Driver’s License, Why Do We Still Need It?
A driver’s license use to mean something, now days it is just another way the states, police, insurance companies and the local governments take our money to pay for their short-comings & income. Yeah, I said it!
Don’t get me wrong on this issue, anyone who drives a commercial vehicle should always have the driver license to do so. But for the general public, what’s the point? If you have spent any amount of time driving on the roads you know that most people behind the wheel weather licensed or not are breaking the law everyday. texting, talking on the cellphones, speeding, not using blinkers and anything else except driving safely. To me it is a miracle that more people are not killed on the roads.
Here some of the most common driving offenses: (source The Law Handbook)
- Speeding
- Drink-driving offences
- Penalties for blood alcohol offences
- Drug-driving offences
- Driving while disqualified
- Unlicensed driving
- Dangerous driving
- Careless driving
- Other offences requiring licence disqualification
- All of these involve people paying a lot of money for something that we never use to charge for, what do you think cowboys did back in the day, get a special permit for riding their horse?
Up until the start of the 20th century, European authorities issued driver’s licences similarly ad hoc, if at all.[1] The first locality to require a mandatory driving licence and testing was Prussia, on 29 September 1903. The Dampfkesselüberwachungsverein (“steam boiler supervision association”) was charged with conducting the tests, which were mainly concerned with the drivers’ mechanical aptitude.[1] In 1910, the German imperial government mandated the licensing of drivers on a national scale, establishing a system of tests and driver’s education requirements that would serve as a model for the licensing laws of other countries.[1] Other countries in Europe also introduced driving tests during the twentieth century, the last of then being Belgium where, until 1977, it was possible to purchase and hold a driving license without having to undergo a driving test.[2]
As automobile-related fatalities soared in North America, public outcry provoked legislators to begin studying the French and German statutes as models.[3] On August 1, 1910, North America’s first driver’s licensing law went into effect in the U.S. state of New York, though it initially applied only to professional chauffeurs.[4] In July 1913, the state of New Jersey became the first to require all drivers to pass a mandatory examination before receiving a license.[5] (Source: Wikipedia)
- Now lets look at current day, you can’t get around without a car because the automotive industries have our local and federal governments to build some many roadways that there is no place or way to make trails or walkways for people who would like to exercise the right to use alternative means of transportation such as bicycles, skates, skate-boards, roller blades or just walking.
- The facts speak for themselves: NHTSA We need to focus on solutions that don’t cost people money or affects their livelihood, it should a conditional right to own and drive a car, if you present a danger to others or yourself while driving it should be address on an individual bases.
- Drivers are more distracted and dangerous than ever on the roads with all the new hi-tech gadets and faster vehicles being made by automakers, drivers are focused on driving and from what I ahve witnessed on the roadways most don’t understand the most basic rules of driving. So, I ask you how did they get a driver’s license? or pass a driver’s test? The majority of people driving don’t event understand the basic right of way rules at an intersection.
- Should We Do Away With Basic Driver's Licesne To The General Public?
