Bicycle Austin forum

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Texas curriculum for parent-taught driver's ed

For teens to get a driver's license in Texas, they do a "classroom" portion (though these days, that's typically satisfied with an online class), and then do an on-the-road course, either through a driving school or with their parents.  Here's the curriculum for the parent-taught road course.  It's 32 pages, bicyclists are mentioned five times.

https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/driver/files … 0Guide.pdf

RedFalcon

Member

Registered: 2013-10-10

Posts: 233

Re: Texas curriculum for parent-taught driver's ed

Sounds like it hasn't changed much since my kids got their driving licenses 15 years ago.  It was a complete joke.  My cat could have received a TX drivers license.  Because I am cheap, and had been a public school teacher for 20 years, I decided to do the parent taught route.  I actually made my kids do all of the practice drives and then some, but you know that many (most?) people just sign off on it.   (I'll never forget the look my kids gave me when I made them go out in the pouring rain to take the wheels off the car and put them back on.  But years later my daughter and her girlfriends got a flat coming home late at night she was the only one who knew how to change the tire.)

The actual requirements were very hard to follow.  Maybe that has improved.  At the time it was pretty new and the people at DPS often gave me conflicting instructions on what we actually had to do.  My daughter took the 20 question multiple-guess test and passed with a 75% because she thought it was just a practice test.  Turned out to be the actual final test but there were sections she had not studied.

Neither one of my kids had the experience of having to parallel park a car while a gun slinging dps office wearing aviator glasses glared at them and made notes on a clipboard.  I think it is a real shame that now they use contract people to administer the driving test when it is used at all.  Everyone should have to prove they can actually drive with a bad ass cop staring at them from behind reflective glasses.  Even better, the test should be so hard that even experienced drivers don't always pass it the first time.  In England my mother failed it even though she had a US license for years.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Texas curriculum for parent-taught driver's ed

When I got my license four years ago (still can't believe I've been driving for four years), the driving test was for just a few minutes and was pretty easy.  No highway driving, almost no interaction with other vehicles.

Our new Prius doesn't come with a spare tire (probably to save on weight, to eke out even better fuel economy).  It comes with a patch kit.

In Japan, you pretty much have to go to a pricey driving school with a lengthy curriculum to pass the driving test, and even then, if I remember right, most people fail on their first attempt.  Expats are often shocked that they can't just waltz in and get a local license with an easy test.