First highway you drove on

[CL]

Seems that western states (well, interior west) are quite liberal when it comes to giving teenagers licenses. Well... can't have the government intruding on our God-given right to drive at sixteen, obviously.

Utah: One can get his learner's permit at fifteen, which enables you to drive with a parent during daylight hours. To qualify for a license at sixteen, forty hours supervised driving - ten at night - must occur with a log sheet. As in Nevada, you never had to show a log sheet; a parent just had to validate.

Driver's ed is required only if you get your license before eighteen. Driver's ed, suffice to say, is a joke. I took it in high school. It consisted of something like thirty hours of classroom time: mind-numbing worksheets; horrendously produced videos from the '70s and '80s (this was only several years ago, mind you!) that taught me, among few other things, to never give your PIN number to carjackers and to always signal when pulling out of parking spaces; and tests that were almost carbon copies of the worksheets. Then, six hours on the range. Oh, the wonder of doing multiple maneuvers of backing up in a straight line (which several in my class failed to do), driving in a figure eight, parking in an angled stall, what have you. Finally, six hours of driving with the instructor on city streets. I was lucky: my range/road instructor was smart enough to take me on rural canyon freeways, dark desert highways, and urban freeways at rush hour. Didn't learn anything that I learned through driving on a learner's permit, but nevertheless.

So, forty hours of state-sanctioned instruction and fifteen dollars later, I was awarded a Utah driver's license. It took minimal effort. Ah... the nostalgia of looking back. Back when I was totally oblivious to the ineptitude of the vast majority of drivers. Perhaps we should start a thread on driving pet peeves, because they are myriad.

[bulldog1979]

Seems that western states (well, interior west) are quite liberal when it comes to giving teenagers licenses. Well... can't have the government intruding on our God-given right to drive at sixteen, obviously.

Utah: One can get his learner's permit at fifteen, which enables you to drive with a parent during daylight hours. To qualify for a license at sixteen, forty hours supervised driving - ten at night - must occur with a log sheet. As in Nevada, you never had to show a log sheet; a parent just had to validate.

Driver's ed is required only if you get your license before eighteen. Driver's ed, suffice to say, is a joke. I took it in high school. It consisted of something like thirty hours of classroom time: mind-numbing worksheets; horrendously produced videos from the '70s and '80s (this was only several years ago, mind you!) that taught me, among few other things, to never give your PIN number to carjackers and to always signal when pulling out of parking spaces; and tests that were almost carbon copies of the worksheets. Then, six hours on the range. Oh, the wonder of doing multiple maneuvers of backing up in a straight line (which several in my class failed to do), driving in a figure eight, parking in an angled stall, what have you. Finally, six hours of driving with the instructor on city streets. I was lucky: my range/road instructor was smart enough to take me on rural canyon freeways, dark desert highways, and urban freeways at rush hour. Didn't learn anything that I learned through driving on a learner's permit, but nevertheless.

So, forty hours of state-sanctioned instruction and fifteen dollars later, I was awarded a Utah driver's license. It took minimal effort. Ah... the nostalgia of looking back. Back when I was totally oblivious to the ineptitude of the vast majority of drivers. Perhaps we should start a thread on driving pet peeves, because they are myriad.

When I went through driver's ed, I was in the last year before the switch to graduated licensing in Michigan. The Monday after school let out for the summer, we started classes. Our district had four instructors and two cars for the course. During the mornings, both cars were on the road each staffed with an instructor while the other two taught the classes. In the afternoon, they traded off. For two weeks, I sat in class for the bookwork segment in the afternoon, watching similar videos and doing similar worksheets. I signed up for a timeslot at 6 am to drive starting the first day. I traded with my timeslot partner for an hour each behind the wheel for three days in the early morning. We had to "pass" imaginary cars on the four-lane section of US 41/M-28. One morning, we had to drive in figure-8s, forward and reverse. Since we were running short on time the last day, my instructor took the week to demonstrate how to parallel park. Once I completed the classroom portion, since I had already completed the driving (some students had to wait for 3 weeks to get behind the wheel), they issued me a post-dated permit. On the appointed day, you could see all my fellow students showing up at the Secretary of State's branch office to take the written test and validate the permit.

After that point, in theory, we had to drive a minimum number of supervised hours with a parent or guardian before we paid the fee to convert our permit into a full license. (My mom "certified" to the SoS that had completed the number of hours required and that I had her permission to get the license.) I waited an additional 6 months after I turned 16 to get my license because I didn't need a license. At the time, I didn't have to go anywhere in the car alone since I walked to school and I didn't have an after-school job. I got my license in time to drive to my junior prom.

Now, Michigan has a whole series of requirements for those under 18 to meet to get a license, but if someone is already 18, they just need to apply for a permit, drive with a licensed driver and take the tests. (The driving test was administered to me during the course of my supervised driving by my instructor.)

[bulldog1979]

The first time I drove a vehicle was my Grandfather's 1981 Dodge Ram pickup on rural gravel roads around Cheboygan, MI, in October 1994.

Everyone should be required to drive  an old (pre 1990- anything newer has too many gizmos to make it easy to drive), full-size pickup, especially with a manual transmission the first several times they ever drive a car. Good job to your grandfather!

Yeah, well, the truck (he still has it) is an automatic. I didn't learn to drive a stick until my first boyfriend taught me in college. My first car of my "own" was an '83 Olds Cutlass Ciera that my parents bought from my grandma when she got a newer car. I still remember the day I had to drive it down to the garage when one of the belts went on it and the power steering was out. It's one thing to drive a truck that doesn't have power steering, but it's another to drive a car like that, which means overcoming the force needed to steer and the force needed to overcome the inoperative mechanism impeding you.

I did learn in a hurry just how good that truck's brakes are. The biggest challenge so far was when I drove the moving truck to get me from Traverse City to Grand Rapids. I had driven a rental truck like that before for a short distance at work, but that was the first time I had pulled a trailer. I last saw my car in the rearview mirrors going around the sharp curve on M-113, and I didn't see it again until I stopped in Granville to drop the trailer, and my car, at the drop off location. (I knew I wasn't going to attempt to back up that truck and trailer near this apartment complex.)

[US71]

I think US 30.

[Coelacanth]

The licensing in Minnesota in the mid-80s worked as follows:

You could get a learner's permit at age 15; you had to be 16 for the full license. To get the permit you had to have 30 hours classroom instruction and pass a simple test. Then you needed some number of hours (I want to say 6 or eight) of behind-the-wheel training.

The first highway I drove on (as part of the behind-the-wheel) would have been either MN-51 or (more likely) MN-36. The first highway I drove on in non-training situations was almost certainly MN-49. As a licensed driver, the first highway I drove on was I-35W (the testing station is right off the freeway).

edit: removed autosmiley

[Duke87]

Everyone should be required to drive  an old (pre 1990- anything newer has too many gizmos to make it easy to drive), full-size pickup, especially with a manual transmission the first several times they ever drive a car. Good job to your grandfather!

Why? I have never in my life been inside a pickup, let alone behind the wheel, and that's unlikely to change (what use would I have for it?).
As for the transmission issue, well... I frankly don't see how not being able to drive a stick is a big deal. In North America, you're never going to end up driving one unless you ask for it. In fact, I think I've been a passenger in a manual transmission car a grand total of three times in my entire life. They're pretty rare.

[corco]

Why? I have never in my life been inside a pickup, let alone behind the wheel, and that's unlikely to change (what use would I have for it?).
As for the transmission issue, well... I frankly don't see how not being able to drive a stick is a big deal. In North America, you're never going to end up driving one unless you ask for it. In fact, I think I've been a passenger in a manual transmission car a grand total of three times in my entire life. They're pretty rare.

Has to do with maneuverability- it's a hell of a lot harder to drive a giant truck with a manual than a small car with an automatic- if you're capable of driving a giant 2WD truck with a manual in bad road conditions, you're not going to ever encounter a situation where you lack the skills necessary to drive safely.  

I don't know, I guess it's a regional thing. Where I grew up in rural Idaho, manual transmissions still make up about 50% of the cars, simply because they're preferred for deep snow. In any rural area in the country, you're going to see a lot more sticks and a lot more pickups (that are used as pickups).

Large vehicles are harder to drive, especially with weird weight distribution like in a pickup. Just driving a manual teaches you a lot more about how the car works than an automatic ever will, and I think knowing those things are important because you never know when you'll get stuck in those situations. I've definitely been in situations where I've been at a party and didn't end up drinking for whatever reason and had to drive people home in someone else's car, with the only car available being a stick shift.

A few months ago I took a job as a valet because I needed some extra income- if I didn't know how to drive a stick they wouldn't have hired me. The internship I had for a couple summers required me to go out in the field a lot. The vehicle I was issued was a 1992 F-250 with a manual transmission- lots of small town municipal governments have manual transmission cars because they tend to be cheaper and small towns on tight budgets would rather not pay an extra $4000 for an automatic. It was a ridiculously inconvenient car for the work I was doing, which involved a lot of stop and go and driving at 3 MPH- a small car with automatic would have been ideal, but I was at the bottom of the totem pole and that was the vehicle they had available, so I took it. The University of Arizona actually has manual transmission cars in their motorpool! Not many, but a few.

You don't need to be comfortable maneuvering a pickup now, but when somebody calls and offers you a ton of money to move to Seattle, I'd rather know that you have some experience driving something the size of/weight-distributed like a U-Haul before you just get behind the wheel and figure it out, especially if it's wintertime.

Largely it's probably a regional thing. I've spent 0 time in Connecticut- I don't know what life is like in Connecticut. I know in Idaho and Wyoming, you're shooting yourself in the foot pretty badly if you can't drive a stick- so maybe to say as a blanket statement that everyone should be required is incorrect. I would maintain that everyone in Idaho and Wyoming should be required to drive an old pickup with a gnarly manual transmission when they learn to drive.

[agentsteel53]

it's up for debate which is a more fun winter drive - a large truck with a manual, or a small car.  the large truck indeed has an unusual weight distribution, but the small car is likelier to stall, and there are situations in the snow in which a large truck will have the clearance/power/etc that the small car will not.

that said, I've never driven a large truck in the winter.  My only experience with a manual-transmission large vehicle was a 1979 International Harvester Scout in New Mexico (about 50 miles, summer) and some kind of new rental SUV in Iceland (about 3000 mi, all kinds of nasty roads, including two-tracks on inclines up to 43%, and a few river fords, but no weather more inclement than a light rain).  

as for small cars, I've driven manual and automatic in all kinds of horrific weather and I much prefer the extra degree of control of a manual transmission.

plus, Corco's general point does stand - knowing how to drive stick is a very useful skill.  even if you rarely use the skill ... it's better to have and not need, than to need and not have!

I think everyone should be required to take their drivers test on a manual-transmission car.  It actually makes you pay much closer attention to the road and surrounding traffic.

[corco]

I think everyone should be required to take their drivers test on a manual-transmission car.  It actually makes you pay much closer attention to the road and surrounding traffic.

This I fully agree with. Especially if you're not comfortable driving a manual- you're not texting or masturbating to your GPS or whatever- you're focusing on the road and other cars.

it's up for debate which is a more fun winter drive - a large truck with a manual, or a small car.  the large truck indeed has an unusual weight distribution, but the small car is likelier to stall, and there are situations in the snow in which a large truck will have the clearance/power/etc that the small car will not.

It's weird- a big truck is easier to stall at takeoff- if you're not used to that kind of torque  you're likely to pull the clutch out too quickly. If you're in a small car and going uphill on ice the power issue comes into play, but if you get a running start before going uphill you can easily negate that. Downshifting uphill on ice can be tricky, but you're still going uphill so as long as you don't steer into a ditch (if you steer into a ditch going uphill, even without snow driving experience, you're an idiot) the correct amount of gas pedal pressure combined with a smooth shift should yield success.

[Duke87]

I don't know, I guess it's a regional thing. Where I grew up in rural Idaho, manual transmissions still make up about 50% of the cars, simply because they're preferred for deep snow. In any rural area in the country, you're going to see a lot more sticks and a lot more pickups (that are used as pickups).

Yeah, see that's just it. The only people around here that have manual trannies are douchebags who insist that it's the way real men drive a car. And while contractors and landscapers have pickups to move equipment and whatnot around in, your average citizen isn't going to have one parked in their driveway unless it's a toy spare car.
But yeah, Connecticut doesn't get snow like Idaho. And doesn't have farms like Idaho.

It's all well and good to say it may be a useful skill to be able to drive manual, but had it been required, it would have been quite a pickle. Nobody in my family has one. Nor did any of my friends in high school. It's not like I chose not to learn how to drive a stick, I've never had the opportunity to!

[J N Winkler]

I would maintain that everyone in Idaho and Wyoming should be required to drive an old pickup with a gnarly manual transmission when they learn to drive.

Can you double-clutch?

[corco]

Yes, but I don't do it normally- usually only if I need to downshift when I'm driving down an icy grade and want to engine brake without lurching, but I usually try to avoid that situation by being in the lowest gear I'll need to be in as I start my descent.

There's also one hill up to my parents house where you when you turn to drive up the hill, you downshift from third to second and in most cars you either have to slow way down or it's way, way smoother to double clutch to get up that hill.

I do know how to rev-match, though- I've successfully driven a manual without a functional clutch on a couple of occasions

[M86]

In South Dakota, you could drive at 14.  I took Driver's Ed, and needed a few months with an adult driver, and restricted driving hours.  At 16, you could get an actual license, with no restrictions.

My first US highway is US 281 near Aberdeen.  My first Interstate is I-29 near Summit/Watertown.

[SidS1045]

MA-128 (no steenkin' I-95 back then), at 7AM on a Saturday, while I was taking driving lessons in 1966.  Almost no traffic, a perfect opportunity for the instructor to show us high-speed driving techniques without a lot of risk from other cars.

[ClarkE]

First highway was US 60 in Shelbyville, KY and first Interstate was I-65 in Louisville

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

First "highway" was NH route 108, first freeway was NH route 101.

[OCGuy81]

Day 2 of Driver's Ed, my instructor felt we were ready for the 55 Freeway.  Day 1 was surface streets, so CA-55 was my first highway driven.

[Takumi]

US 1/301. First freeway was I-95.

[74/171FAN]

VA 156 from just south of US 460 to VA 35/US 301.

[yakra]

First "highway" was NH route 108, first freeway was NH route 101.

That was my first (and only, I think) SPUI. Bagged it in an `85 Turbodiesel too.

[empirestate]

Driver's ed is required in QC since two years ago (or something like that). The course costs around $900, and you have your learner's permit for 12 months.

I noticed that vehicles with Quebec plates have been behaving better lately. Used to be a menace.

(I'm being quite serious...I have definitely observed this!)

EDIT: The actual topic - My first highway must have been NY 286...from my house it was a 4-lane divided highway heading down a steep grade and I vaguely remember trying my hand at that once I was "ready".

First Interstate and probably first freeway was I-490, no doubt.

[mjb2002]

The CHARLESTON HY (US 78) in Aiken County was the first highway I drove on. This was in late August 1999. I drove from Montmorenci, S.C. to the Aiken-Barnwell County line that day.

[Laura]

I've been able to drive farm trucks and tractors since I was 11. The first roads that I legally drove on were MD 165, MD 136, US 1 after I got my learner's permit in 2003. The first interstates were 95 and 695, at 80 mph, because the instructor insisted that I was wasn't driving fast enough and that we would get shoved off the road if we didn't go that fast! Now you all know where I get it from...

First trip longer than 300 miles would be from Lynchburg, VA to York, PA in 2006. It was a 302 mile trip because I took US 501 to I-81 to PA 581 to 83 South to York (so that I could clinch 81 to Harrisburg mostly).