For those that like pictures better than text, I'll tell the funny part of story first. For the rest, read on and hope you like my take on Dutch driving...
My driving teacher Jasmine
Here, you take the exam in a driving school car, picked up at your house by your driving teacher. I thought my exam was on Thursday, so stayed up late Monday night watching TV. I was awoken on Tuesday at 8:15 am by my driving instructor, and stumbled to the door...she said "Its TODAY, not Thursday at 9:00 am!!!" Luckily, they book an hour before the test to practice drive. I dressed and ran to the car in 3 minutes flat, and the benefit was I did not have time to get nervous. Good thing I don’t need my morning coffee to wake up, the adrenaline jolt was all I needed! Oh, funny side note - Dutch cars are the size of Dutch people, so I sit on a 5 inch thick sofa cushion to see over the dashboard! Well, it all came out well in the end and license obtained (big, huge sigh of relief)
In the US, the reaction is "Great, now you've got wheels". In the Netherlands, even complete strangers give you a "Wow, congratulations, that’s a real accomplishment!". The average fail rate for first time exam takers is over 60%, and some take as many as 4 tries to get the license. For yours truly, it was 2 tries.
Student car with huge warning sign (STUDENT DRIVER!)
Yes, I know I've been driving in the US for over 15 years...but not it a stick shift, and NOT with Dutch driving rules. I had to learn to not sit and wait for the car to shift gears for me, and not to stall the car by shifting to slow/fast/not right gear. Dutch way, I had lessons with a teacher who has a set of pedals on the passenger side of car, and huge letter "L" for learner on top of car (talk of Scarlet Letters!). The Dutch have about 3 times as many signs posted on roads, round abouts, and some pretty weird (to me) driving rules.
Old mode of transport - my Bike!
My exam was in English, great thing as Dutch have totally different words for driving maneuvers. “Invoerg strook” means “acceleration lane” , and some other really funky ones! On the exam, as in the US, I had to do the usual stop sign, turn left, turn right, parallel park. But the fun was just starting. I also had to do a "Hellings Proef" - stop the car on a sloping hill, turn of motor, then restart car without stalling or sliding backwards with hand break (not foot break). Also, entering the freeway - where you have an acceleration where you have to go from about 15 MPH to 65 MPH in about 10 seconds or less, then merge into very aggressive traffic who don’t want to let you in. I failed on my first exam for not speeding up enough. You also have to deal with kamikaze bikes all over the Dutch roads (and horses, and a tractor or 2 even!). On the second exam, I did everything safely and without error, but was still told "you are too cautious, but I'll pass you anyways".
1 comment:
Wow, has it been that long already? Happy anniversary!
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