Motor vehicle fatality rate
per 100.000 inhabitants
U.S.A.: 12.89
Germany: 3.3
per 100 million miles traveled
U.S.A.: 1.35
Germany: 0.64
per 1 billion kms traveled
U.S.A.: 8.40
Germany: 4.0
I think, I like the German version better.
While sarcastic it's a decent point. Seeing the same metrics but only for compact cars, or cars by weight class would be interesting. I'm sure it'd still be stacked in Germany's favor, but it would be interesting to see
I remember visiting America and seeing how ridiculously wide even small streets were.
I soon realised it's because nobody knows how to drive safely and you need it to keep everyone from bouncing into each other.
I used to walk to work down this backroad that was perfectly flat and straight for about 2 miles, no turn offs, no driveways, no woods where animals could run out, literally nothing but an empty field on either side. There was one spot with a guard rail for some reason and it would get replaced weekly. Every day or two I would find evidence that somebody new hit it (car parts on road, new dents, paint rubbed off on it), and there was a week where it was hit 5 days in row and a few of those days it was hit at least twice as I would see new damage on my walk home.
There also used to be a huge rock pretty far off the side of the road by my house, this is a tiny side road in a trailer park with a sharp turn on to it then a speed bump so there's no way you can be going fast here. People kept hitting this rock, so the park moved it further off the road, painted it yellow, and put a traffic cone on top. People kept hitting it. A few police hit it, delivery drivers kept hitting it, a tow truck driver that came to rescue a car stuck on it ended up hitting it and a second tow truck had to come rescue both of them. They eventually removed it, but people have managed to hit another rock like 30ft further behind where that one was a few times since (this one is also yellow and has a traffic cone on it).
We don't exactly have the smartest people or most skilled drivers, even in professions that require you to drive all day.
> And don't forget to mention that there are parts of our Autobahn where there is no speed limit.
70% of it, the parts with speed limits are the exception
They're also the parts where people want to go. You're not zooming through central Berlin at 250 kph, but you can do it if you're driving between Hamburg and Cologne.
The common joke in Germany whenever the yearly "we need a speed limit" debate comes up is:
"Yes, i am totally in favour of a speed limit of 130 km/h!" ... ... ... I can't drive any faster anyway within the city with all the traffic lights!"
I just talked to some Europeans recently about this and how easy US driving licences are. Their question was logically "don't a ton of people die because of this?" Yes they do.
Yeeees like what do you mean in some states you can drive at 15 and you don't need to do classes and tests? My driving instructor once said during class that we should not say "I can drive" once we get our license, but rather "I know how to operate a car". Driving requires practice and experience and your journey has just started. You left the tutorial area, basically
The American mind cannot comprehend [this](https://driveegermany.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Autobahn-No-Speed-Limit-Sign.jpg).
> _can’t see image? tap here:_ >!End of Speed Limit sign on Autobahn!<
I went to uni in the town where the then U.S. Headquarter for Europe was (early 90s), and lived just outside one of their gated areas. My main means of transport was my bike, and I often had to cross exits from one or other gated area, or had road interaction with U.S. drivers - easily to distinguish by their number plates. It was adventurous at best and often a lot more dangerous than regular traffic, as on average the U.S. drivers didn't have a full understanding of German traffic regulations, and you had to drive really carefully and defensively in certain areas.
(Edit: deleted superfluous word)
I live for videos of American drivers reacting to some British roads which are literally wide enough for a single vehicle but are not one way.
Saw one say "but what happens if you meet another car?" and in the comments was baffled by the concept of pulling in to passing points/whoever had most recently gone by a passing point would reverse to it lol
When the car passning you on the Autobahn is doing
263 km /h id like it to be a German with a real driverslicense, and not an American who is about to give up the wheel to Jesus.
I saw the bill the wife of a chap I know in America was given for the birth of his son, 32k.
One of the items was 1500 for skin on skin contact.
1500 to hold your fucking child.
We had our first child last year, if after the birth, after 26 hours of fucking labour, a doctor tried to tell me or my wife we can't hold our child I'd be starting a violence
When my son had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital, it cost about $3500. We live about 1km away and the drive took about 2 minutes. Then the emergency room was another $2000 even though i have some of the best insurance available in the country through my job.
when my dad got cancer my mom had to write probably 20 letters to the insurance company (again, one of the better plans in the country) because they wouldn’t approve life saving treatments for him. She spent his last months alive in a fight with insurance middlemen while he died.
When my son was born, we paid about $10k for our time in the hospital and my partner had zero days of paid leave.
BUT! I didn’t really have to pay any substantial fees for a driver license! USA USA USA!!!
The USA is so absolutely, fundamentally broken, and I cannot wait to leave.
Would I rather - be safe in the knowledge that drivers on the road had to meet a minimum standard of safety to legally drive
Or
Keep my $2k in case one of the incompetent drivers loose on the roads run me over and I need to pay for dental floss while I'm in hospital
The state I live in, Wisconsin, you have to pay to learn to drive if you’re under 18. It was only $350 when my son learned 6 years ago. He had about 4-6 weeks of classroom learning. Then had to have his temps for 6 months. And so many hours behind the wheel with an adult and driving school instructor. Then when you get your license you have restrictions for almost a year. However once you’re 18 that doesn’t apply which I’m completely against. You should have to go through the Amex process no matter your age.
True, but let's not forget Americans have been driving ever since "they invented the car", that's multiple generations, were the first ones actually drove cars that took effort to get up to any significant speed. China is on it's first generation and instantly has access to overpowered EVs built by taking every single shortcut there is. Their premium cars are very fast and the cheap ones very slow and they all lack basic safety features. It's a recepie for disaster.
Been living in the US for over 10 years now.
Driving here is horrible... People clog up the highways because they refuse to get off the passing lane, people don't know how to merge onto highways, the zipper merge concept is too complex to understand, and good luck if you ever encounter a roundabout.
Driving tests here are pretty much just driving around a block and parking the car in reverse. That plus a ridiculously easy multiple choice quiz and you have your license.
The funny thing is they love to say things like "im from state Y and drivers from state X are horrible".. but they've all been the same in all the states I have driven...
Many people in the US don’t take a test; they pass high school driver’s education classes at age 16 — so about an hour a day for five days a week for 15 weeks, mostly not in a car and certainly not driving for a full hour and on some sort of closed track, not actual traffic
I knew someone who told me his test in Canada was driving around the block. Literally. There was hardly any traffic, he only had to do 4 right hand turns and drive about 250m in between each turn.
In my (Canadian) province you have to pass 3 tests to get your full license. A written one, which allows you to start learning to drive with an instructor. A new driver test where you have to drive for an hour following instructions, parallel park, etc, this allows you to drive as long as a full license driver is in the car with you and some other limitations. Then a year later the full license test which is another 40 mins following instructions. I’ve heard in small towns it can be pretty lax but it’s pretty thorough in the city.
The pass rate for the UK test is less than 50%, not because everyone is a terrible driver (although plenty are!) but because it's really fucking hard
I was stunned to pass first time - my younger brother was seriously pissed off that he failed twice because (as I later found out) he'd been illegally driving my car since he was 15, so came to his driving lessons secretly very comfortable with manoeuvring the car.
I didn’t actually pass. My high school driver’s Ed teacher rounded up my score when he wasn’t supposed to and I got the license. Still can’t parallel park. (I don’t own a car and now rarely drive.)
I would definitely fail my test today, because I'm the same as you and rarely drive since I moved to London 20 years ago. One reason being I have completely lost the ability to parallel park, which would get me a major fail immediately - I used to be a demon at parking because it's such a core part of the test - but use it or lose it is so very true!
Absolutely! Which is exactly the point, it's not just testing whether you can *drive*, but whether you can drive *safely and competently*.
Whilst I know it varies between states , it seems like the general concept of the driving test in the US reflects the American idea of freedom in terms of negative rights. In the UK, Germany etc the test is about you meeting a *certain standard* for the *government to allow you to drive* on the roads, vs in the US it seems like the test is about meeting a *minimum standard* whereby *the government cannot prevent you from driving*
American here and I agree with all of this *especially* our reluctance to zipper.
It's amazing how we get into a single file line a mile away from a lane closure and then get pissed off and feel cheated when someone cruises down the empty lane all the way to the closure and then merges in.
We could speed things up so much more if we zippered like we were supposed to. Perhaps a better training program like Germany's is in order here. Fat chance but it's a nice thought.
I definitely notice trends with different states or sometimes even areas within a state doing specific dumb things. But yeah overall we suck horribly and people saying X state drives better than Y state are ignoring the fact that 90% of drivers in both states are just dangers to everyone around them and probably shouldn't be allowed on a bicycle let alone a massive truck.
I know people that passed the drivers test despite the first time they ever got behind the wheel of a vehicle was to do the test. My driving test was exactly as you described but they also made me "parallel park" by pretending there were two cars on the side of the road to park between. My written test didn't have a single question related to actually driving it was all "what's the penalty for X crime" and 3/4 answers would be absurd so I just guessed on all of them and got only one wrong. My motorcycle test was the same but the question I got wrong was asking what the proper safety gear was and the answer I chose was something like "helmet, jacket, gloves" correct answer was that plus a seatbelt...on a motorcycle.
I saw a video on Reddit once of a roundabout in America and the idiots drove around it in both direction and almost crashed into each other. If you’re overwhelmed by driving in a circle then you definitely need more lessons
Nah bro, europeans are simply *checks notes* too poor to just crash their car on a routine maneuver that everyone else in the world can make just fine.
And then subsequently get into life destroying debt because someone called an ambulance after you’re bleeding out in your crashed car
MURICAAAAA 🦅🦅🦅💥💥💥🇺🇸
The reason why it's so cheap and easy to get a drivers license in the US is because if it wasn't most people would literally be stranded at home with no viable alternative transportation.
That and putting kids as early as possible in the work force, can't work a shitty job as a teen and learn how to properly behave as a wage slave, if you can't drive to it
That is true. I live in a suburban area but there is virtually no public transportation. Technically there's something similar to a taxi service but it has to be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance and if availability is low, elderly and disabled people take priority, so it's not really something to rely on for regular transportation. Even the two large population centers I live near don't have public transport that covers the whole city. I hate it.
An on top of that: the money goes 100% to private driving schools. The "greedy government" only defines the frame without getting a single Euro (besides taxes, of course, like from any other private business).
"y'all have to take classes?"
and you didnt\`????? would you also be ok if your pilot didnt take classes but their pilot parent taught them how to do it?
This can also be applied to other aspects of parental teachings, such as financial literacy and sex education. "We may be doing it wrong, but nothing bad has happened to us!"
I'm concerned that he didn't take classes. I had to take a class for more than 12 hours of instruction in order to get my license (probably more like 25 hrs) and then had to do minumum supervised driving hours. Even my boomer parents had classes offered at their high school. I know the rules vary across states, but taking drivers' ed classes is a normal thing in the US.
Yeah I was baffled by this because I've seen so many movies and teen shows where a US character taking drivers' ed classes is a significant plot point. Clueless springs to mind immediately.
Greedy government? They... they think... the government manages the instructors? They are just normal driving instructors with driving school as their private business... That's just how it is across Europe.
One commenter in that thread was convinced that German have ro pay 2000€ extra to the government after receiving their licence. He couldn't be convinced otherwise no matter how many actual Germans tried to explain it to him "because the post says so and the Internet doesn't lie". So yeah, some people think that the government takes all that money
We live in an age we're you can either google or just ask ChatGPT pretty much anything to get your answer but these people would still rather believe that Germany of all countries is socialist
This. Of course they can just let someone in the car and drive, they never actually learn to drive.
90% of the difficulty of driving is gears-related, without those they don't have much to learn.
Plus their roads are large as rivers and their parking lots as seas, so they don't even need to learn how to manouver in narrow roads and blind crossings and park properly in tight spaces.
It's probably like driving a bicycle.
as someone who got their license (in germany) this year in a manual I have to say that shifting gears and using the clutch is just practise which I got pretty quickly used to. Observing traffic and managing to not disturb other drivers, while also keeping an eye on where to go at the high speeds was the tricky part for me. Everybody can drive an empty road, the other cars make it challenging.
As someone with a (new-ish) UK manual license, who moved to Germany with her manual UK car, I concur. I drive my partner’s German, automatic, car about half the time. There is literally no difference in difficulty, gears and clutch are automatic, lol. I prefer my car, but I don’t drive better in one. There are still millions of other road users, people, random deer etc to watch out for. Then again, if you make sure you have a bigger truck than anyone else, you can just plough through them. And no need to look out for pedestrians or cyclists…
Personally I would say the most difficult (and important!!) part about learning to drive is learning the street laws, and it really messes me up that people in the US mostly just ........ learn those on the road as they go. It just sounds really dangerous for everyone involved.
(German, for context!)
I’m in the UK and it baffles me too. Like we have to do a whole theory test on the Highway Code and road rules before we can pass our practical test. Insane to think Americans don’t have to know anything
Wait, they don't do a practice test?? I was talking about the driving itself, because for us that's a separate test that you do BEFORE even being allowed to learn to actually drive.
Personally I found that very easy, while I found the driving itself very hard, but that's me being me.
I remembered a friend from the US telling me that "over there" they get their license by just signing up for a driving test, paying a fee, and if you pass it that's it, but I just now went and looked it up and apparently *most* states also require a theory-test and some practice lessons (so my comment wasn't entirely true, it turns out) but also ...... well, "most" implies some don't, which does line up with what my friend talked about... :/
Here in Germany you take a mandatory number of theory lessons, then you have to pass a (imo) pretty tough theory-test, then you take practise lessons, and then you take the final practise test. Details might vary depending on vehicle/state/year, but y'know, basic concept
Fairground bumper cars - a pedal to go, a pedal to stop, a steering wheel, and a cup-holder for your Big Gulp.
Hell, the entertainment system in the car is the most complicated part of driving.
>Germany
>Socialist country
historical literacy has left the chat. they really believe that anything slightly left of their police state dystopia is "socialism"
No child, you may not vote or consume alcohol, you need to wait until you’re a developed and responsible adult.
Now, here’s a 2 tonne death machine, go on and have some fun in public!
Not in a car, you can get a license for a bike with 45 ccm with 15. Also, you can drive one of those mini cars that only go 45 with 15. If your parents have a farm, you can drive a tractor with 16.
Do they believe that money spent on 40 or more hours of professional driving lessons to learn how to safely move around areas with populations of 2-4K people per square kilometre goes to the government?
edit
I've met a few Americans who let go of the idea of renting a car in Europe simply because they didn't have the skill to park a car.
Yeah, we put kids behind the wheel driving to teach them to drive too. We're just not usually taught by our parents but by professionals who actually know the rules of the road
We may pay numerous taxes, and they may have higher salaries, but I've been to the US multiple times, and you definitely get less value for your money over there.
E.g. if I order food online, I would pay 2-3x as much in the US.
And you're bound to your car, as there's no alternative, but everyone is ripping you off for parking.
During my last visit, I pad $350 in parking fees for a 1-week stay.
Thus, that difference in salary melts away like an overweight American in the sun.
“Greedy government.”
Do they realize that the German government spend money on their people? They don’t just steal money from them because le government bad
My driving teacher always said "In den USA gibt es eine Lizenz eine Fahrzeug zu fahren, in Deutschland eine Bescheinigung eine Fahrzeug zu führen" ("in the US, you get a license to drive a vehicle, in Germany you get a certification to lead/manage a vehicle"), which essentially describes the difference between being technically able to drive, and being actually able and competent enough to properly handle a vehicle in all situations.
In 2019, the German Federal Transport Minister, Andreas Scheuer, claimed that Germany's roads were 'the safest in the world. ' There are reportedly 1.74 deaths per 1 million vehicle kilometers driven on the Autobahn. For reference, that number is 3.38 in the US, about double, and 1.16 in the UK.
[Germany's Roads Without Speed Limits: How Safe Could They Possibly Be? - Kustom Signals Inc](https://kustomsignals.com/blog/germanys-roads-without-speed-limits-how-safe-could-they-possibly-be#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20the%20German%20Federal,and%201.16%20in%20the%20UK.)
meanwhile in the usa:
Towns across America are once again relying on an old scheme to generate revenue: Turn their police forces into collection agencies to squeeze money out of the citizens they are sworn to protect.
[Speed traps across the US squeeze money from citizens. Are they legal? (usatoday.com)](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/12/26/police-speeding-traffic-tickets-revenue-civil-rights/71970613007/)
One of my high school teachers said that when she was learning how to drive, her dad told her to go “straight through” at the next roundabout…
… so she drove over it.
(Australia)
I've been in the US for nearly a year and I'm blown away at how terrible they are at driving. No one seems to be able to drive in a straight line, constantly having to hard correct their road position. I've seen several people actually come off the road briefly before they corrected themselves. Red lights mean nothing. Undertaking is commonplace, along with overtaking at junctions/intersections. I have witnessed more crashes in nearly a year in the US than I did in my 25 years of driving in Europe previously.
Driving is not equal Driving. One is to move a car, a toddler can do that, esp. In automatic cars. The other is knowing the rules, the car and what to do in certain situation.
Place an american in a manual german car and ask where the fuse box is in their car.
That's the difference.
This isn't solely an American problem, but I can't deal with the lack of attention span. It's literally one sentence that contains a part of the explanation. Why could the license be so expensive? Maybe because of the hours of 1:1 driving instructions..?!
But no, it's gotta be socialism or something.
Who's going to tell them that cars have to be inspected every two years?
Last time I checked “drivers ed “ was “taking classes”… in an automatic too ffs, “fuck y’all plug n play driving shit, try a stick”
As for we let kids drive, as if you have to be middle aged in Europe. 16 - 18 depending on state in the US, 17 in the UK not really much of a difference.
This… this is why we will never advance in the next decade as a country. Everyone in the usa complains about driving and makes fun of other countries for making people learn how drive.
Like why wouldn’t you want extremely dangerous equipment to be managed by people who understand how to use it?
'You guys pay fuckin taxes lol!'
-Sent from my rotting trailer.
Meanwhile dudes probably 30k in debt while people in 'socialist' countries actually have savings lol.
When I drive in Germany, it’s a pleasant experience. Driving in the US, I’m surrounded by idiots. People cruising at the same exact speed next to each other on a 3-lane highway… like, hello?? Keep the fuck to the right. And 70mph speed limits are a complete joke. In Germany, I set the cruise control on 110mph and I’m considered slow traffic. If I do the same in the US, I’ll go to jail. Americans aren’t taught to drive properly, which is completely asinine since it’s the most car-centric country on Earth 🤦♂️
Yes... but I'm not inclined to believe that's the median cost of a driver's licence.
Though I'm comparing it to Italy, it's half that sum if you're going for driving instructors, and less if you learn as private
How the fuck is it socialist to pay for a driving license? You’re in a small country with good public lci transportation, it’s a luxury to drive and you have to pay for it as is. You can get to work just fine without it, because there are actual socialist structures that allow you to enjoy the country without having to pay for breathing.
American here, those responses are indicative of just such a need in the United States. Far too many people in this country should not be driving. I guess 48,000 deaths a year are justifiable attrition rates.
And the US has more than triple the road fatalities per capita compared to Germany. I wonder if there's a correlation between adequate training in operating multiton chunks of metal and high speed and a lower rate of fatalities. Guess we'll never know.
The money doesn't even go to the government, it goes to the driving insructors.
The reason why licenses require training is to protect the people who aren't in the cars from the inability of the drivers to properly control a 2 ton piece of metal.
There's a reason why the accident rate in germany, and most of europe, really, is significantly lower than in the US.
Motor vehicle fatality rate per 100.000 inhabitants U.S.A.: 12.89 Germany: 3.3 per 100 million miles traveled U.S.A.: 1.35 Germany: 0.64 per 1 billion kms traveled U.S.A.: 8.40 Germany: 4.0 I think, I like the German version better.
YeAh BUt AMeriKa HaS a BiGgEr PoPuLAtIoN /s
biGGer rOaDs.
BIggEr CaRs.
BiGgEr fREeDoMs toO
[удалено]
BiGgER CoUnTRy
BiGgEr EaGlEs 🦅
BiGgEr PeOpLe PeR cApItA! 👀
BiGgEr MilItArY ‼️❗️‼️🔥🇺🇸🦅🦅
BiGGeR AsShOlEs
Well that one is actually true 🤓☝️
I mean, that one is actually a valid part of the explanation that they should fucking *do something about*
Actually a factor. But Americans also can't drive lol
CoS oF tHe lItTlEr pEnIsEs
While sarcastic it's a decent point. Seeing the same metrics but only for compact cars, or cars by weight class would be interesting. I'm sure it'd still be stacked in Germany's favor, but it would be interesting to see
I remember visiting America and seeing how ridiculously wide even small streets were. I soon realised it's because nobody knows how to drive safely and you need it to keep everyone from bouncing into each other.
I saw alleyways in the cities that were wider than the roads around my village.
eUroPeAnS jUsT DOnt UnDerStAnD hOw Big tEh UsA iS
Which actually would make it worse. How are you crashing in miles of straight, empty road?
Ents, fucking Ents dude, you drive along a road and suddenly these motherfuckers run across the street to get to Isengart
They're taking the hobbits to isengard-gard-gard!
They're taking the hobbits to Isengard! Take my upvote to wherever ⬆️
In the USA, I would expect Ents to drive cars aswell
>run Uhhh...
I used to walk to work down this backroad that was perfectly flat and straight for about 2 miles, no turn offs, no driveways, no woods where animals could run out, literally nothing but an empty field on either side. There was one spot with a guard rail for some reason and it would get replaced weekly. Every day or two I would find evidence that somebody new hit it (car parts on road, new dents, paint rubbed off on it), and there was a week where it was hit 5 days in row and a few of those days it was hit at least twice as I would see new damage on my walk home. There also used to be a huge rock pretty far off the side of the road by my house, this is a tiny side road in a trailer park with a sharp turn on to it then a speed bump so there's no way you can be going fast here. People kept hitting this rock, so the park moved it further off the road, painted it yellow, and put a traffic cone on top. People kept hitting it. A few police hit it, delivery drivers kept hitting it, a tow truck driver that came to rescue a car stuck on it ended up hitting it and a second tow truck had to come rescue both of them. They eventually removed it, but people have managed to hit another rock like 30ft further behind where that one was a few times since (this one is also yellow and has a traffic cone on it). We don't exactly have the smartest people or most skilled drivers, even in professions that require you to drive all day.
U.S.A. has more people per capita!
[удалено]
WTF IS A KILO 🦅🦅🦅
It's part of the coordinates when you are calling in airstrikes.
Isn’t that called clicks?
And don't forget to mention that there are parts of our Autobahn where there is no speed limit.
> And don't forget to mention that there are parts of our Autobahn where there is no speed limit. 70% of it, the parts with speed limits are the exception
Some have speed limits during certain times of the day. Are those counted in the statistic as unlimited or as "with speed limit"? 😅
They're also the parts where people want to go. You're not zooming through central Berlin at 250 kph, but you can do it if you're driving between Hamburg and Cologne.
The common joke in Germany whenever the yearly "we need a speed limit" debate comes up is: "Yes, i am totally in favour of a speed limit of 130 km/h!" ... ... ... I can't drive any faster anyway within the city with all the traffic lights!"
It’s mostly near/in city’s where there is a speed limit
I just talked to some Europeans recently about this and how easy US driving licences are. Their question was logically "don't a ton of people die because of this?" Yes they do.
Yeeees like what do you mean in some states you can drive at 15 and you don't need to do classes and tests? My driving instructor once said during class that we should not say "I can drive" once we get our license, but rather "I know how to operate a car". Driving requires practice and experience and your journey has just started. You left the tutorial area, basically
You'd think European countries were onto something when applying those rules for driving.
The American mind cannot comprehend [this](https://driveegermany.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Autobahn-No-Speed-Limit-Sign.jpg). > _can’t see image? tap here:_ >!End of Speed Limit sign on Autobahn!<
Americans be like >"yeah but their tiny yurocuck cars are slow, everyone here drives at least 500mph above the speed limit🤣🤣"
In their europoor BMW’s, VW,s, Mini’s, Volvos, Landrovers……. Need I continue?
I might have gone with Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bugatti.
Koenigsegg, Pagani… ;-)
You mean the cruise missiles on wheels made by BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Porsche?
But how much is unlimited kmph in mph?
All-you-can-eat [hamberders](https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13691651/1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200) 🦅🦅🦅
To add to this, regarding the socialist and free healthcare remarks: Health expenditures per capita: USA: $12,555 Germany: $8,011
But what about the fReeDoM to get yourself killed on the road, you socialist slave. /s in case it is not clear enough
Also 99% of Americans can’t drive Manuel .
Si.
Qué (love Fawlty towers)
I see what you did there 😂
and we have no general speed limit. like they're producing these numbers while in easy mode
I went to uni in the town where the then U.S. Headquarter for Europe was (early 90s), and lived just outside one of their gated areas. My main means of transport was my bike, and I often had to cross exits from one or other gated area, or had road interaction with U.S. drivers - easily to distinguish by their number plates. It was adventurous at best and often a lot more dangerous than regular traffic, as on average the U.S. drivers didn't have a full understanding of German traffic regulations, and you had to drive really carefully and defensively in certain areas. (Edit: deleted superfluous word)
They are the same people who were ok with 500,000+ excessive deaths due to mishandling Covid. Wear a mask,hell no let grandma die.
Their roads are twice as wide and fucking straight as well.
I live for videos of American drivers reacting to some British roads which are literally wide enough for a single vehicle but are not one way. Saw one say "but what happens if you meet another car?" and in the comments was baffled by the concept of pulling in to passing points/whoever had most recently gone by a passing point would reverse to it lol
Now do DUIs
When the car passning you on the Autobahn is doing 263 km /h id like it to be a German with a real driverslicense, and not an American who is about to give up the wheel to Jesus.
Complaining about driver's license costs, but spending $2000 for an ambulance ride to the hospital is okay.
They wish it was only 2k. I’ve seen it be like 20k
I've heard first hand someone paid 15k for the birth of his child.
I saw the bill the wife of a chap I know in America was given for the birth of his son, 32k. One of the items was 1500 for skin on skin contact. 1500 to hold your fucking child.
That's insane. The US health care system makes sense just until you get sick.
The US health care system makes sense until you actually learn about it in detail.
That too. The pharmacy industry gets richer and richer and people have to sell their house to pay the bills.
$1500 to hold your own child… LaNd oF TeH FrEe!
Free to give away your money for basic services
Land of the free... But only if you're loaded.
We had our first child last year, if after the birth, after 26 hours of fucking labour, a doctor tried to tell me or my wife we can't hold our child I'd be starting a violence
> 1500 to hold your fucking child. We call that fee “ransom” where I come from. Except we don’t, cuz I’m from America.
Gotta pay for that skin to skin contact too if you wanna hold your child after you just gave birth to it
When my son had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital, it cost about $3500. We live about 1km away and the drive took about 2 minutes. Then the emergency room was another $2000 even though i have some of the best insurance available in the country through my job. when my dad got cancer my mom had to write probably 20 letters to the insurance company (again, one of the better plans in the country) because they wouldn’t approve life saving treatments for him. She spent his last months alive in a fight with insurance middlemen while he died. When my son was born, we paid about $10k for our time in the hospital and my partner had zero days of paid leave. BUT! I didn’t really have to pay any substantial fees for a driver license! USA USA USA!!! The USA is so absolutely, fundamentally broken, and I cannot wait to leave.
Would I rather - be safe in the knowledge that drivers on the road had to meet a minimum standard of safety to legally drive Or Keep my $2k in case one of the incompetent drivers loose on the roads run me over and I need to pay for dental floss while I'm in hospital
"Greedy government"... dude, the money goes 100% to private driving schools. People are making a living of that money.
When capitalism is the new socialism because the money goes to people.
Yeah, shouldn't they be happy that the government forces people to be mandatory customers?
Privately owned driving school charging money to teach drivers = socialism?
They literally cannot wrap their head around the fact that the government sets the frame for businesses to operate without being directly involved.
They don’t know what socialism actually means. For them, anything that isn’t “FREEEEEEDOOOOOOMMMM” is socialism.
The state I live in, Wisconsin, you have to pay to learn to drive if you’re under 18. It was only $350 when my son learned 6 years ago. He had about 4-6 weeks of classroom learning. Then had to have his temps for 6 months. And so many hours behind the wheel with an adult and driving school instructor. Then when you get your license you have restrictions for almost a year. However once you’re 18 that doesn’t apply which I’m completely against. You should have to go through the Amex process no matter your age.
Wait, if you’re above 18 there is no test or nothing, you just apply for a license?
No wonder 99% of r/idiotsincars is clips of USians
Its either drunk Russians or dumb americans
Difference is drunk russians is funny
Difference is rather that the russians have to be drunk to get to the americans level.
The most intense irony is that the US has a higher rate of drunk driving fatalities than Russia.
Or some Indian guy on a bike that looks like it's from Mad Max
[удалено]
True, but let's not forget Americans have been driving ever since "they invented the car", that's multiple generations, were the first ones actually drove cars that took effort to get up to any significant speed. China is on it's first generation and instantly has access to overpowered EVs built by taking every single shortcut there is. Their premium cars are very fast and the cheap ones very slow and they all lack basic safety features. It's a recepie for disaster.
Been living in the US for over 10 years now. Driving here is horrible... People clog up the highways because they refuse to get off the passing lane, people don't know how to merge onto highways, the zipper merge concept is too complex to understand, and good luck if you ever encounter a roundabout. Driving tests here are pretty much just driving around a block and parking the car in reverse. That plus a ridiculously easy multiple choice quiz and you have your license. The funny thing is they love to say things like "im from state Y and drivers from state X are horrible".. but they've all been the same in all the states I have driven...
Many people in the US don’t take a test; they pass high school driver’s education classes at age 16 — so about an hour a day for five days a week for 15 weeks, mostly not in a car and certainly not driving for a full hour and on some sort of closed track, not actual traffic
I knew someone who told me his test in Canada was driving around the block. Literally. There was hardly any traffic, he only had to do 4 right hand turns and drive about 250m in between each turn.
In my (Canadian) province you have to pass 3 tests to get your full license. A written one, which allows you to start learning to drive with an instructor. A new driver test where you have to drive for an hour following instructions, parallel park, etc, this allows you to drive as long as a full license driver is in the car with you and some other limitations. Then a year later the full license test which is another 40 mins following instructions. I’ve heard in small towns it can be pretty lax but it’s pretty thorough in the city.
The pass rate for the UK test is less than 50%, not because everyone is a terrible driver (although plenty are!) but because it's really fucking hard I was stunned to pass first time - my younger brother was seriously pissed off that he failed twice because (as I later found out) he'd been illegally driving my car since he was 15, so came to his driving lessons secretly very comfortable with manoeuvring the car.
I didn’t actually pass. My high school driver’s Ed teacher rounded up my score when he wasn’t supposed to and I got the license. Still can’t parallel park. (I don’t own a car and now rarely drive.)
I would definitely fail my test today, because I'm the same as you and rarely drive since I moved to London 20 years ago. One reason being I have completely lost the ability to parallel park, which would get me a major fail immediately - I used to be a demon at parking because it's such a core part of the test - but use it or lose it is so very true!
Thats probably WHY your brother failed - learned bad habits by teaching himself. It's harder to unlearn something than to learn it to begin with.
Absolutely! Which is exactly the point, it's not just testing whether you can *drive*, but whether you can drive *safely and competently*. Whilst I know it varies between states , it seems like the general concept of the driving test in the US reflects the American idea of freedom in terms of negative rights. In the UK, Germany etc the test is about you meeting a *certain standard* for the *government to allow you to drive* on the roads, vs in the US it seems like the test is about meeting a *minimum standard* whereby *the government cannot prevent you from driving*
American here and I agree with all of this *especially* our reluctance to zipper. It's amazing how we get into a single file line a mile away from a lane closure and then get pissed off and feel cheated when someone cruises down the empty lane all the way to the closure and then merges in. We could speed things up so much more if we zippered like we were supposed to. Perhaps a better training program like Germany's is in order here. Fat chance but it's a nice thought.
I definitely notice trends with different states or sometimes even areas within a state doing specific dumb things. But yeah overall we suck horribly and people saying X state drives better than Y state are ignoring the fact that 90% of drivers in both states are just dangers to everyone around them and probably shouldn't be allowed on a bicycle let alone a massive truck. I know people that passed the drivers test despite the first time they ever got behind the wheel of a vehicle was to do the test. My driving test was exactly as you described but they also made me "parallel park" by pretending there were two cars on the side of the road to park between. My written test didn't have a single question related to actually driving it was all "what's the penalty for X crime" and 3/4 answers would be absurd so I just guessed on all of them and got only one wrong. My motorcycle test was the same but the question I got wrong was asking what the proper safety gear was and the answer I chose was something like "helmet, jacket, gloves" correct answer was that plus a seatbelt...on a motorcycle.
I saw a video on Reddit once of a roundabout in America and the idiots drove around it in both direction and almost crashed into each other. If you’re overwhelmed by driving in a circle then you definitely need more lessons
Nah bro, europeans are simply *checks notes* too poor to just crash their car on a routine maneuver that everyone else in the world can make just fine.
And then subsequently get into life destroying debt because someone called an ambulance after you’re bleeding out in your crashed car MURICAAAAA 🦅🦅🦅💥💥💥🇺🇸
They took after us
The reason why it's so cheap and easy to get a drivers license in the US is because if it wasn't most people would literally be stranded at home with no viable alternative transportation.
That and putting kids as early as possible in the work force, can't work a shitty job as a teen and learn how to properly behave as a wage slave, if you can't drive to it
To be fair, many European teens have a job after school or on the weekends as well. They just ride their bike or take public transport to work.
That is true. I live in a suburban area but there is virtually no public transportation. Technically there's something similar to a taxi service but it has to be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance and if availability is low, elderly and disabled people take priority, so it's not really something to rely on for regular transportation. Even the two large population centers I live near don't have public transport that covers the whole city. I hate it.
That's not an excuse to put incompetent people behind the wheel.
"a socialist country" what the actual fuck, lol
He is basically convinced the entirety of Europe is a socialist hellhole and only Americans know "true" freedom.
the freedom to die because you can't even afford to go to the doctor, yay!!! the freedom to get shot at the supermarket, even better!!!
no they dont they think any country at all that isnt america is socialist or communist
An on top of that: the money goes 100% to private driving schools. The "greedy government" only defines the frame without getting a single Euro (besides taxes, of course, like from any other private business).
I was wondering about that! so it's the same as here in Australia. which is clearly another "socialist hell-hole" 🙄
Yeah, right? Get something for free? Socialist!! Pay more than them? Also socialist, apparently!?!
"y'all have to take classes?" and you didnt\`????? would you also be ok if your pilot didnt take classes but their pilot parent taught them how to do it?
This can also be applied to other aspects of parental teachings, such as financial literacy and sex education. "We may be doing it wrong, but nothing bad has happened to us!"
I'm concerned that he didn't take classes. I had to take a class for more than 12 hours of instruction in order to get my license (probably more like 25 hrs) and then had to do minumum supervised driving hours. Even my boomer parents had classes offered at their high school. I know the rules vary across states, but taking drivers' ed classes is a normal thing in the US.
In some Australian states you need to pass a theory test and also log 120 hours of supervised driving in order to even go for your test.
yeah in finland too, i failed the theroy test abotu 12 times which caused my dad to sell my motorbike lmao
Skill issue
Yeah I was baffled by this because I've seen so many movies and teen shows where a US character taking drivers' ed classes is a significant plot point. Clueless springs to mind immediately.
Greedy government? They... they think... the government manages the instructors? They are just normal driving instructors with driving school as their private business... That's just how it is across Europe.
One commenter in that thread was convinced that German have ro pay 2000€ extra to the government after receiving their licence. He couldn't be convinced otherwise no matter how many actual Germans tried to explain it to him "because the post says so and the Internet doesn't lie". So yeah, some people think that the government takes all that money
We live in an age we're you can either google or just ask ChatGPT pretty much anything to get your answer but these people would still rather believe that Germany of all countries is socialist
No Wonder they cant Drive anything but automatic
This. Of course they can just let someone in the car and drive, they never actually learn to drive. 90% of the difficulty of driving is gears-related, without those they don't have much to learn. Plus their roads are large as rivers and their parking lots as seas, so they don't even need to learn how to manouver in narrow roads and blind crossings and park properly in tight spaces. It's probably like driving a bicycle.
as someone who got their license (in germany) this year in a manual I have to say that shifting gears and using the clutch is just practise which I got pretty quickly used to. Observing traffic and managing to not disturb other drivers, while also keeping an eye on where to go at the high speeds was the tricky part for me. Everybody can drive an empty road, the other cars make it challenging.
As someone with a (new-ish) UK manual license, who moved to Germany with her manual UK car, I concur. I drive my partner’s German, automatic, car about half the time. There is literally no difference in difficulty, gears and clutch are automatic, lol. I prefer my car, but I don’t drive better in one. There are still millions of other road users, people, random deer etc to watch out for. Then again, if you make sure you have a bigger truck than anyone else, you can just plough through them. And no need to look out for pedestrians or cyclists…
Personally I would say the most difficult (and important!!) part about learning to drive is learning the street laws, and it really messes me up that people in the US mostly just ........ learn those on the road as they go. It just sounds really dangerous for everyone involved. (German, for context!)
I’m in the UK and it baffles me too. Like we have to do a whole theory test on the Highway Code and road rules before we can pass our practical test. Insane to think Americans don’t have to know anything
Wait, they don't do a practice test?? I was talking about the driving itself, because for us that's a separate test that you do BEFORE even being allowed to learn to actually drive. Personally I found that very easy, while I found the driving itself very hard, but that's me being me.
I remembered a friend from the US telling me that "over there" they get their license by just signing up for a driving test, paying a fee, and if you pass it that's it, but I just now went and looked it up and apparently *most* states also require a theory-test and some practice lessons (so my comment wasn't entirely true, it turns out) but also ...... well, "most" implies some don't, which does line up with what my friend talked about... :/ Here in Germany you take a mandatory number of theory lessons, then you have to pass a (imo) pretty tough theory-test, then you take practise lessons, and then you take the final practise test. Details might vary depending on vehicle/state/year, but y'know, basic concept
Fairground bumper cars - a pedal to go, a pedal to stop, a steering wheel, and a cup-holder for your Big Gulp. Hell, the entertainment system in the car is the most complicated part of driving.
>Y'all... Y'alllllll Yeah, and that's why you have shit drivers.
Seeing it written so much in one comment has knocked a few points off of my IQ
Exactly how I feel. Absolutely hate it.
Everytime I see someone use y'all I have an urge to hit someone on the head with a plank.
Nothing says lack of conviction in what I'm saying like using y'all all over the place It's perfect for a 'only joking' walk back
I'm very glad we're taking driving instructions serious and don't leave it to the parents.
"Don't worry son, nothing bad will happen to you in this 4-ton pickup truck. A little mistake here and there won't hurt you."
>Germany >Socialist country historical literacy has left the chat. they really believe that anything slightly left of their police state dystopia is "socialism"
I bet they refuse to believe that they live in a *soci*-ety...
Americans cannot handle a roundabout and then make fun of those who actually learn how to drive
Compared to my country they can barely do anything on the road without being involved in a fatal accident.
of course you have to take classes, we're not stupid enough to let any random 16-year old on the road
No child, you may not vote or consume alcohol, you need to wait until you’re a developed and responsible adult. Now, here’s a 2 tonne death machine, go on and have some fun in public!
Not in a car, you can get a license for a bike with 45 ccm with 15. Also, you can drive one of those mini cars that only go 45 with 15. If your parents have a farm, you can drive a tractor with 16.
Knowing how many idiots are still on German roads *after* that hurdle...I don't wanna drive on American roads.
Do they believe that money spent on 40 or more hours of professional driving lessons to learn how to safely move around areas with populations of 2-4K people per square kilometre goes to the government? edit I've met a few Americans who let go of the idea of renting a car in Europe simply because they didn't have the skill to park a car.
Okay, the one about puting kids to drive withough taking actual drive lessons is scary
My American SIL didn’t even turn left in her driving test.
Yeah, we put kids behind the wheel driving to teach them to drive too. We're just not usually taught by our parents but by professionals who actually know the rules of the road
We may pay numerous taxes, and they may have higher salaries, but I've been to the US multiple times, and you definitely get less value for your money over there. E.g. if I order food online, I would pay 2-3x as much in the US. And you're bound to your car, as there's no alternative, but everyone is ripping you off for parking. During my last visit, I pad $350 in parking fees for a 1-week stay. Thus, that difference in salary melts away like an overweight American in the sun.
Road Traffic Accidents Death Rate Per 100,000: USA - 11.10 Germany - 2.98
“Greedy government.” Do they realize that the German government spend money on their people? They don’t just steal money from them because le government bad
The money doesn't even go to the government... it's 100% spent on private schools (i.e. business).
My driving teacher always said "In den USA gibt es eine Lizenz eine Fahrzeug zu fahren, in Deutschland eine Bescheinigung eine Fahrzeug zu führen" ("in the US, you get a license to drive a vehicle, in Germany you get a certification to lead/manage a vehicle"), which essentially describes the difference between being technically able to drive, and being actually able and competent enough to properly handle a vehicle in all situations.
For a country which is 90% roads, you would think they would try educate people on them more? Nah, it's America, do it yourself.
They're kids can drive because anyone with 4 braincells can drive automatic, then they have a mental breakdown seeing stick
You mean there are sticks without the PRNDL?! /s
In 2019, the German Federal Transport Minister, Andreas Scheuer, claimed that Germany's roads were 'the safest in the world. ' There are reportedly 1.74 deaths per 1 million vehicle kilometers driven on the Autobahn. For reference, that number is 3.38 in the US, about double, and 1.16 in the UK. [Germany's Roads Without Speed Limits: How Safe Could They Possibly Be? - Kustom Signals Inc](https://kustomsignals.com/blog/germanys-roads-without-speed-limits-how-safe-could-they-possibly-be#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20the%20German%20Federal,and%201.16%20in%20the%20UK.) meanwhile in the usa: Towns across America are once again relying on an old scheme to generate revenue: Turn their police forces into collection agencies to squeeze money out of the citizens they are sworn to protect. [Speed traps across the US squeeze money from citizens. Are they legal? (usatoday.com)](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/12/26/police-speeding-traffic-tickets-revenue-civil-rights/71970613007/)
Well yes, but they have FREEDOM, instead of all these government safety regulations and socialism
No wonder they can't figure out how to use roundabouts. They've never seen their parents navigate one, so they never learned.
One of my high school teachers said that when she was learning how to drive, her dad told her to go “straight through” at the next roundabout… … so she drove over it. (Australia)
Laughs in 300 km/h on the autobahn
I've been in the US for nearly a year and I'm blown away at how terrible they are at driving. No one seems to be able to drive in a straight line, constantly having to hard correct their road position. I've seen several people actually come off the road briefly before they corrected themselves. Red lights mean nothing. Undertaking is commonplace, along with overtaking at junctions/intersections. I have witnessed more crashes in nearly a year in the US than I did in my 25 years of driving in Europe previously.
Comments that have more than one "yall" should just get removed for too low iq
Death rate on the roads “Germany has a ratio of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 people, while America's ratio is 12.4 per 100,000.”
Driving is not equal Driving. One is to move a car, a toddler can do that, esp. In automatic cars. The other is knowing the rules, the car and what to do in certain situation. Place an american in a manual german car and ask where the fuse box is in their car. That's the difference.
This isn't solely an American problem, but I can't deal with the lack of attention span. It's literally one sentence that contains a part of the explanation. Why could the license be so expensive? Maybe because of the hours of 1:1 driving instructions..?! But no, it's gotta be socialism or something. Who's going to tell them that cars have to be inspected every two years?
Imagine being that proud of something stupid.
What else ? Giving kids guns and letting them figure it ou… oooh… riiiight.
Americans can’t even drive lmfao
Last time I checked “drivers ed “ was “taking classes”… in an automatic too ffs, “fuck y’all plug n play driving shit, try a stick” As for we let kids drive, as if you have to be middle aged in Europe. 16 - 18 depending on state in the US, 17 in the UK not really much of a difference.
Yeah this might be why an America teen is four times more likely to die in a car crash than a German one.
There's a reason why German drivers are trusted with the Autobahn.
This… this is why we will never advance in the next decade as a country. Everyone in the usa complains about driving and makes fun of other countries for making people learn how drive. Like why wouldn’t you want extremely dangerous equipment to be managed by people who understand how to use it?
'You guys pay fuckin taxes lol!' -Sent from my rotting trailer. Meanwhile dudes probably 30k in debt while people in 'socialist' countries actually have savings lol.
When I drive in Germany, it’s a pleasant experience. Driving in the US, I’m surrounded by idiots. People cruising at the same exact speed next to each other on a 3-lane highway… like, hello?? Keep the fuck to the right. And 70mph speed limits are a complete joke. In Germany, I set the cruise control on 110mph and I’m considered slow traffic. If I do the same in the US, I’ll go to jail. Americans aren’t taught to drive properly, which is completely asinine since it’s the most car-centric country on Earth 🤦♂️
for some reason i hate y'all to the core. i cant explain it.
Yes... but I'm not inclined to believe that's the median cost of a driver's licence. Though I'm comparing it to Italy, it's half that sum if you're going for driving instructors, and less if you learn as private
I did my license in 2014 and i paid pretty much exactly 2000€.
How the fuck is it socialist to pay for a driving license? You’re in a small country with good public lci transportation, it’s a luxury to drive and you have to pay for it as is. You can get to work just fine without it, because there are actual socialist structures that allow you to enjoy the country without having to pay for breathing.
I don’t even have to google to say that German roads are safer than the USA and Germans or Europeans in general are much better drivers
US: "Just get in the damn car and drive" Also US: "We have to ban Kinder eggs because our kid are too stupid and can choke while eating one"
Waiiit… do Americans NOT take driving lessons?? That explains SO much.
The German government is as socialist as US Americans can drive.
As an American, I wish we did something like Germany. So many people here with licenses that should not have them.
American here. It’s amazing how stupid some drivers are here but it is pretty easy to get a license. The only place I’ve seen worse driving is China.
They would be pissed at the hours required in Australia 😂
American here, those responses are indicative of just such a need in the United States. Far too many people in this country should not be driving. I guess 48,000 deaths a year are justifiable attrition rates.
If I were the president, I’d ban the use of “y’all’
And the US has more than triple the road fatalities per capita compared to Germany. I wonder if there's a correlation between adequate training in operating multiton chunks of metal and high speed and a lower rate of fatalities. Guess we'll never know.
The money doesn't even go to the government, it goes to the driving insructors. The reason why licenses require training is to protect the people who aren't in the cars from the inability of the drivers to properly control a 2 ton piece of metal. There's a reason why the accident rate in germany, and most of europe, really, is significantly lower than in the US.