In Poland if you are
willing to become a car driver you ought to be at least 17y9m old to take up a category
B driver’s license course consisting a total of 60 hours lectures and city
driving with an instructor. Afterwards you have to take up theoretical and
practical test at WORD. If you succeed, you officially become a full-fledged
driver. It’s not the only righteous pattern
to achieve a driving license applied to the rest of the world, some of them are
quite the opposite of what we’re used to. For instance, if you’re living in
Canada you are entitled to obtain a license permit after completing a written
test when you’re 14, for next four years you’re able to gain experience by
driving with an accompanying owner of an unrestricted license until you become a
fully licensed driver.
Rules in Poland are
quite inconsistent. In comparison to cat. B candidates, people who would like
to become motorcycle drivers have to be owners of cat. A2 license for at least
2 years, therefore you can’t ride real motorcycles until you are 20yo and if
you have never owned A2 license you have to be at least 24yo. These rules,
introduced in early 2013, are in my opinion populist (based on fear generated
by the media) and were set to generate more income to the WORDs. To point out
the contrast: government has no problems letting citizens operate 3.5 tons of metal
and polymers after 30 hours of training. To be clear, I am not implying that representatives
should exacerbate the restrictions.
Furthermore, if
you’re already a car driver and you wish to ride a bike you are forced to go
through a full course all again and take up both exams. Things couldn’t have
been any simpler in the USA, one should pay 20$ and take up a practical test
the same day by passing a slalom on a skid pad.
On the other hand if
we compare Polish to English costs of preparing a young student to taking up
exams we’ll come up to a conclusion that we pay up to 6 times less unless we
divide costs by the minimum wage, which is 6 times higher in UK.
Also pass rates vary significantly
depending on a country. In Poland the pass rate of the practical exam is just
below 25% comparing to ~43% in UK. I myself passed the practical test the second
time (it turns out that the motorists who take the driving test twice are the
safest on the road: http://tnij.org/thj10jz). How many times did you take up your driving
tests?
There are as many
approaches to the obtaining driver’s license as countries, but I strongly
believe that there is much to improve in Polish regulations.
Comments
I my opinion it's cool that in United States or Canada you can drive your own car on an exam, I think it's less stressful then.
Anyway I passed my exam the second time (theoretical one on the first try, because I feel that it's pretty impossible to fail that one) but I don't think I was ready to drive after only 30 hours of practice. I've never had an accident and now I think I'm a confident and a good driver but I truly learned how to drive when I started to drive by myself later on. I guess that it isn't wrong that driving tests are so hard to pass, it's better to put only ready drivers on the road.
I passed my exam the third time. However, I haven't driven for years and would probably need to re-take the course if I were to begin driving again, just to make sure I remember anything :P. Driving in Warsaw terrifies me - the drivers are really unfriendly if you're a beginner and the traffic is really intense.
However, I'm glad I already have my license - I've heard the theoretical tests have become harder now, and you have to renew your exam after some time? On the one hand, it makes sense to me, on the other - I was worried sick before the exam, all that waiting in WORD and not knowing when they'll call you - so I'm glad I don't have to repeat that.
Now they introduced those new tests which are not available to the community, meaning course attendees don't know the questions and answers. After introducing this new way of testing future drivers, the exam was said to be unrealisticly hard to pass.
I still don't own a driver license. Maybe I will do it here, in Poland, or maybe I will try to obtain one outsite Poland? Where is better?
I passed the theoretical exam by first time but I didn't like to learn all these rules by heart, I didn't know them during practical part of the course(I failed internal theoretical test at the driving school), I just knew how to behave on the street naturaly. It would be nightmare to me if I had to learn those rules right now.
I have never heard about rules in Kanada, but it seems to be a reasonable idea in my opinion. I think as you that there is much to improve in Polish regulations. But I think that is everywhere.
I passed my exam the third time. Initially I was driving many time, but after that I stopped do it- after my parents accident. Now I drive rather seldom, but I drive always when I can. I’m not from Warsaw, so I don’t have a car in this place, but when I go HOME I strive to drive more and more. I really like to drive.
I have never heard about exams in Kanada, i my opinion it is interesting idea but i dont think that check out in Poland.
Here is a very funny video about Malaysian women's racing champion passes driving exam :
https://youtu.be/WaAu4L2cl4c
With driving lessons i see one, major problem - those lesson learn how to pass an exam (not how to drive).
I failed my exam on first attempt - but second one was completed succesfully :)
Also new rules aren't that hard. My brother did study for this and he passed with first try. It's harder but not impossible to pass. It contains some kind of 'IQ test' - and I believie it's really good to check if people do have common sense before they will drive car.
Now I drive car on daily basis and I'm not scared to drive downtown - as some of you mentioned above. It's just the matter of time to get used to people and to learn some concepts of defensive driving (expect unexpected!)
I've done my driving licence in a small town. It was during summer holidays - with a group of friends we were living in my house at the country side. Chillin and doing driving course:)
Regading video: those instructors lived through their worst professional nighmare.
I think that it is a very good idea to allow underage people to drive with a supervisor two years prior to taking the test. It is very wise, you learn for free from an experienced driver and you gain the confidence, which is very necessary.
I also think that it would be a good idea to establish an age limit for driver's licence and test the elderly if they can still manage to drive properly. It is a good think that now we get licences for a maximum of 15 years, but the old ones don't have an expiration date.
I would like to tell you something about renewing your license - a process I was going through two weeks ago. If you want to make it quick - you have to go to a private doctor (medycyna pracy). The visit consists of blood check for glucose level, an appointment with an ophthalmologist and finally the main visit. Everything takes about an hour, requires a lot of paperwork and you get a copy of doctor's permission form. The doctor decides for how long you will get your next license. The cost is about 200 zl. Then you have to pay another 100 zl for your new license (and also for a photo, if you don't have one), fill in the form, attach 847374 attachments, survive severe looks from the office workers and apply at the city council. Then you wait another 3-4 weeks and get the license. For more than 3 years - if you're lucky.
I believe that the regulations on driving licenses are necessary. However, not all records improve safety. I think that the biggest problem in Poland are courses for driving test. These courses do not teach how to drive but how to pass the exam
I think that because of a much harder (at least in comparison to the previous one) theory test and pretty expensive cost (each time you feel you have to pay for an exam, be it theoretical or practical) it may be a good way to turn off bad drivers or people who just shouldn't be allowed to drive.
Sometimes when I see people driving who passed the old driving license test I can't wrap my head around their driving, they clearly ignore or do not know the law.
Speaking of law, I actually think that the driving regulations are among the clearest and well designed in our law system, but that is just my opinion.
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