Naturally learner drivers tend to be more cautious and having someone impatiently sat on your bumper all the time does not enhance the learning (or teaching) experience!

Still we have decided to be generous and for our last couple of months in the US, we will let our teen take to the road by herself and drive – after all she wont be able to do it when we get back to the UK until she is 17, so she might as well enjoy it whilst she can.

I was delighted to discover that we were entitled to a car insurance discount because she has good school grades.  Good grades are the be all and end all of the US education system, it doesn’t seem to matter about effort, or attitude, it’s that final little letter that counts. Although the clever kid discount worked for us, it does seem a little discriminatory.  What about those kids who aren’t always the brightest but who are conscientious and work hard? Shouldn’t they be entitled to a diligence discount instead? No wonder parents put so much pressure on their kids to get the A grades; it’s not just the college credits they need to accumulate,  there’s a financial incentive as well. 

Another surprisingly sensible Californian law is that under 18’s cannot carry passengers under the age of 20 during their first year of driving.  This does mean you can’t take your buddies to school, nor can you transport a distracting gaggle of giggling girlfriends anywhere. Definitely a good idea.  There’s plenty of other people over here who I would also liked to see banned from carrying passengers but unfortunately most of them already seem to have jobs driving cabs or super shuttle vans to the airport.

The final excitement of the week was attending the Indy Car Racing Grand Prix at Long Beach.  It was great fun - the screeching of rubber on hot concrete; the roar of the engine, the thrills and spills of driving around the city streets at breakneck speed - and that was just the journey down there. I knew it was a mistake letting the teenager offer to drive…..