Yes, I think education is the main difference and in Europe it keeps getting harder to pass a driving test. I took my test in 1982 when it was relatively easy but it was still half an hour of driving on busy roads.
@@Phiyedough Yepp. Problem is that the US went deep into creating a car-dependent society. The standards for driving are lower because people need access to cars to get around from a young age. In most of Western & Northern (also guessing Eastern, though) Europe you can get around just fine without ever touching a car, with exception to off-road or very, very, rural areas.
@@Lewtable I live in one of these rural areas (Belgian Ardennes, close to the German border), the closest "real" city, Liège, is 70 kms away. I confirm that life in our countryside without a car would be hell; we have buses but they are so scarce, their schedules are so impractical, and their itineraries are so time-consuming, that almost nobody uses them. This being said, as a former city dweller, living here is my choice, so no complaint; I just DO NOT miss public transportation and their crowds.
please remember: Only in UK and Ireland they drive on the left side of the road. in every other 45 european country its driving on the right side like US and most countries in the world. UK is not representative for mainland europa for traffic
In general, you can sum up European freedom in the quote: "One person's freedom ends where another person's freedom begins." If all Americans understood this simple rule, they would be much freer.
I have both an American and a Dutch driver's licence. There is no comparison in the amount of effort it takes to get one. Just as one example: For the Dutch driver's test, I had to drive around with a supervisor for 45 minutes, with him deliberately picking the most problematic route he could think of: Narrow streets, heavy traffic, awkward situations where you have no overview, get on the freeway, get off the freeway etc. For the American test, we drove for 20 minutes in a suburb. I think we met two other cars, but I'm not even sure of that. Similarly, for the Dutch theory test, we had to answer 50 questions and had to get 9/10 right to pass. For the American test, it was 30 questions and 7/10 right was acceptable.
The Dutch way is very similar to Switzerland. Before doing anything with a car you must do an eye exam, first aid course and another course on road safety. For the theory it was also 50 questions and you had a maximum of 3 wrong answers, more than that and you failed. Then you can go get driving lessons with an instructor, the fast learners do less than 10 lessons and the slow learners do around 15, the average is around 10. When the instructor deems you ready, they registers you for your driving exam. You do this with another person called an "expert" and they'll make you drive just like you said. If you succeed, you still only have a "student driver" license and within 3 years you have to do a course with your car to learn the limits of your vehicule. If you've done all that, you get your definitive license after these 3 years. It's costly (usually more than 2000$ in total) and it's not super easy but that's a good way of doing things imo.
@@bastiwen I envy your mandatory first aid course! The Swiss do that very well, it should be compulsory everywhere, with the occasional repetition of the course.
In Scandinavia you need to learn to drift. Because - snow and ice. There are these special locations with training roads covered in ice year around and doing it successfully is mandatory. Imagine that..
Some years ago, a bloke I shared a house with had some American visitors and it fell to me to drive them around and show them the town, a couple of times. They remarked on how everyone seemed to know each other. They mistook the raising of the hand to acknowledge common road courtesies for waving hello. It seems that in America driving can be a competition in tests of aggression and will power rather than a means of getting from A to B.
"Why can't we have this?"; I'll assume that one significant reason why this wouldn't work as well in the USA vs in much of Europe is that while both have "freedom", the freedoms in the US are typically viewed as personal freedoms whereas they are typically viewed as collective freedoms in much of Europe (Individualism vs Collectivism).
The insistence on personal freedom in the USA is seen as a license to do whatever you like. This results in mayhem in the name of freedom. As a result, America has become one giant shithole from coast to coast.
The actual reason is actually much more simple. People need a car. Therefore you can't exactly tell a person he can not drive just because he sucks at it. The guy still needs to be able to go from A to B. The necessity means that the requirements are low.
@@Londronable Presently, that may be true. However, the general issue is that nothing is being done to give people alternatives. If the road infrastructure weren't expanded and public transportation expanded, this would have to change, given how this would incentivize people to switch to avoid time spent in traffic.
Freedom pffff.... do you fly a commercial plane without proper education or does freedom stops? So people dying from bad driving is no problem but with a plane it is 🤔 Think more people are dying on the roads.
@@Londronable I mean, yes, but the solution should be giving people more options to get around, bikes, public transit, walking etc etc. And this is somehow bad to many people.
As a French, watching once a video about how to turn safely at cross road in US (an educative video for US drivers), i was shock at how many "not to do" exemple they started to list. My first reaction was "hey, if there is so many dangerous ways to turn at a cross road compared to how to do it correctly, then your cross road has a serious problem".
The fact that in Florida you can have your license without ANY Lesson and instructed only by your parents literally gives me chill.......man that's SCARY!
The most important reason that driving is better in Europe is that all drivers are professionally trained and pay a lot of money to get their license. Because the driving license is so expensive, people do not want to have it taken away again and therefore adhere very closely to the traffic regulations. A car driver's license (Class B) costs an average of between 2,600 and 3,500 euros in Germany, according to the Driving School Association of German Driving Companies.
Not true in all countries. In the UK you do not have to have professional tuition, but it is far better if you do. The problem with being taught by non-professionals is that they are far less likely to understand the rules than an instructor and get into bad habilts. The best way in the UK is to take professional tuition and to use a friend or family member to help with practice, bearing in mind what the instuctor has actually taught.
My 19-year old son attends a professional instruction establishment (we live in Belgium). A couple of months ago, as he was still 18, he was asked if he'd like to attend a driving license training course, all the way to actually obtaining his driver's license, as part of his studies at no extra cost. A driver's license for free! You bet he accepted rather twice than once.
In France it's similar to Germany: driving license is very expansive, car safety inspections severe, rolling wrecks like whe can see in the US did not exists here...
There is - at least in the Netherlands - yet another reason why people may become better drivers. In the Netherlands, children learn how to take part in traffic, as bicycle 'drivers', from a very young age. You can see children of about 4 years old on their own bicycle, guided by their parents. And by the age of nine or ten, they can go to places on their own. So even before they start to drive a car, they will have some driving experience.
In Europe, Freedoms and Rights comes hand to hand with Responsibilities and Accountability. Something that is clearly lacking in the US... Accountability I mean. Like the OP said, if you're caught doing ANYTHING else than PROPERLLY driving your vehicle, you will get fined.
I got my drivers license in the US 6 months before moving back to Europe. You can bet I failed my first driver’s test in Europe spectacularly, even after having to attend the mandatory driving on ice course and a couple of extra classes with a professional instructor.
German here. Whether and how many cars you have depends on where you live. Many people who live in big cities don't have a car because they don't need one because public transport is very well developed. Many large cities are now trying to remove cars entirely from the inner cities, so there are fewer and fewer parking spaces at ever higher prices or driving bans are imposed on some vehicles. I live in a very rural area and here you need a car because public transport is far too rare here. In contrast to a city, practically every family has at least one car here. We have two cars as my wife and I both work. To get a driver's license in Germany you currently have to pay between 3000 and 4000 € and it takes several months to get it and the probationary period afterwards is 2 years. So the "driving education" lasts a lot longer than in most other states. My daughter just started driving lessons so I know it first hand.
I mean it’s understandable if you live in the city you don’t need cars especially in the city centre, it’s the same for here in Australia, the city where I go is Perth, we have buses go everywhere and trains the go from Perth Underground (city centre) to the North of Perth and the the south of Perth/all around… you park your car at the train station and then take the train to the city centre, sometimes you can drive your car around there a lot of people do, it’s because our roads are wider and most cars are smaller, but if you go out in suburban areas, Industrial areas and rural areas there will be alot of people driving, especially from South to North of Australia etc…
Driving is only problematic if you live in or near big cities in the US, I live in oregon and I haven't seen a traffic jam in almost 5 yrs, and people drive just fine, It's the city idiots that makes the US look bad in more way's then one.
Honestly the costs for a driving licence depends on your performance aswell. I've personally paid around 1.8k for my driving licence. But that depends from state to state. I think a more realistic value is around 2.4-2.7k for a driving licence. Maybe your daughter just needed to learn a bit longer - no offence or judgement.
@@Eternal_Otter When did you get your license? As I said my daughter just started. Right now we have only paid 500 €. The driving school told us that the current average is about 3500 €.
Having driven all over Northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as England, I saw zero accidents. In North America it's a demolition derby by comparison. I just can't image a round-about like that at the Arc de Triomphe in Canada or the US. It would be a strap iron drive!! Hands down, Europeans are much better drivers! John in Canada
Yes, it is relatively rare to see accidents in Europe, this is an event! For the Arc de Triomphe I can imagine, I am a Frenchman from the countryside who loves driving, one day I will have to go to Paris by car to drive in the Arc de Triomphe, no one is a real driver the time that he didn't do it...
As the guy in the video said, just the way we learn how to drive and the amount of money it costs is vastly different from the US. I got a friend in Florida and we drove up to Illinois last December to visit his family for Christmas. I've honestly never been more scared in my life! Just on the way over, I saw more broken down cars on the side of the road than ever before. And that's not even mentioning the amount of left over wreckage you can see at the side of the roads. Here, if there's an accident, a cleaning crew comes in to make sure there's no debris left that might somehow cause another accident. As to phone use, any one caught having their phone in their hands while driving will instantly be fined €340, that's about $365! Now I know there are plenty of rules in the US, but it seems your main problem is that they're hardly ever enforced. And even when they are, the penalties are so ridiculously low that people just don't care.
The wreckage is also because the US doesn't have a car safety exam. I live in Germany and every 4 years our cars have to get a mandatory check if everything works and is safe. And if you pass you get a sticker on your plate so everyone can see if your car passed. If not, you're not allowed to drive that car before it's fixed. We also have mandatory insurance. CORRECTION: Inspection every 2 years! Thanks for letting me know.
So when you buy a new one as an example in 2022, it goes to the first check in 2025, than 2027 and after that every year. This are not services and in this checks the car get inspected if it is still road worthy. It means, is one thing not good anymore or the tolerances are off you have to fix it and came back when you have fixed it. This checks are not services. Services I let make in the summer as example. Oil change, filter and other stuff what the manufacturer is saying. The check is on the month December and I can make it in between of November until April. I do split the check and service so when something unforeseen is coming I can manage it better. But why check? So that you can prove your car is road worthy. And when I doesn't? When you doesn't, your car still has the last sticker on the windshield. There is the date of the last check on it and when you over the 4 months the police when they probably see this, take your plates, all two. You also get an fancy letter from your insurance that says, we provide you nothing anymore but the contract goes 7 months so sent us the money. Also you don't get the plates in the first place without insurance and also the insurance company can take the plates off the car. If you drive without anything, they take of course your 2.000 Dollar license. It depends on the case, but it can be 6 months minimum, prison, money, uncle doctor that tests if you don't an idiot or they take the license forever and you have to make a new one or never again in sevier cases.
All your replies are basically providing proof of why driving a car in Europe is so expensive. A. Your car must be road worthy and if it isn't, you'll have to have it fixed before you can drive it again. If a car is 8 years or older, it'll have to be checked every year. The check itself is generally in the order of about $100. B. The mandatory insurance can also be quite expensive as it depends on your driving experience (age), the number of years you haven't made a claim and where you live. C. Road tax. At least in the Netherlands we pay road tax based on the weight of the vehicle that you drive. The more the vehicle weighs, the higher the tax. And finally D. Parking costs. In a lot of cities you have to have a resident parking permit in order to be able to park in your own neighborhood. It doesn't guarantee you a parking spot, but it's less than the regular parking fees. Of course, that resident parking permit only applies to your own area, outside of it, you'll have to pay the regular parking fees where applicable.
I'm an old fart (62), but in my day in California we had driver's training in high schools. A semester of learning the rules and practice driving in a school owned car with an instructor. It didn't seem particularly easy to me - I failed the driving portion of my test the first time and had to try again a month later. I've noticed during my lifetime that drivers seem to be getting worse in this country. They seem less aware of the rules of the road, are more aggressive and take more chances. Plus the quality of our roads is worse. There are many more cars and large trucks on roads designed for half the population the state has now. The most irritating thing on our highways is the "left lane camper". I was traveling the other day on a four lane highway and saw a line of five compact SUVs (mostly RAV4s) in the left lane all driven by middle aged women. Cars passing them in the right lane because they refused to move over. Scenarios like that are not uncommon here. The mindset is "I'm doing the speed limit, why should I move over?". 😑
At 8:00 I had wondered why he switches lanes to the left. Then I saw the road assistance vehicle in the distance. That's also what tends to happen when there is enough space: people try to give those vehicles a wide berth as it is incredibly dangerous for anyone that NEEDS to exit their vehicles on the hard shoulder. People take care and switch their lanes long enough ahead for others so see the switch, and react accordingly. Edit: In your outro comments you mentioned that people's cars are considered an extension of their personality in the US. Trust me, that also applies here (in Germany) at least to some extent. Aggressive drivers also do tend to have the more powerful cars. However what you rarely if ever see here are the huge pickup trucks that are so common in the US. Because people here know several things. A) Those things are horrible fuel guzzlers. B) They are NOT safer, to the contrary. They have a much higher center of gravity, thus tip over much easier just by themselves when they do hit a bump at high speeds or go through a curve at slightly elevated speeds. They also get scooped by lower cars much easier, causing them to flip over much easier during accidents. With the crap that most people have lying around in their vehicles a rolling vehicle becomes a two ton mincing machine for the passengers. The visual lines are actually much, much worse in these huge trucks due to the long engine compartments. People simply aren't able to SEE the road directly in front of them. During heavy fog or snowfall you can't even SEE the road directly in front of your vehicle as it appears in the blind sector of the line of sight of the driver blocked by the engine compartment. Yes, it is THAT bad. The huge tires required means that these trucks are WORSE at traction during hydroplaning situations despite the large weight of the vehicles. Lastly, a heavy vehicle is much harder to control, both in curves as well as during emergency braking. A larger mass carries a lot more momentum that has to be lost. However, emergency braking even with ABS, means that for tiny sections traction is lost, and the vehicles is sliding a tiny distance before the ABS takes control again and allows for continued braking. This may not be much, but it adds up, resulting in pickup trucks having the absolute worst braking distances of any non-bus or non-semi vehicles on the road (tanks don't count, damn it). C) They are a hazard to other vehicles on the road as their bumpers are much, much higher off the ground than the standard required by regulations for any non-trucks (yes, even in the USA). If you don't believe me, check out "Not Just Bikes" with one of their newer videos on this topic. Here's the link: czcams.com/video/jN7mSXMruEo/video.html&ab_channel=NotJustBikes
If you enjoy reacting on videos about driving in North America in comparison to the Netherlands especially, I highly recommend the video from the channel "Not just bikes" titled "Stroads are ugly expensive and dangerous". It has a special focus on the connection of roadbuilding and safety issues.
Try to walk in the suburbs in the states, first of all the neighbours call the police on you, and they run your ID to see who you are and if you like to show them where you live you feel a strange sensation true you body because you’ve been teased and on the floor handcuffed,second you don’t find a nearby supermarket, and you can’t come back because the police has something I don’t understand stand
There are fines in Europe for -staying in the left lane -using a cell phone while driving -driving an unsave vehicle -not creating a rescue lane in treffic jams -tailgating -overtaking on the right hand side And of course, there are fines for -speeding -driving under the influence In Germany, there is even a state bureau to monitor those offenses by a point system, and if you get caught too often, your divers license can be revoked. Points are given depending on the severity of the offense and are deleted after a certain period, as long as no further offenses are added. Three times over 0.5 BAC, and your license is gone until you passed a psychological exam and a medical test. Same goes for a BAC of 1.3 or higher, except your license is gone at the first time. Having smoked cannabis days, even weeks before driving, will also result in loosing your license, and on top of the psychological exam, you need to prove that you have not been using for at least half a year, before you can successfully take the exam. Any other illegal substance use (even without participating in driving) will extend that period of abstinence to a full year. Basically what I´m saying is: the fact, that drivers in Europe tend to be more reasonable, is not really a question of common sense in itself, but a question of avoiding negative consequences. Despite the stuff said in the video, a drivers license is still a basic requirement in Europe. Yes, there is a system of public transportation in bigger cities, and yes, you can do your groceries with a bicycle. But in rural areas, there are two bus connections a day, Europe itself has a humid climate (read: it rains a lot), and messing your wardrobe you put on for work is not that great, as is riding a bicycle at temperatures hardly above freezing. And of course, having a appointment in another city, that requires more than a suitcase, is a hilarious idea for public transportation.
Greetings from a Swede in the Netherlands. I took my licens in Sweden and it was a package deal for 1000$. Books, tests and 10 driving lessons. When finishing driving the 10 lessons it is up to the instructor to decide if you are a good driver to take the actual test for your licens or if you need to pay for a few more lessons because you are not considered a safe driver yet. In my case he thought I was a safe driver and should take the test. I also had to pay another 200$ for slippery road driving (halkkörning) most Nordic countries it is obligated to do. It will give you an understanding and a feel what to do if you hit ice or water and your car starts to slide. You can practice driving with someone but the person must be minimum 24 years old. Went to get some lessons as a driving instructor. Had the driving licens for at least 5 years and register you both (you both have to be accepted). If the person is not registered as your instructor, the person is committing a crime and they can get a fine or loose their driving licens. It means you can only drive with that person and that car that has been registered. You also have to buy a licens like a normal number plate but this one is green and the text is white saying, practice driver and has to be visible to others. But you can't just drive with a person private you also need lessons at a driving school.
In the U.S., almost no one is aware that they actually have a traveling murder machine underneath them that should be given just as much attention as a murderer himself, lest they become one themselves.
about commuting, in germany my employer pays 80% of my monthly public transport ticket, that I can even use privatly, so I pay around 170€ a year, while the required insurance for car alone would cost over 300€, not even starting with repairs, car tax or fuel.
Amsterdam not being a "car city" actually makes driving more pleasant. Not Just Bikes has a video about it and other factors ( czcams.com/video/d8RRE2rDw4k/video.html ).
I live in The Netherlands and drive a Toyota Corolla Hybrid station wagon, it is a great and reliable car. And very economical in gas/benzine, which is an advantage in these times of high gas prices.
Hey an Aussie! True we American buy more than what we need. Wagons and vans should be the norm for big families not massive pickup trucks. Lastly am jealous of the Utes you guys get.
I grew up with a single mom, and 2 siblings, you know what our present was when we turned 16-18? 6 months worth of decent drivers lessons and I'm really happy for that. the only thing is, people can be more chill when parking etc. we're not chill at all.
It might be an idea for Joel (and many Americans) to take advanced and defensive driving lessons, before considering driving in Europe. It gives real confidence and awareness, and often means cheaper insurance. Basic mechanics doesn't hurt, either.
Definitely. He goes through the topic with some amazing accuracy. Dutch people tend to complain about traffic, about public transit, etc etc. But what they don't know is that because they've never driven outside of the country they don't know the quality in other countries. So they complain, while trains, buses etc are 90% punctual. They complain about traffic because they don't know the hours of traffic you have to sit through in other countries, that are a lot less dense, sometimes by orders of magnitude.
The basic fine for having a phone in your hand while driving varies in western Europe from about $50 in Germany to over $250 in UK. In France, even using phones hands-free while driving is illegal. On top of fines, these offences attract points on one's licence. As for other distractions, in much of Europe (inc UK), highways may not have advertising billboards alongside them. Billboards are only allowed on urban streets where speed is restricted to 30 or 40 kph.
In Poland it's ~$122 for using a phone or any other devices in hand, but people still use them, even on highways in right lane, where they usually drive slower :/
A major difference I've found in the US is that 40-tonne trucks are able to drive the same speed as cars - often 80 mph - and are permitted in the far left lane. Wagons have lower speed limits in Europe/UK (usually 90 km/h), most have speed limiters, and you can't drive in the left (right in UK) lane, even in a car towing a small trailer. Regarding pickups, have a look at the video by Not Just Bikes called "These stupid trucks are literally killing us". The industry descriptors for their target demographic is an eye-opener, as is how many children you can hide in front of a modern pickup without the driver seeing any of them.
Almost correct re: Truck Driving in the UK. If the road is a designated "A" road then there is no "lane ban". It could be a four lane road but a truck is still allowed to use the outside lane. This is ONLY for "A" roads though. Case in point.... The North Circular is 3 lanes wide and YES a truck can be in any. Weird point... The M25 over the Dartford bridge is actually NOT the M25, it's the A282 so YES a truck can be in lane four ! In General though, ANY towing vehicles are banned from the outside lane on THREE or more lane MOTORWAYS - UNLESS there is a hazard or directed by Police / Highways.
I took someone from usa from Hamburg to Flensburg on the Autobahn. Standard like 80/90 mph. Since he asked for it i speed up to 150mph and after few seconds he had enough of it. Road was empty. Lesson learned.
In the UK, you can't use your phone whilst driving, in fact now, you can't even hold your phone, satnav or anything like that, in your vehicle, whilst driving. There have been calls, in the past, for people to be banned from eating at the wheel and even listening to the radio etc, though I don't really know how you'd enforce that. I wish it were the law over here to have to have lessons with an instructor, that sounds like a very good idea! Also this guy keeps saying drivers in Europe are far better than in the states, but let's just say that, not all countries in Europe are equal in that quality!
Hi, Here is an explanation (a bit long but it tells you everything you need to know about making the german driver's license) How does a driver's license work? To get your driver's license, you'll need these 7 steps. Registration: Register with a driving school. To find the right one, compare fees and services or ask other students. Vision test and first aid course: Take a vision test and a first aid course. You will need these certificates to apply for your driver's license. Application: The application for the driver's license is usually made by the driving school. The processing time usually takes at least 5 weeks, in this time you can already start with the driving training, but not yet take the test. Theory lessons: Once you have paid the fees, you can start directly with the theory lessons. There are 14 different theory units, each unit lasts 90 minutes. They cover all important areas of road traffic and driving. 2 units cover additional material and must be attended. In the other 12 basic units you only have to be present at least 12 times, so theoretically you could also attend the same basic unit 12 times. Practical lessons: You arrange regular driving lessons with your driving instructor, usually directly 90 minutes, so 2 driving lessons. There is no minimum number for basic driving lessons. The average is at least 18 hours, depending on your ability even less is enough. Really obligatory are then only the 12 special driving hours, which also cost more: they consist of 5 intercity, 4 highway and 3 night driving. Theory test: If you have done all the hours, you can register for the theory test. This can be done at most 3 months before the minimum age allowed. There are about 1,000 questions, 30 of which are asked and you are allowed a maximum of 10 demerits in the exam. Practical test: Your driving instructor knows when you are ready for the practical driving test. You can take it a maximum of one month before the minimum age allowed. The examiner tells you what to do during the test, for example where to turn, where and how to park. You pass the test if you drive for 45 minutes without making any serious mistakes. To register with your driving school, all you need is your ID card. The application for the driver's license is usually made by the driving school. For the application to work you need: Identity card Certificate of the first aid course Biometric passport photo Eye test certificate Application fee for the road traffic office (approx. 45 Euro) Driving license at 17: Further documents and application fees for accompanying persons The processing of the documents at the authorities usually takes 5 weeks, only then you are entitled to participate in the tests. You will not be allowed to take the exams without a first aid course. What does a driver's license cost? To get your driver's license, you can expect to pay an average of 1,500 to 2,000 euros. The fees for practical and theory lessons vary most from region to region: According to the ADAC, the driving license in Brandenburg costs only 1,200 to 1,400 euros, while in Bavaria it is the most expensive at 1,700 to 2,200 euros. Of course, it also depends on the ability of the learner driver: depending on it takes more or less driving hours or test attempts. This is how the costs can be: Basic fee for the driving school with theory lessons: approx. 200 € Teaching material: approx. 50 € Eye test, first aid course and passport photos: approx. 40 € Application for driving license at the authorities: approx. 45 € On average at least 18 practice hours (each approx. 30 €): 540 € *12 obligatory special drives (each approx. 50 €): *600 € Examination fees for driving school and authority: approx. 200 € The costs are thus approximately at* 1,675 €.* How long will it take me to get my driver's license? If you regularly attend theory lessons and take driving lessons, it takes 3 to 5 months to get your driver's license. If you want to have the driving license on time for your birthday, it is therefore sufficient to register half a year in advance. The total of 14 double hours of theory can be attended in 2-week crash courses at many driving schools. If you otherwise assume one theory unit per week, you will need 14 weeks for this. The practice drives also last 90 minutes each. If you choose the average of 30 hours and do one unit a week, it will take 15 weeks. Many driving schools also offer fast-track courses in which you are prepared for the theory and practical test within 1 to 2 weeks. Of course, it depends on your previous knowledge, your talent, your commitment and your free time. Remember that it usually takes at least 5 weeks for the authorities to process your application. So apply in time, because only then you can take your exams. If you fail an exam, you can retake it after 2 weeks. How do I pass the driving test? You must first pass the theory test before you can take the practical test. You can also take both exams in one day. However, if you fail the theory test, you will still have to pay for the practical test without being able to take it. How does the theoretical exam work? The exam is at the TÜV or DEKRA. Take your certificate of training for theory lessons, your ID card and the exam fees if they are not paid directly through the driving school. The test is on the computer or tablet. The examiner will explain the operation and procedure and may be asked about this during the exam. Out of more than 1,000 multiple-choice questions, 30 are asked, each with a different number of demerit points and answer choices. You have a total of 30-45 minutes. If you are unsure about a question, you can mark the question and look at it again later. If you then click on "submit", your answers will be sent and you will receive your result shortly afterwards. If you end up with more than 10 demerits or if you get two questions wrong with 5 demerits, you fail. If you pass the exam, you have 12 months to take the practical exam. If you wait longer, you will have to retake the theory exam. How do I prepare for the theory test? Here you have to practice! The driving school usually provides you with study materials that you can use to practice all 1,000 questions until you feel confident. With the practice material you can test yourself if you would already pass. Many questions are self-explanatory, others you have to learn by heart.
How does the practical exam work? You wait for the examiner with your driving instructor at the agreed meeting point. To pass the driving test, you have to drive for 45 minutes without making any serious mistakes according to the examiner's instructions. The examiner sits in the back seat, your driving instructor sits next to you in the passenger seat. Your driving instructor is not allowed to give specific tips or instructions during the test. The route consists of three basic driving tasks, such as parking, emergency braking or a route inside a built-up area and one outside a built-up area. You will find out immediately whether you have passed or not. If you passed, you will either get your driver's license right away or you will have to wait until your birthday if you are not old enough to drive yet. How do I pass the practical test? With enough driving experience you are of course best off. Most of the time, the last driving lessons are already similar to the test and your driving instructor will not give you any more tips. On the day of the test you should be there on time. The examiner will explain everything to you and your driving instructor will also be there. No one can expect you to drive completely error-free, but you should not allow yourself to make any serious mistakes. If you make serious mistakes, you will fail the test immediately! These include running a red light, disobeying a stop sign, or endangering other road users. If your driving instructor has to intervene, you will fail the test. If you have your vehicle under control, follow the traffic rules, drive considerately and with foresight, can park and also answer technical questions, nothing should stand in the way of your driving license. What happens if I do not pass an exam? If you do not pass one of the exams, you can repeat it after at least 2 weeks. You will then have to pay for the exam again. If you shorten the time limit, you can retake the theoretical exam after 3 days and the practical exam after 7 days. If you fail one of the exams for the third time, you have to wait 3 months. Then you have 3 more attempts. If you have also failed the sixth attempt in the practical test, the driving license authority will check whether you are at all suitable to participate in road traffic - you will have to undergo a medical-psychological examination (MPU). best regards from Germany
As a little sidenote: Driving lessons have become quite a bit more expensive in many parts of germany. In Sachsen-Anhalt for example on average a practice hour costs around 50€ and special drives roughly 60€.
the grass always looks greener on the other side. while i have to say, driving in germany is a dream, it is also very expensive. and for inexperienced drivers it is really dangerous. when a car passes you with 240 k/mh, your car is shaking and that causes many inexperienced drivers to panic. on the autobahn you really have to concentrate on the traffic and that can be quite exhausting even on just short 4 hour trips. but if you follow the rules you will get save where you wanna go...most of the time,lol
I have had driving licenses since 1982, now I have all classes, if I add them up, it would cost around 25,000 euros to do them all again. By the way, I got my last ticket (25 euros) in 1987 for driving 20 km H too fast outside of a town. Greetings from Germany
Not al German cars, like VW, Skoda, Opel. It is mostly (big) BMW, Mercedes and Audi. Mostly an arrogant, middle aged man who thinks he is so important that everybody else has the obligation to get out of their way. I never do...😇
Hello Joel. I get what you said about US from looking down on those types of vehicles from many Greyhounds while touring the country. Years back in UK I remember driving after work in Yorkshire to a meeting in Hastings, a long drive. I had no hands free phone as the company car was for the project, not mine and I prepared for the meeting by talking on the phone to my manager for up to two hours, at full speeds as I had hundreds of miles to my destination. This would just not be allowed these days. There are cameras like in Netherlands and work Health and Safety departments are strict on driving practices.
I get to work every day with an electric moped, I don't own a car since 2017. The few times I really need a car I rent one. I can rent cars by hours where I live (Göteborg, Sweden) and I pay a lot less per year now than I did when I owned a car. I can do most of what I need to do with my moped and that's even overkill some times, a bicycle would work perfectly well in many cases, but I just love the feeling riding my electric moped. And some times I find it more practical to use public transportation since that works great here.
very good , usually on reaction videos i feel they are spending their time trying to think about their reaction, this guy is actually absorbed in the video and taking interest. liked and subscribed
I started driving school in Germany in 2017 and got my licence in June 2018. I first had the theory lessons (twice a week for 3 hours each), had a PC app and workbook for training at home (which was a one-time purchase of like 70€ and I still have it) and then had to pass the theoretical test first before even getting to drive a single meter. As I didn't drive anything motorized beforehand, I needed many more practical driving lessons than usual (about 20 are mandatory including autobahn, night drives, overland routes etc). It added up to like 70 lessons in total (70x 45 minutes). Each regular lesson cost me about 28€ back then, the special lessons 35€ each. But I know it's much more expensive if you're doing your licence now. Also, you pay for the theoretical lessons and every single test participation. So if you fail your theoretical or practical test, you need to pay again in order to repeat it. Luckily I passed both my tests at first try. Still paid around 2500€ in total for getting my licence. Nowadays it would probably be like 3000€ or more. My driving teacher always said "Just because you got your licence, don't think you're a good driver. Becoming a good, experienced driver will take 25 years or 100,000 kilometers driven. Whatever comes first. Then you've seen it all." Now, here I am, about 5 years and 100,000 km later and I would consider myself a good driver, but wouldn't say I've seen it all.
To be fair, people living in the us spend much more time on the road on average on top of having generally longer work week, so it’s no surprise many try to optimise their time by doing other things at the same time. In France, we spend less than an hour a day in the car on average and about 35 hours a week at work. And many people take public transportation to commute so they can read or be on their phones on the way with no issues. Not to mention the minimum of 5 weeks paid vacation per year that people actually take (employers are find if their employees don’t take them).
I feel that a lot of it comes down to how easy it is to get a driving licence in the USA. In Europe it is quite difficult to get a licence. Here in the UK we are one of the easier places in Europe to get a licence. You can't drive with a learner licence until you are 17 and you need to go through at least three professional driving lessons before you take the test which is split into a theory section, a hazard perception section and then the actual driving portion where you need to put all that theory into practace. Even after all that you will still need to take more tests to drive larger vehicles and tow trailers. If you want to cut down on how much you pay for insurance you need to take an 'advanced driving course'. Also it is extremely expensive to get insured to teach a learner driver, most people just opt for professional lessons as a consequence.
I flunked my first driving test in Florida because I didn't know what a "three point turn" was, hired a driving teacher for one session explaining that all I needed was some vocabulary. He took me up Mount Trashmore, told me to drive the car backwards; it was super easy because it had a marker on the back end and the seat was so large (they're larger now). He said "ok, you certainly can drive. So, you said you needed help with vocabulary?" When he explained three-point-turns I laughed. In Spain it falls under "if a cop sees you do that, forget about your points: said cop will enlist the aid of a judge in order to insert your vehicle up your colon. Sideways." Spain: driving test is in live traffic and involves at least one instance of parallel parking, preferably on a slope. You will need to go from stopped upslope in a spot with bad visibility to merging into traffic at least once. Florida: driving test is in a practice area with no traffic. No parallel parking. What is a slope?
I'm Norwegian, I'm now 51 years old. Never iven bumped a car. I got my first var ( a VW Beetle) when i was 12. Wasn't driving on roads with it, but we sort of raced in fields and on roads in the woods. I got my license when I was 18. We HAVE to get an approval from a certified driving school. Then we have to go get a test in a national run "Trafic station". When I got my drivers license I think I paid about 800 USD for the whole thing. These days it's about 3000 USD. Plus/minus, depends of what your skills are before taking the classes. :) And I NEVER look at my phone or anything while driving, there could be a car, a person walking or a moose in the road. I focus on the ROAD!
8:40 truck drivers here in the Czech republic are not allowed to pass at all. They gotta stay on the right side of the highway. Btw I have been to the US and it amazes me how people just do not use or even seem to know the car light, blinker nor the hand signals. I wanted to thank a dude after he let me zip with my hazard lights and he immediately slammed on the breaks...
I had a different experience yesterday when I was on a trip back home to Germany just a couple of km from where he was filming this video. Near Schiphol airport a driver was driving in the right lane eastbound on A9. He had a smartphone mounted to his windshield right in front of his face and was playing games on it. While I was passing him, he wanted to change to the middle lane without watching his mirrors and without indicating the lane change. I had to slam the brakes to avoid a crash since another car was in the left lane. He then changed lanes and did a brake check on me because he was pissed that I dared to drive left of his car while he wanted to change lanes. So yes, most people in Europe drive carefully and try to follow the rules, but some people out there should not have the privilege to operate a vehicle for the safety of everybody else on the road.
@@therealdutchidiot Yes, it is an exception. Most Dutch drivers follow the rules and road rage is rare. The only bad habbit of the Dutch drivers is that they tend to keep not enough following distance to the next vehicle ahead. Even though Police had campaigns for years telling drivers how much money they can save in 2 seconds, most drivers don't follow the 2 second rule and keep more like 0.5 - 1 second distance. The result is that many crashs happen that could be avoided by just a second more distance. Thankfully most of these crashs result only in damage to the cars and people don't get hurt due to the low speed on Dutch motorways. Talking about speeds, another thing I noticed is that most drivers don't go at the 130 km/h limit after 7 pm. They stay way below that in the 100 - 110 km/h range. Most Germans on the other hand tend to drive at the limit +/- 10 km/h. But I feel like the average speed on motorways in both countries decreased a lot during the last two years which might be a result of the high price for fuel and more EVs on the road since EVs have a noticable lower range at speed. It just doesn't make you faster if you are hammering at 130+ and spend more time at the charger.
Actually a great reaction. As someone who comes from Europe, and has been to USA multiple times, I can definitely relate with many of these points. My first driving experience in USA was actually in Atlanta, GA, and the I-75 interstate was a nightmare to drive on. I got used to it after a while though. Despite all of that, I actually liked USA a lot, and can't wait to visit again 🤘
Eating, being on the phone, reading etc. gets you at least a fine in Germany and it can cost you your drivers license. Same with not driving in the right lane. And depending on the cause and length of the removal of your license you can't renew the license like in the USA. If your license gets removed it's temporary up to a year. Under a year you get it back, over a year you have a problem. You need to repeat driving school, do the test etc. and some are required to do a psychological test if they are mentally able to drive a vehicle without being a danger to the community - and sometimes the court forbids you having a new license.
At 8:10 you see someone with car trouble. [In the Netherlands] You are not allowed to stop on the shoulder/emergency lane on the right unless you have an emergency and if you do the yellow truck comes with orange flashing lights and the signs above the road tell other cars to slow down. The normal speed is 100 km/h and the led signs above the roads in the video show 90, then 70 and it could go as low as 50. The first sign with the dynamic speeds should also have orange blinking lights (like the emergency lights of a car) if you are approaching a traffic jam or an accident.
applying the test for a driver's license in Serbia is done exclusively at a driving school and the test is divided into two parts: theoretical (the test) and practically, there are 40 hours of driving on the streets of the city, if the teacher says that you are good, then you can take the test and it is done as two policemen sit in the back seat and tell you where to drive and if you drove without a mistake or with a few mistakes you passed, a few years ago they also introduced the first aid test
The driving in the right lane thing is also mandatory when not passing someone in Europe unlike in the us. Also the Autobahn is not just one 2 lane highway. The name for the highway system in Germany.
If in the US, the start giving fines to people for holding onto anything, like phones, books etc, or insecure loads, I'll bet you they can easily repair all roads in less than a year. Holding a phone is a 320 Euro (380 USD) fine, insecure load starts at 250 euro up to 5000 Euro. (272 to 5436 USD. Conversion rate at the time of posting the comment.)
At around 7:32 you see can see some black LED screens coming up hanging above the lanes. These are used for emergencies, warnings or other temporary changes to the lane and are used for added safety. For example in the video they show that speed limit is lowered to 90km an hour because there is car broken down up ahead 8:08. When he is getting closer to the broken down car the speed limit is further lowered to 70km an hour for the lane next to the broken down car. At 8:51 the signs show that the roads speed limit is back to the regular speed limit. The signs can also detect traffic jams and adjust the speed limit accordingly. They are also used to signal that lanes are closed and even give you a heads up ahead of time to show you that the lane is closing. As far as i know Sweden is the only other country adepting these so far but in the netherlands they are everywhere and i love them :)
I have to agree with everything on this video. I have driven in Europe many times and it is nice. Joel notice that he was driving on the Right side of the road. UK is the only one in the Europe area that drives on the other side I recently found out that in the UK the size of car engine is restricted when you first get your license.
I would have thought that a big part of the US problem is that the cops don't seem to bother to enforce the rules. If you "undertake" or drive slowly in the fast lane in the UK and Europe, the cops will almost certainly pull you.
As far as I know it is perfectly legal to use all lanes to drive on whether overtaking or not,there does not seem to be any laws regarding 'undertaking' in most states of the US,you can use any lane you want,unless directed by signs and lane markings for turning
In sweden, for our drivers license there is also a mandatory "ice road driving course" where you learn to control the car if you happend to slide on ice.
I am gonna be honest I was once in the US for work in Hillsboro Oregon and on a short trip to San Fransisco. I kinda liked driving there, especially going up and down hills in San fransisco felt so damn nice.. One thing I loved was that in crossroads the person that gets priority is the one that arrived first (although I can see that being an issue with stupid drivers). Also since USA is a country build for the car I felt like the roads were very good and wide and organised. Althought I guess that also had to do with the areas I drived into, cause when I went to portland downtown once some of these streets were utter crap. The only negative is that NOBODY followed the speed limit on the highway which put me as a foreigner is a bad situation (either I went with the flow, breakng the speed limit, risking tickets and complictions with the police, or going slow within the speed limit and risking an accident). I chose to go with the flow cause I was like fuck it the police wont do anything to me especially cause I look like a white caucasian male driving a fancy rental car. Also drivers seem to be very aggressive and beep the horn instantly, like calm down guys some of us do not live here. The best country I had driven at is the Netherlands. Wide, clean, well made, well maintained roads everywhere and people are very disciplined drivers.
From my understanding of the US (Aussie) Truck drivers are a consequence of their companies. They pay a driver based on how fast they get to their destinations. Obviously you’re going to be aggressive on the roads if you have a family at home that is relying on that speed bonus to pay for Timmy’s braces or Suzy’s surgery (because no universal healthcare). We can eat in our cars in Australia because we have to. If you’re on the road for hours trying to get to the next town, you need to pack food. That said, I’ve never seen a driver eating alone. In our car & in every car I’ve seen, it’s the front passenger (adult) passing the driver food at stop lights or on long, straight highways. I guess solo drivers pull over to eat & then get back on the road
When I was a teenager in the 1980s, about 5,500 people were killed in road accidents in the UK per year. Now it’s about 2,000 per year. Car design is better, road design is better, and social attitudes have changed a lot relating to drink-driving and the use of seatbelts.
In Germany, you can get a driver's license at the age of 17. But that's just a restricted driver's license. If you drive the first year without an accident, you can get a full license at the age of 18.
Drove in Portugal for 2 weeks their drivers are extremely polite and rules oriented. Move right, move right. Left lane is always open. Zero accidents seen. Cars don't even have dents or almost no scratches even. Portugal small towns are crazy narrow roads yet no accidents and cars are in perfect condition. Did not see a single accidents or jam behind accidents. No police on highways because they aren't needed.
I would like to make a correction here. Most people do use a car to commute. Just nit when you live in a city. But every morning and afternoon you have a decent chance being stuck in traffic. They are not as dramatic as US roads tend to be though. One hour delay is about the most I ever experienced. The ring road around Paris during holiday season is a whole other thing though.
I am Driving over 40 years in Germany incl. 40 Ton Truck , sometimes its just hell on the A.Bahn .specially the A5 south Germany , France and Swiss Borders ... it´s just crazy and then the Eastblock Countries are on the Road also , Polen Hungerian Lettland Lituenien Estland Romania Bulgaria Sloweniea and so on ..... My luck, i only have 4 Miles to work ,i take the Bike there ,and in the Garage Parkt a 1991 Camaro Convt. + Ram Truck all V8 of course lol..... have a nice Day ... Black Forest South Germany .. cu
I have driven in the autobahn at 200 kph (124 mph) in a 140 hp Alfa Romeo Giulietta visiting my relatives, I live in Italy. It's a lot of fun driving in the autobahn if you follow the rules because everybody's following it, at least in my experience. I have driven in France, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland and Croatia in my road trips.
About the eating/ drinking thing while driving: It's not "prohibited" to do so, but you shouldn't do it if it's not safe. I as a German mostly have some kind of beverage in the cup holder of my car (canned or in a cup) which I can easily grab while driving, if it was necessary. Otherwise, I will grab a bottle from the passenger door's storage for example when waiting at a red traffic light or sometimes also in city traffic. And on a longer drive, I'll take little snacks with me that I can either easily grab and consume with one hand or that a passenger will hand me if there's one. On the autobahn however, I try to avoid eating or drinking or only do it when it's safe so I can still concentrate on the traffic. About the usage of mobile phones while driving, it's true that it's forbidden and heavily fined. And they are planning to do even stricter surveillance and fines on this.
7:26 Italian here, just to clarify: highways and other “busy roads” are in perfect condiction (there’s not a translation, on google maps you can see “SS”, wich stands roughly for state road, but ofc it doesn’t mean anything to you. They’re like two lane highways that begin from highway exits and spread more deeply into the area). You will find potholes in the country roads or in the suburbs (especially in the south) but they’re slowly getting “fixed”.
Afaik and can remember, I don't know if we are allowed in germany to take a quick sip of water/coffee? At least most people do this, especially on long haul trips. But the important thing is quick, no rummaging around in the car or something like that. mostly from drinks in cup holders or a bottle :). And I have yet to meet a person allowing anyone to eat in their car :D.
I don't know for sure, but I think it is mandatory to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel (you can't have both hands on the steering wheel all the time, because you need to shift gears). That means you can drink something, but cant use both hands to open a bottle or something like that.
I would say my comftable speed limit with my car on the autobahn when traffic and weather, like the situation in general allows it is 93-99 miles per hour. The speed may vary, naturally, drastically depending on the situation, my form on the day. But the speed at which you can keep your car well controlled also varies. From my expierence and the thing that annoys me the most about driving in germany is that people do not keep enough distance to the car in front.
We also have regulations regarding driving distances between vehicles- and some British motorways will have markers on the road, spacing cars for the average speed. Or neon signs alerting drivers to recommended spacing for the current level of traffic in peak times.
I lived six years in Europe for six years and have driven in the British Isles and from Belgium to Hungry and west to France. I liked driving in Europe and agree with the comments on the video.
In many European countries (including the UK), both vehicle tax and insurance costs tend to be at least partially influenced by size and emissions - so it costs a great deal more to drive a massive 'gas-guzzler' than a smaller, more efficient car. (For example, in the UK, an old 2016 Toyota Auris hybrid would be zero tax and insurance group 12E, while a brand new Ford Puma would be £255 tax per year and insurance group 22E.)
Here in Portugal it is forbidden to stay in the middle lanes. As soon as we pass a car, it is mandatory to return to the rightmost lane of the motorway. It is also forbidden to overtake someone on the right. Here the fines are heavy and those who do not comply may lose their driving license.
Car dependency is something I've started being more conscious about. I've tried cycling more local trips, but in small town 'Merica it really is a dangerous proposition. We need massive updates to infrastructure ... a lot like the Netherlands started doing in the 70's.
Afternoon Joel, my friend lives on Crete, where there are no motorways, few dual carriageways, roundabouts and traffic lights. The law says it's legal to arrive at Heathrow, collect a hire car, and drive on the other side of the road, in 6 lanes of traffic, with the signs in a foreign language. I have to bear that in mind, when I'm blasting down one of the busiest stretches of motorway in Europe.
completely agree. but the niederlande 🇳🇱 footage contains no truck/lorry traffic. was it sunday? normally in 1 of 3 lanes (or even only 2) ist taken by trucks as i know it from switzerland, italy and france
1) In Finland your fines are based on your annual salary. Twice, Alexander Barkov of the NHL Florida Panthers, has been fined 40,000 Euros cuz he makes $8 million US / year. If I get a $100 fine it hurts. If you make a million a year, you make $100 before you sit down at your desk. 2) A girl in London, U.K. got caught eating an apple when she was driving. She had to pay 50 pounds more per MONTH ( 650 / year ) in car assurance. 3) I drive in Quebec and people here still do not know how to use a traffic circle or know the difference between a yield and a merge 4) Both my father and mother in law were killed in a USA car accident 5 ) I took out my car radio to avoid one more distraction and I never eat behind the wheel. Drive thru just encourages bad driving skills. I've even saw a driving instructor going through a drive thru while on his phone. How do you expect us to be good drivers ?
German here. I heard that in the Netherlands attempts were made with crossroads that at first sight are ambiguous. Motorists do not immediately know who has the right of way and must therefore slow down. It has been shown that fewer accidents happen because everyone has to be careful. This is of course not a concept for large crossroads in the inner city, but I think it makes a lot of sense for residential areas.
Europeans and British have car- share schemes usually run by companies but sometimes by local councils- encouraging and sometimes with benefits if you shre your car with another commuter to cut down on emmissions and congestion on busy urban routes.
He didn't mention there's no default speed limit on German highways. You can drive as fast as you want, unless there is a speed restriction on a certain section. And the fastest drivers are not any more aggressive than the slower drives - patiently waiting for the lane to clear ahead and press the throttle. I was cruising with 130-140 km/h on the right lane and watching this amazing tolerance among all drivers.
When I went to University in Berlin and lived with family, I had to take mandatory driving lessons, and because I was from USA I had to take additional driving classes. All together it cost me over 5000 euro, then don't get me started on how much the insurance was. The yearly inspection for my car every year was expensive, TUV is no joke! Also aggressive driving can cost you your car and land you in jail. When I was a child and visiting family in Berlin my aunt had a game very similar to slug bug, bunch buggy, but we look for bicyclists and scooters, and motorcycles, but we never touch the driver, we would say what we saw and direction we saw it. Last thing, manual transmissions are very common, my family teases me about being in America!
As a European I can give a little extra info. Trucks ( not pickup truck) are limited to 90km/h from the factory (foot to the floor gives you 90 and that’s it)i n many european country’s so the can’t really pas cars on the highway. When it comes to pickup trucks, I do not know the price for a new Dodge Ram in the US but over here it’s 140.000$ for a TRX 6.2l and another 2500$ for insurance and I can even begin to guess on the cost to get it registered. So yeah, that’s why I and probably many others do not buy this kind of car. A basic European car can be had for somewhere between 20 to 40.000 $ new.
And that price is HUGE problem as it slows down modernization of fleet and costs us unnecessary money that are then not spent on other things like housing or, well, even investments.Because this rip-off is not happening only in case of big US cars, but unnecessarily increases price of all cars. Not to mention quite idiotic mandatory insurance , well it is sort of car tax that goes to private companies, weirdly, based on power and volume of the engine (at least in Czechia). It should be either that every drivers pays some yearly tax as cars only rarely crash on their own, or it should be abolished altogether as metric by which it is decided does not make any sense.
I don't get why necessity of driving can be an excuse for lowering licensing standards. Isn't more people on the road a reason to be more rigorous in instilling rules of the road and driving habits?
@@Londronable Not talking about not being able to drive. Just requiring higher and, most importantly, consistent standards. Depending on implementation it might drive prices higher, but doesn't necessarily have to. Main price driver in many EU countries are mandatory driving lessons. This doesn't need to be the case. Just require high standard for theory and practical exams. I live in the Netherlands and there are no mandatory lessons. You take as many lessons as you like or need to be prepared for an exam.
@@MichalMati You don't seem to get it honestly. Go and tell an American in the midwest he's not allowed to drive because he sucks at it. What's that person supposed to do? I'm not talking about the people requiring more training, I'm talking about some people not being able to pass European level requirements.
@@Londronable That requirements are not that high - just knowing the rules of the road and being able to safely operate a vehicle in traffic. Yes, depending on mental and practical aptitude it might take a bit longer to get there for some people, but, with some additional training, they can get there eventually. Actually, if someone is really unable to pass the practical exam even with additional instruction, it'd be dangerous for him and for the others to let him on the road. Ofc, I am a realist and don't expect any changes on this front across the pond for the reasons you've mentioned in the beginning. There is usually not much political will to change age-old paradigms.
@@Londronable You are saying that American people are less capable than Europeans of learning to drive. If the difference in standards was great, no-one in Europe would be able to drive either. The main thing is that in Europe, drivers are well trained and held to those standards; in the US, they're not usually trained and not held to the standards - the actual standards are not that different. Despite the US per capita road fatalities being two, three or four times that of many European countries, there's no desire to change (as dictated by vested corporate interests) - and that there is the problem. It has nothing to do with the base driving ability of Americans. They can be taught just like Europeans are taught.
🇨🇵 I remember I got my licence in 2010, I paid 1500 euros instead of 800 because i missed it twice. It was so much money at that time as I was in high school.
Somebody once sayed to me: "Europeans learn how to drive, Americans learn how to move a car." xD
After visiting USA some times l would say they hardly learn even that....
As european we're shocked over how terrible americans drive
Yes, I think education is the main difference and in Europe it keeps getting harder to pass a driving test. I took my test in 1982 when it was relatively easy but it was still half an hour of driving on busy roads.
@@Phiyedough Yepp. Problem is that the US went deep into creating a car-dependent society. The standards for driving are lower because people need access to cars to get around from a young age. In most of Western & Northern (also guessing Eastern, though) Europe you can get around just fine without ever touching a car, with exception to off-road or very, very, rural areas.
@@Lewtable I live in one of these rural areas (Belgian Ardennes, close to the German border), the closest "real" city, Liège, is 70 kms away. I confirm that life in our countryside without a car would be hell; we have buses but they are so scarce, their schedules are so impractical, and their itineraries are so time-consuming, that almost nobody uses them. This being said, as a former city dweller, living here is my choice, so no complaint; I just DO NOT miss public transportation and their crowds.
@@jfrancobelge beautiful area! If they also start maintaining and repairing the roads there, it would be perfect.
please remember:
Only in UK and Ireland they drive on the left side of the road. in every other 45 european country its driving on the right side like US and most countries in the world.
UK is not representative for mainland europa for traffic
+ Malta and Cyprus
@@MichalMati okay, yes, in other words: all the less importent islands😉
@@MichalMati Malta used to be part of the British empire, just like Cyprus…. There might be a connection…
Not to forget Japan who also drive on the left!!
@@unimerc5116 Let's give Ireland a break, mate. They didn't do brexit!
In general, you can sum up European freedom in the quote: "One person's freedom ends where another person's freedom begins." If all Americans understood this simple rule, they would be much freer.
"One person's freedom ends where another person's SAME freedom begins."
I have both an American and a Dutch driver's licence. There is no comparison in the amount of effort it takes to get one. Just as one example: For the Dutch driver's test, I had to drive around with a supervisor for 45 minutes, with him deliberately picking the most problematic route he could think of: Narrow streets, heavy traffic, awkward situations where you have no overview, get on the freeway, get off the freeway etc. For the American test, we drove for 20 minutes in a suburb. I think we met two other cars, but I'm not even sure of that. Similarly, for the Dutch theory test, we had to answer 50 questions and had to get 9/10 right to pass. For the American test, it was 30 questions and 7/10 right was acceptable.
The Dutch way is very similar to Switzerland. Before doing anything with a car you must do an eye exam, first aid course and another course on road safety. For the theory it was also 50 questions and you had a maximum of 3 wrong answers, more than that and you failed. Then you can go get driving lessons with an instructor, the fast learners do less than 10 lessons and the slow learners do around 15, the average is around 10. When the instructor deems you ready, they registers you for your driving exam. You do this with another person called an "expert" and they'll make you drive just like you said. If you succeed, you still only have a "student driver" license and within 3 years you have to do a course with your car to learn the limits of your vehicule. If you've done all that, you get your definitive license after these 3 years. It's costly (usually more than 2000$ in total) and it's not super easy but that's a good way of doing things imo.
in portugal we have to answer 30 questions and we have to get 27 right to pass.
@@bastiwen I envy your mandatory first aid course! The Swiss do that very well, it should be compulsory everywhere, with the occasional repetition of the course.
@@nunogomes2803 That's 9/10 too. If my memory is correct in France It is about the same. I think you need to have 36/40 or 37/40 don't remember.
In Scandinavia you need to learn to drift. Because - snow and ice. There are these special locations with training roads covered in ice year around and doing it successfully is mandatory. Imagine that..
Some years ago, a bloke I shared a house with had some American visitors and it fell to me to drive them around and show them the town, a couple of times. They remarked on how everyone seemed to know each other. They mistook the raising of the hand to acknowledge common road courtesies for waving hello. It seems that in America driving can be a competition in tests of aggression and will power rather than a means of getting from A to B.
No better example than YT videos by sports bikers who ride around from nowhere to nowhere looking to be offended.
"Why can't we have this?"; I'll assume that one significant reason why this wouldn't work as well in the USA vs in much of Europe is that while both have "freedom", the freedoms in the US are typically viewed as personal freedoms whereas they are typically viewed as collective freedoms in much of Europe (Individualism vs Collectivism).
The insistence on personal freedom in the USA is seen as a license to do whatever you like. This results in mayhem in the name of freedom. As a result, America has become one giant shithole from coast to coast.
The actual reason is actually much more simple.
People need a car.
Therefore you can't exactly tell a person he can not drive just because he sucks at it. The guy still needs to be able to go from A to B.
The necessity means that the requirements are low.
@@Londronable Presently, that may be true. However, the general issue is that nothing is being done to give people alternatives.
If the road infrastructure weren't expanded and public transportation expanded, this would have to change, given how this would incentivize people to switch to avoid time spent in traffic.
Freedom pffff.... do you fly a commercial plane without proper education or does freedom stops? So people dying from bad driving is no problem but with a plane it is 🤔 Think more people are dying on the roads.
@@Londronable I mean, yes, but the solution should be giving people more options to get around, bikes, public transit, walking etc etc. And this is somehow bad to many people.
As a French, watching once a video about how to turn safely at cross road in US (an educative video for US drivers), i was shock at how many "not to do" exemple they started to list.
My first reaction was "hey, if there is so many dangerous ways to turn at a cross road compared to how to do it correctly, then your cross road has a serious problem".
Oui, leur route ont de sérieux porblème de conception, et les conducteurs qui les utilisent aussi...
The fact that in Florida you can have your license without ANY Lesson and instructed only by your parents literally gives me chill.......man that's SCARY!
Yhea, especialy if the parents have bad habits while driving. That's why minimum hours under a pro instructor is legit.
The most important reason that driving is better in Europe is that all drivers are professionally trained and pay a lot of money to get their license. Because the driving license is so expensive, people do not want to have it taken away again and therefore adhere very closely to the traffic regulations.
A car driver's license (Class B) costs an average of between 2,600 and 3,500 euros in Germany, according to the Driving School Association of German Driving Companies.
Not true in all countries. In the UK you do not have to have professional tuition, but it is far better if you do. The problem with being taught by non-professionals is that they are far less likely to understand the rules than an instructor and get into bad habilts. The best way in the UK is to take professional tuition and to use a friend or family member to help with practice, bearing in mind what the instuctor has actually taught.
My 19-year old son attends a professional instruction establishment (we live in Belgium). A couple of months ago, as he was still 18, he was asked if he'd like to attend a driving license training course, all the way to actually obtaining his driver's license, as part of his studies at no extra cost. A driver's license for free! You bet he accepted rather twice than once.
In France it's similar to Germany: driving license is very expansive, car safety inspections severe, rolling wrecks like whe can see in the US did not exists here...
There is - at least in the Netherlands - yet another reason why people may become better drivers. In the Netherlands, children learn how to take part in traffic, as bicycle 'drivers', from a very young age. You can see children of about 4 years old on their own bicycle, guided by their parents. And by the age of nine or ten, they can go to places on their own. So even before they start to drive a car, they will have some driving experience.
And they also build up awareness.
In Europe, Freedoms and Rights comes hand to hand with Responsibilities and Accountability. Something that is clearly lacking in the US... Accountability I mean.
Like the OP said, if you're caught doing ANYTHING else than PROPERLLY driving your vehicle, you will get fined.
I got my drivers license in the US 6 months before moving back to Europe. You can bet I failed my first driver’s test in Europe spectacularly, even after having to attend the mandatory driving on ice course and a couple of extra classes with a professional instructor.
German here. Whether and how many cars you have depends on where you live. Many people who live in big cities don't have a car because they don't need one because public transport is very well developed. Many large cities are now trying to remove cars entirely from the inner cities, so there are fewer and fewer parking spaces at ever higher prices or driving bans are imposed on some vehicles.
I live in a very rural area and here you need a car because public transport is far too rare here. In contrast to a city, practically every family has at least one car here. We have two cars as my wife and I both work.
To get a driver's license in Germany you currently have to pay between 3000 and 4000 € and it takes several months to get it and the probationary period afterwards is 2 years. So the "driving education" lasts a lot longer than in most other states. My daughter just started driving lessons so I know it first hand.
I mean it’s understandable if you live in the city you don’t need cars especially in the city centre, it’s the same for here in Australia, the city where I go is Perth, we have buses go everywhere and trains the go from Perth Underground (city centre) to the North of Perth and the the south of Perth/all around… you park your car at the train station and then take the train to the city centre, sometimes you can drive your car around there a lot of people do, it’s because our roads are wider and most cars are smaller, but if you go out in suburban areas, Industrial areas and rural areas there will be alot of people driving, especially from South to North of Australia etc…
Driving is only problematic if you live in or near big cities in the US, I live in oregon and I haven't seen a traffic jam in almost 5 yrs, and people drive just fine, It's the city idiots that makes the US look bad in more way's then one.
Honestly the costs for a driving licence depends on your performance aswell. I've personally paid around 1.8k for my driving licence. But that depends from state to state. I think a more realistic value is around 2.4-2.7k for a driving licence. Maybe your daughter just needed to learn a bit longer - no offence or judgement.
@@Eternal_Otter what the fuck??? $1000-$2700 for a drivers licence….
really… Jesus Christ ours is way cheaper than that..
@@Eternal_Otter When did you get your license? As I said my daughter just started. Right now we have only paid 500 €. The driving school told us that the current average is about 3500 €.
Having driven all over Northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as England, I saw zero accidents. In North America it's a demolition derby by comparison. I just can't image a round-about like that at the Arc de Triomphe in Canada or the US. It would be a strap iron drive!! Hands down, Europeans are much better drivers! John in Canada
Yes, it is relatively rare to see accidents in Europe, this is an event!
For the Arc de Triomphe I can imagine, I am a Frenchman from the countryside who loves driving, one day I will have to go to Paris by car to drive in the Arc de Triomphe, no one is a real driver the time that he didn't do it...
As the guy in the video said, just the way we learn how to drive and the amount of money it costs is vastly different from the US. I got a friend in Florida and we drove up to Illinois last December to visit his family for Christmas. I've honestly never been more scared in my life! Just on the way over, I saw more broken down cars on the side of the road than ever before. And that's not even mentioning the amount of left over wreckage you can see at the side of the roads. Here, if there's an accident, a cleaning crew comes in to make sure there's no debris left that might somehow cause another accident.
As to phone use, any one caught having their phone in their hands while driving will instantly be fined €340, that's about $365!
Now I know there are plenty of rules in the US, but it seems your main problem is that they're hardly ever enforced. And even when they are, the penalties are so ridiculously low that people just don't care.
The wreckage is also because the US doesn't have a car safety exam. I live in Germany and every 4 years our cars have to get a mandatory check if everything works and is safe. And if you pass you get a sticker on your plate so everyone can see if your car passed. If not, you're not allowed to drive that car before it's fixed.
We also have mandatory insurance.
CORRECTION: Inspection every 2 years! Thanks for letting me know.
@@piiinkDeluxe You must live in another Germany. In mine new cars must at first be inspected after three years, and every two years afterwards.
So when you buy a new one as an example in 2022, it goes to the first check in 2025, than 2027 and after that every year. This are not services and in this checks the car get inspected if it is still road worthy. It means, is one thing not good anymore or the tolerances are off you have to fix it and came back when you have fixed it. This checks are not services.
Services I let make in the summer as example. Oil change, filter and other stuff what the manufacturer is saying.
The check is on the month December and I can make it in between of November until April. I do split the check and service so when something unforeseen is coming I can manage it better.
But why check? So that you can prove your car is road worthy.
And when I doesn't?
When you doesn't, your car still has the last sticker on the windshield. There is the date of the last check on it and when you over the 4 months the police when they probably see this, take your plates, all two. You also get an fancy letter from your insurance that says, we provide you nothing anymore but the contract goes 7 months so sent us the money. Also you don't get the plates in the first place without insurance and also the insurance company can take the plates off the car.
If you drive without anything, they take of course your 2.000 Dollar license. It depends on the case, but it can be 6 months minimum, prison, money, uncle doctor that tests if you don't an idiot or they take the license forever and you have to make a new one or never again in sevier cases.
@@gerdpapenburg7050 Is it in Germany not the same as in Austria? 3, 2 and than every year?
All your replies are basically providing proof of why driving a car in Europe is so expensive. A. Your car must be road worthy and if it isn't, you'll have to have it fixed before you can drive it again. If a car is 8 years or older, it'll have to be checked every year. The check itself is generally in the order of about $100. B. The mandatory insurance can also be quite expensive as it depends on your driving experience (age), the number of years you haven't made a claim and where you live. C. Road tax. At least in the Netherlands we pay road tax based on the weight of the vehicle that you drive. The more the vehicle weighs, the higher the tax. And finally D. Parking costs. In a lot of cities you have to have a resident parking permit in order to be able to park in your own neighborhood. It doesn't guarantee you a parking spot, but it's less than the regular parking fees. Of course, that resident parking permit only applies to your own area, outside of it, you'll have to pay the regular parking fees where applicable.
I'm an old fart (62), but in my day in California we had driver's training in high schools. A semester of learning the rules and practice driving in a school owned car with an instructor. It didn't seem particularly easy to me - I failed the driving portion of my test the first time and had to try again a month later. I've noticed during my lifetime that drivers seem to be getting worse in this country. They seem less aware of the rules of the road, are more aggressive and take more chances. Plus the quality of our roads is worse. There are many more cars and large trucks on roads designed for half the population the state has now. The most irritating thing on our highways is the "left lane camper". I was traveling the other day on a four lane highway and saw a line of five compact SUVs (mostly RAV4s) in the left lane all driven by middle aged women. Cars passing them in the right lane because they refused to move over. Scenarios like that are not uncommon here. The mindset is "I'm doing the speed limit, why should I move over?". 😑
In Denmark, we have a slogan. DRIVE WHEN YOU DRIVE. Nothing more
At 8:00 I had wondered why he switches lanes to the left. Then I saw the road assistance vehicle in the distance. That's also what tends to happen when there is enough space: people try to give those vehicles a wide berth as it is incredibly dangerous for anyone that NEEDS to exit their vehicles on the hard shoulder.
People take care and switch their lanes long enough ahead for others so see the switch, and react accordingly.
Edit: In your outro comments you mentioned that people's cars are considered an extension of their personality in the US. Trust me, that also applies here (in Germany) at least to some extent. Aggressive drivers also do tend to have the more powerful cars.
However what you rarely if ever see here are the huge pickup trucks that are so common in the US. Because people here know several things.
A) Those things are horrible fuel guzzlers.
B) They are NOT safer, to the contrary. They have a much higher center of gravity, thus tip over much easier just by themselves when they do hit a bump at high speeds or go through a curve at slightly elevated speeds.
They also get scooped by lower cars much easier, causing them to flip over much easier during accidents. With the crap that most people have lying around in their vehicles a rolling vehicle becomes a two ton mincing machine for the passengers.
The visual lines are actually much, much worse in these huge trucks due to the long engine compartments. People simply aren't able to SEE the road directly in front of them. During heavy fog or snowfall you can't even SEE the road directly in front of your vehicle as it appears in the blind sector of the line of sight of the driver blocked by the engine compartment. Yes, it is THAT bad.
The huge tires required means that these trucks are WORSE at traction during hydroplaning situations despite the large weight of the vehicles.
Lastly, a heavy vehicle is much harder to control, both in curves as well as during emergency braking. A larger mass carries a lot more momentum that has to be lost. However, emergency braking even with ABS, means that for tiny sections traction is lost, and the vehicles is sliding a tiny distance before the ABS takes control again and allows for continued braking. This may not be much, but it adds up, resulting in pickup trucks having the absolute worst braking distances of any non-bus or non-semi vehicles on the road (tanks don't count, damn it).
C) They are a hazard to other vehicles on the road as their bumpers are much, much higher off the ground than the standard required by regulations for any non-trucks (yes, even in the USA).
If you don't believe me, check out "Not Just Bikes" with one of their newer videos on this topic. Here's the link: czcams.com/video/jN7mSXMruEo/video.html&ab_channel=NotJustBikes
If you enjoy reacting on videos about driving in North America in comparison to the Netherlands especially, I highly recommend the video from the channel "Not just bikes" titled "Stroads are ugly expensive and dangerous". It has a special focus on the connection of roadbuilding and safety issues.
I second that recommendation, he is just great.
Thats a good one but most of his are good for americans to watch to realize things can be done differently and why they should do it.
Try to walk in the suburbs in the states, first of all the neighbours call the police on you, and they run your ID to see who you are and if you like to show them where you live you feel a strange sensation true you body because you’ve been teased and on the floor handcuffed,second you don’t find a nearby supermarket, and you can’t come back because the police has something I don’t understand stand
Yeah he is a great dude.
There are fines in Europe for
-staying in the left lane
-using a cell phone while driving
-driving an unsave vehicle
-not creating a rescue lane in treffic jams
-tailgating
-overtaking on the right hand side
And of course, there are fines for
-speeding
-driving under the influence
In Germany, there is even a state bureau to monitor those offenses by a point system, and if you get caught too often, your divers license can be revoked.
Points are given depending on the severity of the offense and are deleted after a certain period, as long as no further offenses are added.
Three times over 0.5 BAC, and your license is gone until you passed a psychological exam and a medical test.
Same goes for a BAC of 1.3 or higher, except your license is gone at the first time.
Having smoked cannabis days, even weeks before driving, will also result in loosing your license, and on top of the psychological exam,
you need to prove that you have not been using for at least half a year, before you can successfully take the exam.
Any other illegal substance use (even without participating in driving) will extend that period of abstinence to a full year.
Basically what I´m saying is: the fact, that drivers in Europe tend to be more reasonable, is not really a question of common sense in itself,
but a question of avoiding negative consequences. Despite the stuff said in the video, a drivers license is still a basic requirement in Europe.
Yes, there is a system of public transportation in bigger cities, and yes, you can do your groceries with a bicycle.
But in rural areas, there are two bus connections a day, Europe itself has a humid climate (read: it rains a lot),
and messing your wardrobe you put on for work is not that great, as is riding a bicycle at temperatures hardly above freezing.
And of course, having a appointment in another city, that requires more than a suitcase, is a hilarious idea for public transportation.
Greetings from a Swede in the Netherlands.
I took my licens in Sweden and it was a package deal for 1000$. Books, tests and 10 driving lessons. When finishing driving the 10 lessons it is up to the instructor to decide if you are a good driver to take the actual test for your licens or if you need to pay for a few more lessons because you are not considered a safe driver yet. In my case he thought I was a safe driver and should take the test. I also had to pay another 200$ for slippery road driving (halkkörning) most Nordic countries it is obligated to do. It will give you an understanding and a feel what to do if you hit ice or water and your car starts to slide.
You can practice driving with someone but the person must be minimum 24 years old. Went to get some lessons as a driving instructor. Had the driving licens for at least 5 years and register you both (you both have to be accepted). If the person is not registered as your instructor, the person is committing a crime and they can get a fine or loose their driving licens. It means you can only drive with that person and that car that has been registered. You also have to buy a licens like a normal number plate but this one is green and the text is white saying, practice driver and has to be visible to others. But you can't just drive with a person private you also need lessons at a driving school.
nice to know - Grüße aus Deutschland
In the U.S., almost no one is aware that they actually have a traveling murder machine underneath them that should be given just as much attention as a murderer himself, lest they become one themselves.
The driver in the video also often needed to be reminded (by a vehicle passing at the right) to change to the very right lane
Just wanted to comment the same thing… talking about how everybody keeps the correct lane, and then needlessly not keeping their right…
about commuting, in germany my employer pays 80% of my monthly public transport ticket, that I can even use privatly, so I pay around 170€ a year, while the required insurance for car alone would cost over 300€, not even starting with repairs, car tax or fuel.
In Germany we say "Penis Extender" to people using their expensive and big cars as a status symbol 🙂
Before an American can drive a car in Europe, he should learn the traffic signs, otherwise he is playing with his life!
He is playing with ourer life!
unfortunately others as well
in czech republic for example american drivers license isnt accepted as valid as far as i know
@@rybkaskravatou And to be frank, most of them would hit first lamp post of they would be able to make the vehicle moving at all. ;)
wait before even that, don't forget in Europe most of us have manual transmission
Amsterdam not being a "car city" actually makes driving more pleasant. Not Just Bikes has a video about it and other factors ( czcams.com/video/d8RRE2rDw4k/video.html ).
Thumbs up for driving a Corolla! I drive one too (in Australia). Great little car, and the vast majority of prople really don't need anything bigger.
I live in The Netherlands and drive a Toyota Corolla Hybrid station wagon, it is a great and reliable car. And very economical in gas/benzine, which is an advantage in these times of high gas prices.
Hi, another corolla driver (a 2016 Auris in my case) from Spain.
Hey an Aussie! True we American buy more than what we need. Wagons and vans should be the norm for big families not massive pickup trucks.
Lastly am jealous of the Utes you guys get.
I grew up with a single mom, and 2 siblings, you know what our present was when we turned 16-18? 6 months worth of decent drivers lessons and I'm really happy for that. the only thing is, people can be more chill when parking etc. we're not chill at all.
It might be an idea for Joel (and many Americans) to take advanced and defensive driving lessons, before considering driving in Europe. It gives real confidence and awareness, and often means cheaper insurance. Basic mechanics doesn't hurt, either.
That s why we say the US drivers license is a Micky Mouse drivers license 😂😂😂
On this topic, I *HIGHLY* recommend the video "The Best Country in the World for Drivers" uploaded by NJB.
Definitely. He goes through the topic with some amazing accuracy.
Dutch people tend to complain about traffic, about public transit, etc etc.
But what they don't know is that because they've never driven outside of the country they don't know the quality in other countries. So they complain, while trains, buses etc are 90% punctual. They complain about traffic because they don't know the hours of traffic you have to sit through in other countries, that are a lot less dense, sometimes by orders of magnitude.
The basic fine for having a phone in your hand while driving varies in western Europe from about $50 in Germany to over $250 in UK. In France, even using phones hands-free while driving is illegal. On top of fines, these offences attract points on one's licence. As for other distractions, in much of Europe (inc UK), highways may not have advertising billboards alongside them. Billboards are only allowed on urban streets where speed is restricted to 30 or 40 kph.
In Poland it's ~$122 for using a phone or any other devices in hand, but people still use them, even on highways in right lane, where they usually drive slower :/
Using your phone in your hand while driving a car can result in a fine of €350,- here in the Netherlands.
A major difference I've found in the US is that 40-tonne trucks are able to drive the same speed as cars - often 80 mph - and are permitted in the far left lane. Wagons have lower speed limits in Europe/UK (usually 90 km/h), most have speed limiters, and you can't drive in the left (right in UK) lane, even in a car towing a small trailer.
Regarding pickups, have a look at the video by Not Just Bikes called "These stupid trucks are literally killing us". The industry descriptors for their target demographic is an eye-opener, as is how many children you can hide in front of a modern pickup without the driver seeing any of them.
Almost correct re: Truck Driving in the UK.
If the road is a designated "A" road then there is no "lane ban". It could be a four lane road but a truck is still allowed to use the outside lane.
This is ONLY for "A" roads though.
Case in point.... The North Circular is 3 lanes wide and YES a truck can be in any.
Weird point... The M25 over the Dartford bridge is actually NOT the M25, it's the A282 so YES a truck can be in lane four !
In General though, ANY towing vehicles are banned from the outside lane on THREE or more lane MOTORWAYS - UNLESS there is a hazard or directed by Police / Highways.
I took someone from usa from Hamburg to Flensburg on the Autobahn. Standard like 80/90 mph.
Since he asked for it i speed up to 150mph and after few seconds he had enough of it.
Road was empty.
Lesson learned.
In the UK, you can't use your phone whilst driving, in fact now, you can't even hold your phone, satnav or anything like that, in your vehicle, whilst driving. There have been calls, in the past, for people to be banned from eating at the wheel and even listening to the radio etc, though I don't really know how you'd enforce that. I wish it were the law over here to have to have lessons with an instructor, that sounds like a very good idea!
Also this guy keeps saying drivers in Europe are far better than in the states, but let's just say that, not all countries in Europe are equal in that quality!
Hi, Here is an explanation (a bit long but it tells you everything you need to know about making the german driver's license)
How does a driver's license work?
To get your driver's license, you'll need these 7 steps.
Registration: Register with a driving school. To find the right one, compare fees and services or ask other students.
Vision test and first aid course: Take a vision test and a first aid course. You will need these certificates to apply for your driver's license.
Application: The application for the driver's license is usually made by the driving school. The processing time usually takes at least 5 weeks, in this time you can already start with the driving training, but not yet take the test.
Theory lessons: Once you have paid the fees, you can start directly with the theory lessons. There are 14 different theory units, each unit lasts 90 minutes. They cover all important areas of road traffic and driving. 2 units cover additional material and must be attended. In the other 12 basic units you only have to be present at least 12 times, so theoretically you could also attend the same basic unit 12 times.
Practical lessons: You arrange regular driving lessons with your driving instructor, usually directly 90 minutes, so 2 driving lessons. There is no minimum number for basic driving lessons. The average is at least 18 hours, depending on your ability even less is enough. Really obligatory are then only the 12 special driving hours, which also cost more: they consist of 5 intercity, 4 highway and 3 night driving.
Theory test: If you have done all the hours, you can register for the theory test. This can be done at most 3 months before the minimum age allowed. There are about 1,000 questions, 30 of which are asked and you are allowed a maximum of 10 demerits in the exam.
Practical test: Your driving instructor knows when you are ready for the practical driving test. You can take it a maximum of one month before the minimum age allowed. The examiner tells you what to do during the test, for example where to turn, where and how to park. You pass the test if you drive for 45 minutes without making any serious mistakes.
To register with your driving school, all you need is your ID card. The application for the driver's license is usually made by the driving school. For the application to work you need:
Identity card
Certificate of the first aid course
Biometric passport photo
Eye test certificate
Application fee for the road traffic office (approx. 45 Euro)
Driving license at 17: Further documents and application fees for accompanying persons
The processing of the documents at the authorities usually takes 5 weeks, only then you are entitled to participate in the tests.
You will not be allowed to take the exams without a first aid course.
What does a driver's license cost?
To get your driver's license, you can expect to pay an average of 1,500 to 2,000 euros. The fees for practical and theory lessons vary most from region to region: According to the ADAC, the driving license in Brandenburg costs only 1,200 to 1,400 euros, while in Bavaria it is the most expensive at 1,700 to 2,200 euros. Of course, it also depends on the ability of the learner driver: depending on it takes more or less driving hours or test attempts.
This is how the costs can be:
Basic fee for the driving school with theory lessons: approx. 200 €
Teaching material: approx. 50 €
Eye test, first aid course and passport photos: approx. 40 €
Application for driving license at the authorities: approx. 45 €
On average at least 18 practice hours (each approx. 30 €): 540 €
*12 obligatory special drives (each approx. 50 €): *600 €
Examination fees for driving school and authority: approx. 200 €
The costs are thus approximately at* 1,675 €.*
How long will it take me to get my driver's license?
If you regularly attend theory lessons and take driving lessons, it takes 3 to 5 months to get your driver's license. If you want to have the driving license on time for your birthday, it is therefore sufficient to register half a year in advance.
The total of 14 double hours of theory can be attended in 2-week crash courses at many driving schools. If you otherwise assume one theory unit per week, you will need 14 weeks for this.
The practice drives also last 90 minutes each. If you choose the average of 30 hours and do one unit a week, it will take 15 weeks.
Many driving schools also offer fast-track courses in which you are prepared for the theory and practical test within 1 to 2 weeks. Of course, it depends on your previous knowledge, your talent, your commitment and your free time.
Remember that it usually takes at least 5 weeks for the authorities to process your application. So apply in time, because only then you can take your exams. If you fail an exam, you can retake it after 2 weeks.
How do I pass the driving test?
You must first pass the theory test before you can take the practical test. You can also take both exams in one day. However, if you fail the theory test, you will still have to pay for the practical test without being able to take it.
How does the theoretical exam work?
The exam is at the TÜV or DEKRA. Take your certificate of training for theory lessons, your ID card and the exam fees if they are not paid directly through the driving school.
The test is on the computer or tablet. The examiner will explain the operation and procedure and may be asked about this during the exam.
Out of more than 1,000 multiple-choice questions, 30 are asked, each with a different number of demerit points and answer choices. You have a total of 30-45 minutes.
If you are unsure about a question, you can mark the question and look at it again later. If you then click on "submit", your answers will be sent and you will receive your result shortly afterwards. If you end up with more than 10 demerits or if you get two questions wrong with 5 demerits, you fail.
If you pass the exam, you have 12 months to take the practical exam. If you wait longer, you will have to retake the theory exam.
How do I prepare for the theory test?
Here you have to practice! The driving school usually provides you with study materials that you can use to practice all 1,000 questions until you feel confident.
With the practice material you can test yourself if you would already pass. Many questions are self-explanatory, others you have to learn by heart.
How does the practical exam work?
You wait for the examiner with your driving instructor at the agreed meeting point. To pass the driving test, you have to drive for 45 minutes without making any serious mistakes according to the examiner's instructions. The examiner sits in the back seat, your driving instructor sits next to you in the passenger seat. Your driving instructor is not allowed to give specific tips or instructions during the test.
The route consists of three basic driving tasks, such as parking, emergency braking or a route inside a built-up area and one outside a built-up area.
You will find out immediately whether you have passed or not. If you passed, you will either get your driver's license right away or you will have to wait until your birthday if you are not old enough to drive yet.
How do I pass the practical test?
With enough driving experience you are of course best off. Most of the time, the last driving lessons are already similar to the test and your driving instructor will not give you any more tips. On the day of the test you should be there on time. The examiner will explain everything to you and your driving instructor will also be there. No one can expect you to drive completely error-free, but you should not allow yourself to make any serious mistakes. If you make serious mistakes, you will fail the test immediately! These include running a red light, disobeying a stop sign, or endangering other road users. If your driving instructor has to intervene, you will fail the test.
If you have your vehicle under control, follow the traffic rules, drive considerately and with foresight, can park and also answer technical questions, nothing should stand in the way of your driving license.
What happens if I do not pass an exam?
If you do not pass one of the exams, you can repeat it after at least 2 weeks. You will then have to pay for the exam again. If you shorten the time limit, you can retake the theoretical exam after 3 days and the practical exam after 7 days. If you fail one of the exams for the third time, you have to wait 3 months. Then you have 3 more attempts. If you have also failed the sixth attempt in the practical test, the driving license authority will check whether you are at all suitable to participate in road traffic - you will have to undergo a medical-psychological examination (MPU).
best regards from Germany
You put effort in this!wow!better way better for him than google. (Which can be pretty exhausting)
As a little sidenote: Driving lessons have become quite a bit more expensive in many parts of germany.
In Sachsen-Anhalt for example on average a practice hour costs around 50€ and special drives roughly 60€.
the grass always looks greener on the other side. while i have to say, driving in germany is a dream, it is also very expensive. and for inexperienced drivers it is really dangerous. when a car passes you with 240 k/mh, your car is shaking and that causes many inexperienced drivers to panic. on the autobahn you really have to concentrate on the traffic and that can be quite exhausting even on just short 4 hour trips. but if you follow the rules you will get save where you wanna go...most of the time,lol
I have had driving licenses since 1982, now I have all classes, if I add them up, it would cost around 25,000 euros to do them all again. By the way, I got my last ticket (25 euros) in 1987 for driving 20 km H too fast outside of a town. Greetings from Germany
People who hog the outside lane in the UK are usually driving a German car (but are not German)!
Not al German cars, like VW, Skoda, Opel. It is mostly (big) BMW, Mercedes and Audi. Mostly an arrogant, middle aged man who thinks he is so important that everybody else has the obligation to get out of their way. I never do...😇
@@alcidesforever Skoda isn't German, it is Czech (but I'll admit it is part of VAG).
Normally a German car with a three pointed star or 4 rings on the badge.
I’m still going to suggest Adam Something for amazing videos on urban planning.
Hello Joel. I get what you said about US from looking down on those types of vehicles from many Greyhounds while touring the country.
Years back in UK I remember driving after work in Yorkshire to a meeting in Hastings, a long drive. I had no hands free phone as the company car was for the project, not mine and I prepared for the meeting by talking on the phone to my manager for up to two hours, at full speeds as I had hundreds of miles to my destination.
This would just not be allowed these days. There are cameras like in Netherlands and work Health and Safety departments are strict on driving practices.
I get to work every day with an electric moped, I don't own a car since 2017. The few times I really need a car I rent one. I can rent cars by hours where I live (Göteborg, Sweden) and I pay a lot less per year now than I did when I owned a car. I can do most of what I need to do with my moped and that's even overkill some times, a bicycle would work perfectly well in many cases, but I just love the feeling riding my electric moped.
And some times I find it more practical to use public transportation since that works great here.
very good , usually on reaction videos i feel they are spending their time trying to think about their reaction, this guy is actually absorbed in the video and taking interest. liked and subscribed
I started driving school in Germany in 2017 and got my licence in June 2018. I first had the theory lessons (twice a week for 3 hours each), had a PC app and workbook for training at home (which was a one-time purchase of like 70€ and I still have it) and then had to pass the theoretical test first before even getting to drive a single meter.
As I didn't drive anything motorized beforehand, I needed many more practical driving lessons than usual (about 20 are mandatory including autobahn, night drives, overland routes etc). It added up to like 70 lessons in total (70x 45 minutes). Each regular lesson cost me about 28€ back then, the special lessons 35€ each. But I know it's much more expensive if you're doing your licence now.
Also, you pay for the theoretical lessons and every single test participation. So if you fail your theoretical or practical test, you need to pay again in order to repeat it. Luckily I passed both my tests at first try.
Still paid around 2500€ in total for getting my licence. Nowadays it would probably be like 3000€ or more.
My driving teacher always said "Just because you got your licence, don't think you're a good driver. Becoming a good, experienced driver will take 25 years or 100,000 kilometers driven. Whatever comes first. Then you've seen it all."
Now, here I am, about 5 years and 100,000 km later and I would consider myself a good driver, but wouldn't say I've seen it all.
To be fair, people living in the us spend much more time on the road on average on top of having generally longer work week, so it’s no surprise many try to optimise their time by doing other things at the same time.
In France, we spend less than an hour a day in the car on average and about 35 hours a week at work. And many people take public transportation to commute so they can read or be on their phones on the way with no issues. Not to mention the minimum of 5 weeks paid vacation per year that people actually take (employers are find if their employees don’t take them).
I feel that a lot of it comes down to how easy it is to get a driving licence in the USA. In Europe it is quite difficult to get a licence. Here in the UK we are one of the easier places in Europe to get a licence. You can't drive with a learner licence until you are 17 and you need to go through at least three professional driving lessons before you take the test which is split into a theory section, a hazard perception section and then the actual driving portion where you need to put all that theory into practace. Even after all that you will still need to take more tests to drive larger vehicles and tow trailers. If you want to cut down on how much you pay for insurance you need to take an 'advanced driving course'. Also it is extremely expensive to get insured to teach a learner driver, most people just opt for professional lessons as a consequence.
I flunked my first driving test in Florida because I didn't know what a "three point turn" was, hired a driving teacher for one session explaining that all I needed was some vocabulary. He took me up Mount Trashmore, told me to drive the car backwards; it was super easy because it had a marker on the back end and the seat was so large (they're larger now). He said "ok, you certainly can drive. So, you said you needed help with vocabulary?"
When he explained three-point-turns I laughed. In Spain it falls under "if a cop sees you do that, forget about your points: said cop will enlist the aid of a judge in order to insert your vehicle up your colon. Sideways."
Spain: driving test is in live traffic and involves at least one instance of parallel parking, preferably on a slope. You will need to go from stopped upslope in a spot with bad visibility to merging into traffic at least once.
Florida: driving test is in a practice area with no traffic. No parallel parking. What is a slope?
Great,informative vid,Joel👌👍: Orlando in 'loopy-old' Florida to very 'bike-friendly' Amsterdam,stoic Netherlands - 360 degree move!😁
I'm Norwegian, I'm now 51 years old. Never iven bumped a car. I got my first var ( a VW Beetle) when i was 12. Wasn't driving on roads with it, but we sort of raced in fields and on roads in the woods. I got my license when I was 18. We HAVE to get an approval from a certified driving school. Then we have to go get a test in a national run "Trafic station". When I got my drivers license I think I paid about 800 USD for the whole thing. These days it's about 3000 USD. Plus/minus, depends of what your skills are before taking the classes. :) And I NEVER look at my phone or anything while driving, there could be a car, a person walking or a moose in the road. I focus on the ROAD!
8:40 truck drivers here in the Czech republic are not allowed to pass at all. They gotta stay on the right side of the highway.
Btw I have been to the US and it amazes me how people just do not use or even seem to know the car light, blinker nor the hand signals. I wanted to thank a dude after he let me zip with my hazard lights and he immediately slammed on the breaks...
6:03 He’s almost in tears after seeing it and I don’t blame him.
I had a different experience yesterday when I was on a trip back home to Germany just a couple of km from where he was filming this video. Near Schiphol airport a driver was driving in the right lane eastbound on A9. He had a smartphone mounted to his windshield right in front of his face and was playing games on it. While I was passing him, he wanted to change to the middle lane without watching his mirrors and without indicating the lane change. I had to slam the brakes to avoid a crash since another car was in the left lane. He then changed lanes and did a brake check on me because he was pissed that I dared to drive left of his car while he wanted to change lanes. So yes, most people in Europe drive carefully and try to follow the rules, but some people out there should not have the privilege to operate a vehicle for the safety of everybody else on the road.
Thankfully this is the exception. And in general people are much more agressive in the Randstad area than anywhere else in the country.
@@therealdutchidiot Yes, it is an exception. Most Dutch drivers follow the rules and road rage is rare. The only bad habbit of the Dutch drivers is that they tend to keep not enough following distance to the next vehicle ahead. Even though Police had campaigns for years telling drivers how much money they can save in 2 seconds, most drivers don't follow the 2 second rule and keep more like 0.5 - 1 second distance. The result is that many crashs happen that could be avoided by just a second more distance. Thankfully most of these crashs result only in damage to the cars and people don't get hurt due to the low speed on Dutch motorways.
Talking about speeds, another thing I noticed is that most drivers don't go at the 130 km/h limit after 7 pm. They stay way below that in the 100 - 110 km/h range. Most Germans on the other hand tend to drive at the limit +/- 10 km/h. But I feel like the average speed on motorways in both countries decreased a lot during the last two years which might be a result of the high price for fuel and more EVs on the road since EVs have a noticable lower range at speed. It just doesn't make you faster if you are hammering at 130+ and spend more time at the charger.
17:02 Intense flashbacks to ‘Final Destination’.
Another big difference is that most cars in Europe are manual, of "stick" as you may also know it.
Great review very true greetings from the Netherlands
Actually a great reaction. As someone who comes from Europe, and has been to USA multiple times, I can definitely relate with many of these points. My first driving experience in USA was actually in Atlanta, GA, and the I-75 interstate was a nightmare to drive on. I got used to it after a while though. Despite all of that, I actually liked USA a lot, and can't wait to visit again 🤘
Good vid Joel.
Eating, being on the phone, reading etc. gets you at least a fine in Germany and it can cost you your drivers license. Same with not driving in the right lane. And depending on the cause and length of the removal of your license you can't renew the license like in the USA.
If your license gets removed it's temporary up to a year. Under a year you get it back, over a year you have a problem. You need to repeat driving school, do the test etc. and some are required to do a psychological test if they are mentally able to drive a vehicle without being a danger to the community - and sometimes the court forbids you having a new license.
At 8:10 you see someone with car trouble. [In the Netherlands] You are not allowed to stop on the shoulder/emergency lane on the right unless you have an emergency and if you do the yellow truck comes with orange flashing lights and the signs above the road tell other cars to slow down. The normal speed is 100 km/h and the led signs above the roads in the video show 90, then 70 and it could go as low as 50. The first sign with the dynamic speeds should also have orange blinking lights (like the emergency lights of a car) if you are approaching a traffic jam or an accident.
applying the test for a driver's license in Serbia is done exclusively at a driving school and the test is divided into two parts: theoretical (the test) and practically, there are 40 hours of driving on the streets of the city, if the teacher says that you are good, then you can take the test and it is done as two policemen sit in the back seat and tell you where to drive and if you drove without a mistake or with a few mistakes you passed, a few years ago they also introduced the first aid test
The driving in the right lane thing is also mandatory when not passing someone in Europe unlike in the us. Also the Autobahn is not just one 2 lane highway. The name for the highway system in Germany.
If in the US, the start giving fines to people for holding onto anything, like phones, books etc, or insecure loads, I'll bet you they can easily repair all roads in less than a year. Holding a phone is a 320 Euro (380 USD) fine, insecure load starts at 250 euro up to 5000 Euro. (272 to 5436 USD. Conversion rate at the time of posting the comment.)
At around 7:32 you see can see some black LED screens coming up hanging above the lanes. These are used for emergencies, warnings or other temporary changes to the lane and are used for added safety.
For example in the video they show that speed limit is lowered to 90km an hour because there is car broken down up ahead 8:08. When he is getting closer to the broken down car the speed limit is further lowered to 70km an hour for the lane next to the broken down car. At 8:51 the signs show that the roads speed limit is back to the regular speed limit. The signs can also detect traffic jams and adjust the speed limit accordingly. They are also used to signal that lanes are closed and even give you a heads up ahead of time to show you that the lane is closing. As far as i know Sweden is the only other country adepting these so far but in the netherlands they are everywhere and i love them :)
I have to agree with everything on this video. I have driven in Europe many times and it is nice. Joel notice that he was driving on the Right side of the road. UK is the only one in the Europe area that drives on the other side I recently found out that in the UK the size of car engine is restricted when you first get your license.
Ireland drive on the same side as the uk just saying
The engine size restriction only applies to motorbikes in the UK. For cars there is no legal restriction, but the cost of insurance acts as one
@@keithmoore5224 Malta too.
@@pawelkierul9095 how adout cypress
How about cypress
I would have thought that a big part of the US problem is that the cops don't seem to bother to enforce the rules. If you "undertake" or drive slowly in the fast lane in the UK and Europe, the cops will almost certainly pull you.
As far as I know it is perfectly legal to use all lanes to drive on whether overtaking or not,there does not seem to be any laws regarding 'undertaking' in most states of the US,you can use any lane you want,unless directed by signs and lane markings for turning
In sweden, for our drivers license there is also a mandatory "ice road driving course" where you learn to control the car if you happend to slide on ice.
I am gonna be honest I was once in the US for work in Hillsboro Oregon and on a short trip to San Fransisco. I kinda liked driving there, especially going up and down hills in San fransisco felt so damn nice.. One thing I loved was that in crossroads the person that gets priority is the one that arrived first (although I can see that being an issue with stupid drivers). Also since USA is a country build for the car I felt like the roads were very good and wide and organised. Althought I guess that also had to do with the areas I drived into, cause when I went to portland downtown once some of these streets were utter crap.
The only negative is that NOBODY followed the speed limit on the highway which put me as a foreigner is a bad situation (either I went with the flow, breakng the speed limit, risking tickets and complictions with the police, or going slow within the speed limit and risking an accident). I chose to go with the flow cause I was like fuck it the police wont do anything to me especially cause I look like a white caucasian male driving a fancy rental car.
Also drivers seem to be very aggressive and beep the horn instantly, like calm down guys some of us do not live here.
The best country I had driven at is the Netherlands. Wide, clean, well made, well maintained roads everywhere and people are very disciplined drivers.
From my understanding of the US (Aussie) Truck drivers are a consequence of their companies. They pay a driver based on how fast they get to their destinations. Obviously you’re going to be aggressive on the roads if you have a family at home that is relying on that speed bonus to pay for Timmy’s braces or Suzy’s surgery (because no universal healthcare). We can eat in our cars in Australia because we have to. If you’re on the road for hours trying to get to the next town, you need to pack food. That said, I’ve never seen a driver eating alone. In our car & in every car I’ve seen, it’s the front passenger (adult) passing the driver food at stop lights or on long, straight highways. I guess solo drivers pull over to eat & then get back on the road
When I was a teenager in the 1980s, about 5,500 people were killed in road accidents in the UK per year. Now it’s about 2,000 per year. Car design is better, road design is better, and social attitudes have changed a lot relating to drink-driving and the use of seatbelts.
In Germany, you can get a driver's license at the age of 17. But that's just a restricted driver's license. If you drive the first year without an accident, you can get a full license at the age of 18.
Drove in Portugal for 2 weeks their drivers are extremely polite and rules oriented. Move right, move right. Left lane is always open. Zero accidents seen. Cars don't even have dents or almost no scratches even. Portugal small towns are crazy narrow roads yet no accidents and cars are in perfect condition. Did not see a single accidents or jam behind accidents. No police on highways because they aren't needed.
I would like to make a correction here. Most people do use a car to commute. Just nit when you live in a city. But every morning and afternoon you have a decent chance being stuck in traffic. They are not as dramatic as US roads tend to be though. One hour delay is about the most I ever experienced. The ring road around Paris during holiday season is a whole other thing though.
I am Driving over 40 years in Germany incl. 40 Ton Truck , sometimes its just hell on the A.Bahn .specially the A5 south Germany , France and Swiss Borders ... it´s just crazy and then the Eastblock Countries are on the Road also , Polen Hungerian Lettland Lituenien Estland Romania Bulgaria Sloweniea and so on ..... My luck, i only have 4 Miles to work ,i take the Bike there ,and in the Garage Parkt a 1991 Camaro Convt. + Ram Truck all V8 of course lol..... have a nice Day ... Black Forest South Germany .. cu
Hi, I`m from Brazil ,the best place to drive on earth...lol. Safer than Africa.
if you dont protect your cargo that you drive with you can get a fine of € 360. its very dangerous to have stuff flying around.
I have driven in the autobahn at 200 kph (124 mph) in a 140 hp Alfa Romeo Giulietta visiting my relatives, I live in Italy. It's a lot of fun driving in the autobahn if you follow the rules because everybody's following it, at least in my experience. I have driven in France, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland and Croatia in my road trips.
About the eating/ drinking thing while driving: It's not "prohibited" to do so, but you shouldn't do it if it's not safe. I as a German mostly have some kind of beverage in the cup holder of my car (canned or in a cup) which I can easily grab while driving, if it was necessary. Otherwise, I will grab a bottle from the passenger door's storage for example when waiting at a red traffic light or sometimes also in city traffic.
And on a longer drive, I'll take little snacks with me that I can either easily grab and consume with one hand or that a passenger will hand me if there's one.
On the autobahn however, I try to avoid eating or drinking or only do it when it's safe so I can still concentrate on the traffic.
About the usage of mobile phones while driving, it's true that it's forbidden and heavily fined. And they are planning to do even stricter surveillance and fines on this.
7:26 Italian here, just to clarify: highways and other “busy roads” are in perfect condiction (there’s not a translation, on google maps you can see “SS”, wich stands roughly for state road, but ofc it doesn’t mean anything to you. They’re like two lane highways that begin from highway exits and spread more deeply into the area).
You will find potholes in the country roads or in the suburbs (especially in the south) but they’re slowly getting “fixed”.
Afaik and can remember, I don't know if we are allowed in germany to take a quick sip of water/coffee? At least most people do this, especially on long haul trips. But the important thing is quick, no rummaging around in the car or something like that. mostly from drinks in cup holders or a bottle :). And I have yet to meet a person allowing anyone to eat in their car :D.
I don't know for sure, but I think it is mandatory to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel (you can't have both hands on the steering wheel all the time, because you need to shift gears). That means you can drink something, but cant use both hands to open a bottle or something like that.
My (UK) driving instructor used to hand me chocolate biscuits when I was learning in the 1980s. Those were easy, the peanuts were more difficult.
I would say my comftable speed limit with my car on the autobahn when traffic and weather, like the situation in general allows it is 93-99 miles per hour. The speed may vary, naturally, drastically depending on the situation, my form on the day. But the speed at which you can keep your car well controlled also varies. From my expierence and the thing that annoys me the most about driving in germany is that people do not keep enough distance to the car in front.
I've done over 120 mph (in Germany), but that felt uncomfortable, I can do 110 mph in Germany comfortably (conditions allowing of course).
We also have regulations regarding driving distances between vehicles- and some British motorways will have markers on the road, spacing cars for the average speed. Or neon signs alerting drivers to recommended spacing for the current level of traffic in peak times.
I lived six years in Europe for six years and have driven in the British Isles and from Belgium to Hungry and west to France. I liked driving in Europe and agree with the comments on the video.
OMG most of Europe drives on right side but thank you for being a fellow Corolla driver, I have a 2015 myself and couldn't be happier with it
In many European countries (including the UK), both vehicle tax and insurance costs tend to be at least partially influenced by size and emissions - so it costs a great deal more to drive a massive 'gas-guzzler' than a smaller, more efficient car. (For example, in the UK, an old 2016 Toyota Auris hybrid would be zero tax and insurance group 12E, while a brand new Ford Puma would be £255 tax per year and insurance group 22E.)
Here in Portugal it is forbidden to stay in the middle lanes. As soon as we pass a car, it is mandatory to return to the rightmost lane of the motorway. It is also forbidden to overtake someone on the right. Here the fines are heavy and those who do not comply may lose their driving license.
'Courtesy' is a word many do not except when driving.
Car dependency is something I've started being more conscious about. I've tried cycling more local trips, but in small town 'Merica it really is a dangerous proposition. We need massive updates to infrastructure ... a lot like the Netherlands started doing in the 70's.
Afternoon Joel, my friend lives on Crete, where there are no motorways, few dual carriageways, roundabouts and traffic lights. The law says it's legal to arrive at Heathrow, collect a hire car, and drive on the other side of the road, in 6 lanes of traffic, with the signs in a foreign language. I have to bear that in mind, when I'm blasting down one of the busiest stretches of motorway in Europe.
completely agree. but the niederlande 🇳🇱 footage contains no truck/lorry traffic. was it sunday? normally in 1 of 3 lanes (or even only 2) ist taken by trucks as i know it from switzerland, italy and france
1) In Finland your fines are based on your annual salary. Twice, Alexander Barkov of the NHL Florida Panthers, has been fined 40,000 Euros cuz he makes $8 million US / year. If I get a $100 fine it hurts. If you make a million a year, you make $100 before you sit down at your desk. 2) A girl in London, U.K. got caught eating an apple when she was driving. She had to pay 50 pounds more per MONTH ( 650 / year ) in car assurance. 3) I drive in Quebec and people here still do not know how to use a traffic circle or know the difference between a yield and a merge 4) Both my father and mother in law were killed in a USA car accident 5 ) I took out my car radio to avoid one more distraction and I never eat behind the wheel. Drive thru just encourages bad driving skills. I've even saw a driving instructor going through a drive thru while on his phone. How do you expect us to be good drivers ?
German here. I heard that in the Netherlands attempts were made with crossroads that at first sight are ambiguous. Motorists do not immediately know who has the right of way and must therefore slow down. It has been shown that fewer accidents happen because everyone has to be careful. This is of course not a concept for large crossroads in the inner city, but I think it makes a lot of sense for residential areas.
Have a look at the NotJustBikes channel about this.
There are lots of those around in the Netherlands i would say most of them they work fine.
In Norway you get $1000 fine if you get caught holding your phone while driving, it's so mad fines the police starting to avoid giving tickets
In the US you are allowed to overtake from left and right on the highway though, in Europe only from left. You are not allowed to overtake from right.
Europeans and British have car- share schemes usually run by companies but sometimes by local councils- encouraging and sometimes with benefits if you shre your car with another commuter to cut down on emmissions and congestion on busy urban routes.
He didn't mention there's no default speed limit on German highways. You can drive as fast as you want, unless there is a speed restriction on a certain section.
And the fastest drivers are not any more aggressive than the slower drives - patiently waiting for the lane to clear ahead and press the throttle. I was cruising with 130-140 km/h on the right lane and watching this amazing tolerance among all drivers.
When I went to University in Berlin and lived with family, I had to take mandatory driving lessons, and because I was from USA I had to take additional driving classes. All together it cost me over 5000 euro, then don't get me started on how much the insurance was. The yearly inspection for my car every year was expensive, TUV is no joke! Also aggressive driving can cost you your car and land you in jail. When I was a child and visiting family in Berlin my aunt had a game very similar to slug bug, bunch buggy, but we look for bicyclists and scooters, and motorcycles, but we never touch the driver, we would say what we saw and direction we saw it. Last thing, manual transmissions are very common, my family teases me about being in America!
As a European I can give a little extra info. Trucks ( not pickup truck) are limited to 90km/h from the factory (foot to the floor gives you 90 and that’s it)i n many european country’s so the can’t really pas cars on the highway. When it comes to pickup trucks, I do not know the price for a new Dodge Ram in the US but over here it’s 140.000$ for a TRX 6.2l and another 2500$ for insurance and I can even begin to guess on the cost to get it registered. So yeah, that’s why I and probably many others do not buy this kind of car. A basic European car can be had for somewhere between 20 to 40.000 $ new.
And that price is HUGE problem as it slows down modernization of fleet and costs us unnecessary money that are then not spent on other things like housing or, well, even investments.Because this rip-off is not happening only in case of big US cars, but unnecessarily increases price of all cars. Not to mention quite idiotic mandatory insurance , well it is sort of car tax that goes to private companies, weirdly, based on power and volume of the engine (at least in Czechia). It should be either that every drivers pays some yearly tax as cars only rarely crash on their own, or it should be abolished altogether as metric by which it is decided does not make any sense.
Two biggest things I noticed from the video was lack of congestion and drivers leaving plenty of space between cars.
I don't get why necessity of driving can be an excuse for lowering licensing standards. Isn't more people on the road a reason to be more rigorous in instilling rules of the road and driving habits?
Not being able to drive in many places in the US would literally make somebody homeless.
This is why more need lowers standards.
@@Londronable Not talking about not being able to drive. Just requiring higher and, most importantly, consistent standards. Depending on implementation it might drive prices higher, but doesn't necessarily have to. Main price driver in many EU countries are mandatory driving lessons. This doesn't need to be the case. Just require high standard for theory and practical exams. I live in the Netherlands and there are no mandatory lessons. You take as many lessons as you like or need to be prepared for an exam.
@@MichalMati You don't seem to get it honestly.
Go and tell an American in the midwest he's not allowed to drive because he sucks at it. What's that person supposed to do?
I'm not talking about the people requiring more training, I'm talking about some people not being able to pass European level requirements.
@@Londronable That requirements are not that high - just knowing the rules of the road and being able to safely operate a vehicle in traffic. Yes, depending on mental and practical aptitude it might take a bit longer to get there for some people, but, with some additional training, they can get there eventually. Actually, if someone is really unable to pass the practical exam even with additional instruction, it'd be dangerous for him and for the others to let him on the road. Ofc, I am a realist and don't expect any changes on this front across the pond for the reasons you've mentioned in the beginning. There is usually not much political will to change age-old paradigms.
@@Londronable You are saying that American people are less capable than Europeans of learning to drive. If the difference in standards was great, no-one in Europe would be able to drive either. The main thing is that in Europe, drivers are well trained and held to those standards; in the US, they're not usually trained and not held to the standards - the actual standards are not that different. Despite the US per capita road fatalities being two, three or four times that of many European countries, there's no desire to change (as dictated by vested corporate interests) - and that there is the problem. It has nothing to do with the base driving ability of Americans. They can be taught just like Europeans are taught.
🇨🇵 I remember I got my licence in 2010, I paid 1500 euros instead of 800 because i missed it twice. It was so much money at that time as I was in high school.
In Sweden, you can see an old car, maybe some rust. But technically sound and have four new tyres.