As it so happens, I got my driver's license in NYC just two months ago in anticipation of moving a couple hours north of NYC (you should drop in on me for some local multiplayer, RevanFan!), where public transit really wouldn't be a viable option (based on the news since I've left the city, it's not a viable option anymore there, either). I had an incredibly tight deadline, moving on a Thursday toward the end of May and taking my road test the Monday immediately preceding it. I studied for weeks for the written exam, only to feel like a fool when I got a 19/20 in the space of four minutes (and I'm pretty sure the "wrong" answer I gave should actually be considered the "right" answer) and realized that I had left my genius self about 10 days to learn how to actually drive a car. I took five driving lessons over the course of six days--I had a fantastic freaking instructor (definitely a little harried, 1312qohelet, haha, but not quite on his last nerve)--having driven around a parking lot with an experienced driver for an hour the day before my first lesson and for maybe 20 minutes about ten years before my first lesson. The night before the test, after my final lesson, a friend took me out in his car for a couple of hours and also had me practice parallel parking for a while.
The driver's test in New York City is a joke. A complete an utter joke. I don't mean that it's unfair, or that the proctors are unreasonable or mean or anything, what I mean that it strikes me as being utterly incapable of weeding out even the most obviously dangerous and incompetent drivers. The day after that last lesson, I lost twenty points on my road test en route to passing it. On one turn, I turned short enough to have hit a car in the oncoming lane; on another, I turned wide enough that I would've been knocking over trash bins on collection day. I didn't assess my mirrors properly during my three-point-turn. I also lost five points on something else, but I forget what. I could have even made an additional mistake on the test (save for a mistake that leads to an automatic fail) and still passed. But what I thought was an absolute joke, above anything, was the "parallel parking" I had to perform (and for which I had no points deducted).
Parking behind a car? Not even between cars? I thought, In New York City, they don't make you parallel park between cars before you get a license? That's asinine. I did it with ease because 95% of the difficulty I have with parallel parking involves the second car, which is almost always there when you're parking. I just don't see how you can survive as a driver in New York City without being able to parallel park between two cars, and if you don't have the money to survive as a driver who gets a lot of tickets, you have to be able to parallel park well. I think it's crazy, and to be honest, my first couple of months of driving had many close calls that can be chalked up to inexperience rather than any kind of misunderstanding of how the car operates, or what the laws are, etc. I should've had to have driven for dozens of hours before being handed a license. I no longer wonder why there are so many idiotic drivers on the road, when "practice" is basically something you can pass the road test without ever doing (at least in New York City), and since most people are barely self-conscious at all about their driving (even angry if you point out that they did something wrong/dangerous/illegal), they have no incentive to get any better, at least until they kill themselves/somebody else (because that doesn't strike them as a disincentive for whatever reason). The things that you were failed for on the first test, JSamuel, strike me as hilarious, because I basically didn't have to do any of them on my own test (which I should have failed, imho).
Now that I've complained about New York's lax vehicle licensing procedures, congratulations on your license, JSamuel! I hope the second test was free for you like it is if you need to take it again here in New York. Because I moved right as I was getting my license, I've got a temporary permit for my old address, a permit proper for my old address, interim licenses for my old address and new address, and licenses proper for my old address and new address.
