Results from a survey Carinsurance.com conducted involving 500 licensed drivers ages 18 and up show that many of them can’t pass a test on basic rules of the road. The most missed questions — all of which were taken from state DMV practice tests — related to pedestrians and school buses.
The average score was 75 percent on the driver’s quiz CarInsurance.com used in its research. Forty-four percent of the 500 drivers who answered 20 questions scored lower than 80 percent, which is the passing grade in most states.
“The rules of the road are meant to reduce uncertainty and risk,” said Des Toups, managing editor of CarInsurance.com. “All you have to do is meet another car at a four-way stop to know that most of us leave a lot of that knowledge behind at the DMV.”
More than two-thirds of respondents (68 percent) missed this question: You are approaching a school bus that has stopped on the other side of a divided highway. (1) Stop and wait for it to load or unload children; (2) Stop, check for children, then proceed; (3) Stop and wait until the flashing red lights go off; or (4) Watch for children and be ready to stop. The correct answer is No. 4.
Additionally, 58 percent missed this question: Give the right of way to any pedestrian who is: (1) In a marked crosswalk, (2) In any crosswalk or intersection, (3) Crossing any street. The correct answer is No. 3.
“[W]e’ve got some work to do … Not knowing the rules means you spend your time behind the wheel offended or unsure, and neither of those is very safe or productive,” Toups noted.
Speaking of unsafe driving, researchers from Oregon and Portland state universities recently reported that pedestrians are more at risk when drivers are making left turns. They found that motorists performing “permitted” left turns are up to 9 percent more likely to not look for pedestrians in marked crosswalks compared to motorists who are making “protected” left turns.
Experience and Gender Count
On Carinsurance.com’s quiz, women scored 78 percent on average, compared with 71 percent for men. Also, experience makes a difference, as respondents older than 40 years of age scored about 79 percent while those younger than 40 got about 67 percent correct. Only three drivers out of 500 scored 100 percent: two women (aged 30 and 51) and one man (aged 64). The full article about results is available on the Carinsurance.com website.
In the past decade, graduated driver licensing systems have changed the way teen drivers nationwide get their licenses, but the test itself has essentially remained the same. A 2011 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report called the overall testing process “weak,” especially compared to other countries’ driver’s tests.
Despite the somewhat simple tests, U.S. failure rates are considered high based on data NHTSA collected from the reporting 13 states. Missouri recorded a 61.4 percent failure rate on the test’s written portion, Mississippi was a close second at 60 percent and Florida made the top three with 58.1 percent.
