Norman Knight: Driving is a privilege, not a right

Our oldest grandkid, Atticus, texted us the news that he passed his driving test.

He seemed excited when we talked on the phone, but he is a teenager, after all, and sometimes it is hard to tell. I wanted to add that I assume he used his turn signal as he was passing the test, but there is a time for lame grandpa jokes and this wasn’t it.

“Driving is a privilege, not a right,” was one of the mantras we sixteen-year-old hopefuls heard again and again as we went through the various rituals to attain our own personal piece of laminated government paper. That was such a long time ago. The various tests and practices we went through back then were different, in some ways, but the concepts and goals are the same today: be knowledgeable, be safe and be aware.

Atticus told me about the many classroom lessons he had to take. He took them online, of course, because that is the way things are done now. When I asked him what was one of the best things about this experience, he said finishing those classes. I can relate to that. Seems kind of lonely and probably a bit boring.

Too bad he didn’t have the chance to crowd together in a stuffy school auditorium with other 15- and 16-year-old classmates and listen to teachers (seems like they were always coaches) go through the rules and regulations — rules and regulations we could find in the booklets provided to us by the state of Indiana. The instructions and training I received were taught as a summer school class through my high school. If you had to be in school in the summer, driver’s ed. was a tolerable way to do it. I am sure there are lots of reasons — money, insurance, legal, etc. — why public schools don’t offer driver’s ed. anymore.

It was nice practice, driving in warm weather. I was in a car with three other students and the teacher/coach. We went in the car several times. I think teacher/coach let us put the windows down once or twice. We could talk, but not to the distraction of the driver.

Atticus took his in-person driving test with only an instructor in the car. He said his driving test went well except for his trip through a roundabout. As he was approaching the entrance to the roundabout, carefully keeping his eye on a car already going around, a car came charging up from behind and sped around in front of him. “My car had signs that said, ‘Student Driver,’ on all sides and he just ignored those,” he said in a can-you-believe-it voice. I did not say, “Yes, I believe it. Not surprised at all. Those are the unexpected situations we drivers are warned to constantly anticipate.”

I did ask him if he was driving in Carmel when this happened. “Yes,” he said. “How did you know?” I wasn’t meaning to make unfair criticisms of Carmel drivers. I just heard the word “roundabout” and assumed it was Carmel and explained the city is known for its roundabouts. I considered it a sociology lesson about our local driving culture.

Although he has passed the written and in-person driving tests, he has yet to complete and log 50 hours of driving with another adult in the car. Ten of those hours must be at night. As I say, it was a long time ago, but I don’t remember a specific legal expectation that I was to drive with an adult at night.

I do remember mom being pleased that I could now run errands and taxi my siblings here and there. My picking up some of the driving chores would relieve her of a tiny bit of the constant busyness that it is to have five kids. At first, I was excited to have driving duties. But I was a teenager, and I am sure, sometimes it was hard to tell.