Driving

I got my first driving license 23 years ago in China after I graduated. All procedures were quite simple then. I got training in a certificated driving school for about 1 month as required. After then I finished a written test which focused on how did the applicant know the traffic laws and regulations. Then I got into the road test in which there were several compulsory actions which had to be done. The test result was totally decided by the examiner or his mood who was known by all applicants long before tests. As you know, quite a lot of examinees worked on it. I didn’t, but fortunately I passed at the first attempt as most of us did. After that, I drove my car on roads without much traffic and trouble.

After about 10 years later, more and more new testing detail rules and lasted technology came out. For example, examiners were randomly dispatched to examinees before they knew each other. ID card readers and face recognition cameras were used in the training and testing to ensure every student attending enough training and prevent examinees from masquerading. GPS and inertial monitors were used in testing cars to report in if the examinee finished precisely the required reversing action without a pause in the middle while infrared ray monitoring kept working on detecting if an over-line action happened around the reversing parking lot box drawing on the ground. These methods decreased greatly the impact of the examiner to the test result. Accordingly, the testing passing rate has dropped sharply to 50% or lower. Accompanied with more and more cars and roads came out, so plenty of cameras appeared all over the streets and highways that most of drivers were fined for all kinds of violations and a low serious traffic criminal rate was kept surprisingly like car-lost and traffic accidents caused by over-speed driving.

I got my Canadian driver’s license last fall. The written part is formally a little similar to that in China except of the laws and regulations which are very different. There’re few cameras on suburbs and highway roads. Most vehicles run courteously and defensively for the efficient rues of mutual supervision and avoidance. I made a few mistakes following my old driving habits when I firstly drove alone and was navigated to strange roads, and all vehicles around beeped to me which really impressed me and I thought I would never make that kind of mistakes again. After all, I really enjoy driving here.