I'm Nervous, guyz
 

about getting my driver's license. :x

Have you never taken driver's ed?

No.

I'm turr-fied of drivin'. I think it's because I don't want to be responsible for the ton/s of metal hurtling down a road. And I've been in a lot of horrible accidents.

I took my test 4 times before getting my license. Just practice a lot before hand. Eventully learn to drive standard because it is better.

I'm the same way about driving. I just got used to it over time and decided that everyone's got to die someday so fuck it and fuck everyone else if I accidentally ram them.

I still don't have my license. :(

Also, prepare to gain weight.

Its not so bad. Do you actually have to take a driving test or just a written one?

Well, in Texas where I'm getting the thing, there's a written test, an eye test, and then you have to demonstrate the ability to the tune of 70% capacity, which explains why Texans can't fucking drive.

If your doing it here your good bro. The written is easy. :lol

Yeah, I know most shit already. But they also expect you to know stuff like "What percent of deaths relating to automobile accidents can be prevented by simply using a seatbelt?"

Fucking stupid. And oh yeah, cool story - my uncle would've died when he was a kid if was wearing a seatbelt. A semi broadsided him and cut the car into two bits, pulling the seat out from behind and under him.

The answer to that question is "all of them, with the one exception of when the car goes over the cliff, and you're all like "oh no, what have I done" before you hit the ground and burst into a fireball." I'm pretty sure a seatbelt will not protect you in that case.

Seatbelts don't block fire, I think

:lol

Fuck driving, dude. I don't think I've sat in a driver's seat since I got my license.

I only use my license as an ID to buy booze.

DONT THEY HAVE LIKE LIMITED LICENSES IN YOUR COMMUNIST HOME COUNTRY?

YOU COULD PROBABLY GO TO JAIL FOR NOT USING IT

Wearing a seatbelt is a good idea. People pay far more attention to anomalies than to statistical generalities. I have a friend whose life was saved because his airbag had a mechanical failure in an accident--had the airbag gone off, it would have killed him. I've seen many stories of people who survived because they didn't wear their seatbelts, and one exemplary story where a kid I knew barely survived a car wreck and another kid in the car had so much forward momentum that the seatbelt dismembered his head and arms. Did the seatbelt kill that kid? No, the fact that he drove 80 mph into a tree did. Two other kids in the car that sat in the rear passenger seats had to be scraped out of the trunk compartment.

It's still important to not allow exceptions to statistical rules garner more attention than the actual lessons of those statistical rules. There are countless situations where a seatbelt or airbags will ADD danger to a crash, but in the business of garden variety crashes that represent 98% or more of the accidents people encounter, a seatbelt will be a vast improvement in one's safety. I mean, seriously, how many people PLAN on having an anomaly crash situation versus wanting to have the most comprehensive protection against the most likely dangers? And for the record, fires occur in something like less than 5% of deadly crashes. The car wreck I was in 7 years ago seemed like a perfect candidate for burning me alive, but car engines are very well designed to avoid that in crash scenarios. It's still a good idea to try to turn the ignition all the way off so there's no electrical current after a wreck, but that's just extra protection.

Take your own story: an uncle survived because of no seatbelt. He was a kid, so that happened thirty or so years ago? Because it was an argument against the status quo, it was so memorable that it seems relevant many years later. If your family is like most families in terms of driving history, it's probably witnessed multiple situations where a seatbelt saved someone's life in such a way that it was so taken for granted that people felt more anxiety about the financial damage to the car than the new lease on life.

Seriously, look up some basic equations from high school physics and apply them to a human being moving at only 25 miles per hour. It's pretty scary if you compare the slight momentary discomfort of a sudden stop when it's distributed across your torso by a belt than when it propels your face toward the windshield. A generation ago, when over-the-shoulder straps weren't standard, people would get bruises across their sternum because someone pulled out in front of them, they slam the brakes and their body gets slammed into the steering wheel.

Dude, I know. It's just wild stuff. And it wouldn't be wild if it happened all the time. I know another guy who wasn't wearing his seatbelt and looked down to play with his iPod. He was swiftly delivered to the next plane of existence.

And then there's the number of times the seatbelt saved my life in my aforementioned accidents. Seeing people's brains rattle around in their skull and their bones snap and stab themselves with the compound fractures. Fucking crazy stuff, mate.

Did you ever take your test FZ?

Haven't had the time. A lot of stuff's come up recently. But in either this week or the next. What's likely to happen is that I'm gonna get the Oldsmobile Alero from my great-grandmother in July (:x) then use that for practice, tests, etc.

I can't drive, and I've failed my learner test about a million times, including today. I'm a mental when it comes to figuring out who gives way, and I'm scared as when I think about freezing up at an intersection, giving lots of way while people behind me toot their horns and shake their fists.

I was signed up for "disabled driver" lessons and was a dismal failure. I was too hesitant because it seemed to me that everyone else on the road was out to kill me. They wanted me to use mirrors because I can't turn my head well, but I couldn't make any sense of the mirrors, that spatial sense was all kerfuckered in my head.

Finally they decided that I was going to get myself killed as a driver and that I would be much safer as the passenger of someone more capable. And, although it's frustrating to depend on others, I'd have to say I agree.

Still want to drive a golf cart someday, though.

Does anyone here drive?

Driving sucks. Everywhere I need to be is within biking or walking distance, I don't have to pay for gas, and I get some goddamn exercise.

I hate living in Michigan because everyone has an unyielding boner about their cars, and some of the worst drivers in the world live here.

Where do you live in Michigan? :O