Learning to Drive. Again.

Any non-US citizen with a valid home country driving licence has 60 days from entering the state with which to get their Minnesota licence. Unfortunately, this is done by taking a full written and practical driving test…

With my hopes of simply showing my UK licence and swapping it for a local one dashed, my first task was to read the Minnesota Drivers Handbook to revise for the written test.

I have driven since the first week or so of arriving in the States, so have a fair idea of the rules of the road, but there are still quite a few differences between US and UK driving (as well as Minnesota state driving laws.) Thankfully these are all in the handbook. All 102 pages of it.

One of the biggest differences – aside from driving on the right (which takes all of an hour to get acclimatised to, if that) – is the ability to turn right even if a traffic light is red. The idea being that there are so many intersections with stop lights, if there are no cars around, why wait if it is clear?

In reality, there is a bit more to it. Not only do you have to check that there is no traffic coming along the road you are joining, but also that nothing is going to be coming across from the road opposite, that there are no pedestrians about to cross your path, and also nobody crossing on the road you want to turn into. By the time I have checked all of this, often the light is green anyway and everyone is wondering why I haven’t started moving…

4 way stops are another quirk. At a crossroads with stop signs on all sides, if there are several cars approaching then whoever gets there first has priority. It makes sense in theory, but in practice that means having to pay attention to when everyone else gets there, and your place in the order… When in doubt give way to the right, but every time I see one I just think it is crying out for a mini roundabout!

Parking on a hill can be tricky to get right. If you are parking uphill and there is a curb, turn the wheels to the left, if there isn’t a curb then turn them to the right. If parking downhill then park to the right no matter what… I think I will stick to parking on the flat.

Most things are very similar to the UK, even if they have different names. My favourite of these is a lorry’s blind spots – known over here as No Zones. Not only is No Zone a wonderfully to the point descriptive term, but it is memorable because of this COMPLETELY GENUINE driver’s ed video…

Quite magnificent.

The written test comprises a maximum of 40 questions, and 32 correct answers are needed to pass. Most of the questions are common sense, with a few more specific ones, and I managed to pass without needing the full 40 questions (they stop the test once 32 have been answered correctly).

As for the practical test, again it is very similar to the UK one. There is a 90 degree park, a parallel park and a park on a hill. Otherwise it is general driving around town.

I passed that this morning so I can now officially say I have a Minnesota driving licence (even if currently it is a temporary licence on a piece of yellow paper…) Hopefully I will get my proper card in the mail soon, mainly so that when I am asked for ID in bars I won’t have to explain where my date of birth is!