Ask Lemmy

20 - I could have gotten it sooner but driving is scary.

I was 27. Had an instructor and a friend who let me drive him around a bunch for practice. My mum got hers at 30. Just get it when you can afford it or you want/need it. There's no rush.

I was 20 and learned from an instructor. To be fair, I'm from the Netherlands and cars don't play such a big role here. I had a moped from when i was 17, so i was motorized. Although I bicycled for most of my trips under 10 kilometer (five miles).

14, rural communities have different rules I guess. My grandpa at 6 put me behind the wheel of his F350 while pulling a 20’ trailer so he could stand in the trailer and buck hay for all the livestock.

So by the time I got my license I already knew how to control a car and just had to learn the rules of the road.

I’m 30 and have never learned. I live in a city with adequate public transit.

Never. I've always been poor and it's just not that necessary living in German cities. It would help a lot to be able to rent a car once in a while e.g. for moving apartments, but it seems like a bad idea to get a license and then only drive every couple of months, you'll never build the skills to drive safely. It's moot, though, I couldn't afford the license itself anyway (pretty expensive in Germany).

I got my licence 2 years ago at 35! I initially tried at 16 but my mother was just horrible to drive with and scared me off learning for a long time. When I actually got it I did lessons with an instructor for a long time and that was much better for building my confidence.

I don't have a license, because I live in a country with great public transport and never really saw the need to driving, especially in regards to outweighting the damage it does and the danger it poses.

13, special license in some US states for kids who live out in the middle of nowhere so they can get to school.

Learned from parents, grandparents, siblings, being around trucks and tractors and motorcycles since I was a toddler. I knew how to drive long before I got a license.

License at 16, drove for the first time at 11 (on private property).

18 from a school. Letting 16 year olds drive is insanity.

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I got my license in 2014 at the age of 19. Driving just didn't interest me before cause only place I went was school and I had a bus to go there which didn't charge me like the school did for people wanting to park there. Once I graduated and needed a job, that's when I started learning to drive. My dad taught me everything by taking me to a local state park and occasionally letting me drive through town or on the interstate.

Edit: throwing this in that my gf is 33 and still never had a license. She tried in the past, but nobody took her driving and I couldn't cause I live 600 miles away. She's trying again since her family has more free time now to do it.

I'm 40 and I got my licence in 2021. I pid 50$ to make sure(not USA), but never caused an accident with anyone.

21, both my grandmother, and an instructor.

Before then I feasibly had no way to drive, so it was just an extra cost for no benefit. Family didn't have a car at all when I was 16, and I didn't get my first car until shortly before I got my license. I also just hate driving, it wigs my anxiety out. It's still the only car I've ever owned, and I sold it about a year ago.

I work from home, and only even borrow someone's car or get a ride if I can't get to a store on foot, which is one I only go to monthly. I'd still be borrowing a car if I could, though, I'm not sure I could carry 40 pounds of compressed sawdust home on foot. Even with that I likely won't let the license expire, since it's the same cost as an ID anyway.

I didn't get mine till 18, even though I went through my schools driving program at 16.

Its nothing to be embarrassed about! I literally didn't know that vehicles would slowly move themselves when in drive until the first time I got behind the wheel in the driving school lol.

In my 30s and never learnt, didn't have the money so just continued to walk or cycle around. Plus I could cycle anywhere I wanted to go anyway, why spend multiple £1000s to cut 5 minutes off the time it takes to get to Tesco?

I grew up in a small town (15k people) so everything was fairly close. Could probably walk across the whole town in 15-20 mins. Now live in a large town (80k) so cycling is more necessary as walking across town can take almost an hour.

Looking at all the stress cars cause other people I am actually happy as I am. Listening to people complain extensively about problems caused by cars and I just nod along. That car stole your space again, tight fitting in that space, your car is too big but apparently that is someone else's fault, everyone else is driving too slow or too dangerously. Driving looks so fucking boring too, looking at the car in front of you as no one is moving and you are surrounded by a sea of concrete. Fuck that, walking or cycling down the old railway surrounded by trees and bushes is so much better.

Was driving my dad home from the bar at 13. School permit at 14 that let me drive to school and work. Drivers license at 16. Drivers education course was offered in our middle school/high school (grades 7-12 in the building).

I got mine when I was 26 after doing on and off lessons and other practice for nearly 10 years. I learned most of it from lessons so neither.

Late 30s ~ early 40s. From a school as it is mandatory here with twelve hours of theory and 16 hours of practice classes, followed by two years of probation with zero tolerance ABV and maximum of four demerit points.

I had probably close to 100,000km of experience on the road as a cyclist before that.

26. I did a mix of driving with my parents and taking driving classes.

I didn't hurry up to take it because it's not mandatory to drive where I've lived so far, and where I live now it's completely optional. These days I drive very rarely, most commonly when visiting family.

Never. I live in a city with proper public transport, and I live close enough to the city center that I can easily walk there, or go by bike if I prefer.

I am considering getting my driving license, though. It’s useful for certain jobs, but it’s really expensive.

I got mine at 24.

My parents flat refused to allow me to get a driver's license, I assume because it would have given me the freedom to leave their house under my own power. I didn't end up getting one until after I went to and came back from college.

I learned from a driving school, since my parents seemed uninterested in teaching me.

The experience of trying to hold a job or get to and from class between the ages of 18-24 is one of the primary experiences driving me to the idea that American public transportation sucks absolute asshole and desperately needs improvement. It used to take me two and a half hours to get to work. My work was a 15 minute drive from my house, but since my wonderful father refused to drive me to and from work, I would have to take a bus all the way across town to the central station and then hop another bus to take me all the way back across town to damn near the same place I got picked up at.

I didn’t get mine until 24. Lived in a city with public transport from 18-26.

I was late to riding a bike, too, though. I didn’t pick that up until 18.

18. Mom was busy with school when I was 16, so I had to wait. I'm really lucky I had her to teach me at all!

Back in the 70s, we had Driving Class in high school. My Dad also took me out to practice. I was about 16 1/2 before I got my license.

OTOH, I had a buddy who wanted to start driving as soon as he turned 16. So he saved his money from his paper route, and the moment he turned 16, he signed up for a private driving school, and he had his license within a couple of weeks after turning 16.

Shhhh, he'd also been secretly borrowing his sister's car for a couple of years.

A driving school. Anything else is illegal here.

I was lucky that my parents paid for it. And prices have gone even more through the roof since then.

Road my bike to take the written test. Borrowed a car for the road test.

Didn't study for the written test. I did practice with my temps before the road test.

A little bit of each. Technically drivers Ed in high school. I think 16 or 17, whatever I was the summer I took it. However my dad taught me to drive stick, plus driving a car was easier since I already drove tractors and ATVs

Got mine at 22, drove twice before taking the test and barely passing

Got my license at 26, given that i live in the middle of no where that pretty much my life began.

Like 14. Was driving at probably 11 ish? Just cane natural. Played a shit ton of racing games as a kid ha

Don't worry, i know a kid who's 23 and has mever driven. Id recommend you learn though, its a good skill to know.

In Germany, I got training at 17 during my commutes to school (i was living in the countryside and my driving instructor was my neighbor) and then made my license once I reached 18.

I had drivers ed in high school (over 2 decades ago, in PA) and my parents took me out to drive in addition to that. I learned on an automatic first, but my parents also taught me to drive manual. My daily driver for the last 2 decades had been a manual, until this new car we bought last year. We have 2 kids now and my wife can’t drive manual, well she could but doesn’t like it, and it’s more important we can both drive the vehicle, but I digress. I haven’t looked into it, but I’ve heard that there is no drivers ed classes in the school district we’re in now, that learning is done through driving schools, not sure how I feel about that

When I took the written exam for the permit, it was pretty easy. Most things make sense. You’ll still want to read up to know symbol and sign meanings, and to understand more niche rules.

For the actual driving, the more practice you get in the better you’ll be. You’ll get used to the car your driving, start understanding usual patterns of other drivers, and different driving conditions. It’s funny looking back and whenever I drove by a semi on an undivided highway I would be so far over on the shoulder because I was nervous.

I also have ADHD which is often cited as a risk factor for driving but it mostly works out well for me. It’s a lot of stimuli coming at you requiring a lot of small focus switching and I find it really engaging. Generally the thing that gets me is if the passenger tries to have a serious conversation with me, that is when my driving ability diminishes.

Personally I feel the US needs more density, with walkable neighborhoods, and better mass transit. Cars shouldn’t be a necessity, instead of being freeing, they are a yoke on the working class

Driving school in Germany. You had to be at least 18 for a driving license. Paid around 1200 €, 24 years ago.

My cousin and his wife are 57 and neither of them have a driving license. They cycle, take public transport or take a taxi when absolutely necessary. I myself was 30 when I got mine, and I still cycle or take public transport unless it's not possible (sadly the buses are garbage where I live nowadays, but I do take the train a lot).

I took driving school at 14, parents also tutored me. Got my learner's and six months later my limited operator's license (IDK if other states do this, but SD used to let 14- and 15-year-olds drive alone but only during daylight hours). Got my full license at 16.

I don't use it. I rarely drive. I grew up getting around by bicycle, and I still do at 40. You can go places with a bike you can't in a car, and you'll have more fun getting there, and be in a better mood when you get there.

Learner's at 15, license at 16... Crucial skill for an adult. Def go finish getting it. I learned through my school.

I never did. I got a learners permit at 16 or so, practiced with my parents for a number of years and renewed the learning permit at least once without testing for a full license, but eventually stopped and let it expire.

I have pretty bad anxiety issues, which driving has proven one of the triggers for, and unlike everything else that triggers it, for driving it got worse with exposure instead of better. I actually wasn't even that nervous at first, but every time I'd make a mistake, or witness someone else make one, it'd come to mind every time I'd practice driving, because I didn't want to accidentally kill someone from a lapse in judgment, and eventually every little thing built up so much that one day, my father handed me the keys and asked me to try taking us to a store, and I had a full-on fight-or-flight panic response just sitting in the drivers seat. At that point I finally deicided that it just wasn't responsible of me to be on the road if after several years I still couldn't even think straight while driving, and Ive never done it since, and ended up moving states a couple years in order to live somewhere that going with out a car is at least somewhat viable.

To be honest, Ive actually been happier since, its a huge expense that I don't have, and Ivr found I can get a decent amount of exercise without having to go an intentionally make myself do it, just from walking a lot. But of course, it's only comfortable in the kind of dense urban area with decent (by US standards) public transit that in the US seems to exist only in a handful of places, the cost of living for which eat a lot of the savings from not having a car in the first place.

My high school offered a class called Behind the Wheel, and almost everyone took it. It was classroom knowledge (no practicals), but it definitely gave us a lot of ground knowledge. After that, it was mostly our parents who taught us - most of our older siblings were too young to have younger kids in the car.

We did a bunch of stuff in the local high school parking lot, during times when it was empty. Stuff like learning to accurately judge where the corners of the car are, changing gears smoothly, backing up, etc. After that, it was time on small local roads, eventually graduating to bigger ones. Probably took about a year and a half, all totalled; had to fit things into everyone else's schedule and when we had a car free. My parents were kind of motivated, though - I was the last one and, once I had my license, they didn't need to drag any of our asses around anymore, lol.

Got mine at 18 in the USA. I took a driver's ed course though my high school that included a few after school driving lessons, and my state also requires 20 hrs of driving with a licensed driver.

I was my mom's oldest kid, she let me drive without a license to learn, as she was not familiar with the rules. Then I took a written test and driving test.

Drivers ed here was in the summers and my friend and I traveled in the summer instead, worked in the school year to make $ so that we could.

My kids, insurance cost is so high here now, they have to wait until they can pay that, I couldn't handle a $1,000 increase in the monthly budget for two teen drivers at that time. The older ones learned after college, my younger ones got the learner permits and learned earlier, one at 15 (she is the only one who likes to drive my stick shift car) and the other at 17 (that one still has only learner permit, can drive well, but usually takes bus or bike to get around town).

I think the reason kids usually learn early here is because the bus system has been systematically underfunded for so long. It's really hard to have a job without a car unless you are lucky and able to arrange everything close to your house. Which isn't gonna happen if your parents live in the exurbs.