BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I saw the article in the PG. While there isn't really a happy outcome in a situation like this, to me it seems that justice has prevailed.

The biggest issue from all this was that someone with voices in their head was able to maintain a driver's license. I remember when I was 16, all the practice my parents had me do to get ready for my driving test, e.g., turn signals 100 feet before a turn, proper zipper merging, maintaining the speed limit, etc. Then when it came to my test at the Penn Hills DMV, what was I required to do? Drive around a parking lot at 15 mph and then parallel park. We need stricter and periodic (every 5 years?) driving testing.

What I would do: At initial licensing: * Replace the 18-question written exam with 150 questions * Each of those questions has multiple-choice answers with different weights given for the various answers * Modify the scoring, with 5 points for a correct answer, 1 point for a half-right answer, 0 points for a wrong answer, and a negative value for an answer that is badly wrong. * More than 5 badly wrong answers is an automatic fail * Otherwise attain some minimum score * Add a third testing component, to spend 15 minutes in a simulator, seeing how you respond to various situations At renewal: * 25-question written test, similar to the one above, focusing on changes in vehicle code in the past few years * Random 1 in 40 chance of being given the 150-question exam, if have not already taken it After amassing [pick a number, say eight] infraction points: * Mandatory taking the 150-question exam That's for starters.

@Stu: don't forget to up the license fee a significant amount, in order to cover the increased testing costs...from the $35 it is now to, say, $75 or $100. I think the privilege to drive for four years should probably cost more than does a new game for the Xbox.

Our DMV can't even figure out how to allow licenses to be renewed without showing up with a piece of cardboard, don't have much hope for them to implement anything policy wise. Have to drastically improve the efficiency (or manpower) of the organization before I'd add more workload to what they're already doing

Having recently renewed my car's registration, it has struck me as absurd that (1) the fine for littering along a roadway is some twenty times the fine for deliberately endangering another human's life; (2) drivers are required to attest, each and every year they own a vehicle, that they have read and understood not any of the various laws and regulations about operating a large piece of mechanical equipment in a space occupied by other humans, but only the single statute that relates to the littering fine.