America Needs More Types Of Driver's Licenses, Not Just Better Driver's Ed

As an auto journalist, I have more track experience than at least 99% of U.S. drivers, due purely to the fact that I've been on the track at all. In fact, I usually get out there at least a couple of times a year. Your average enthusiast probably doesn't do that, and your average driver in the U.S. definitely doesn't. Most recently, Michelin invited me to attend the AMG Experience at Road Atlanta — sorry, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta — and while several folks there definitely knew what they were doing, let's just say I left even more convinced that America needs different tiers of drivers' licenses. 

Not everyone who buys an AMG necessarily plans to flog it like a race car, but still, it was remarkable watching a few people struggle to do what the instructor was telling them, much less turn in a quick-ish lap time. At an event they were attending because they'd recently bought a new AMG. Wealthy, older men buying cars with capabilities that exceed their driving skills isn't anything new, and that experience could have gotten several of them hooked on real driving. Besides, it's not like younger enthusiasts don't love buying performance cars they can't handle, too. I honestly wish they didn't, if only so every Cars & Coffee wasn't 65% jokes about the Ford Mustang.

In some ways, it's cool that you can pretty much buy any car you want as long as you have a license or permit and the money for it, but we can all think of at least a few downsides to that system. College kids can afford Dodge Chargers with V8s. High school sophomores with budgets that barely cover cars that run, drive, and start almost every time can just buy heavily depreciated liter bikes instead. And there's nothing stopping your clumsiest, most scatterbrained buddy from buying a Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD. But things could be different if the U.S. required people to get different licenses in order to drive different vehicles.

While most people probably assume a basic U.S. driver's license lets them drive anything they want, that's definitely not true. You can't drive a tractor-trailer without a commercial driver's license, and if you want a motorcycle, you have to get a motorcycle license. Technically, you don't need a license to drive either on private land, but we're talking about public roads here. You know, the roads where you might hurt my nieces and nephews if you crash like an idiot.

America's a big country, so a few folks will probably argue that anyone should be able to drive a big rig or a motorcycle if they want, without any government interference and licensing. They probably also think every road should be a toll road because they're all operated by private companies, and they really don't want you checking their browser histories. Creepy internet weirdos aside, though, the rest of us can probably all agree it makes sense that riding a motorcycle is a different skill than driving, and driving a giant truck towing a heavy load isn't quite the same as driving a Honda Civic to Popeyes. Different types of vehicles require different skills, and testing those skills means different licenses.

No matter how long you've driven a car, you're no closer to knowing how to ride a motorcycle than anyone with less driving experience. And while another driver could probably get a Silverado 3500 going no problem, do they know how to turn with a 30,000 pound trailer? Can they recover safely if the trailer starts to lean a little too much? Would you trust a high schooler to do either, even if they've watched their parents do both for years? Of course not. We test different skills and hand out different licenses because it keeps you, me, and our loved ones safer. And while we can't account for everything, it at least makes sense to put some guardrails up. 

I'm just spitballing here, so don't get too hung up in the specifics, but what about a second motorcycle license for anything over 500cc? A license that slots below the CDL for anyone who wants to tow more than, say, a few thousand pounds? Oh, and if it runs the Nürburgring in less than 8:30, you should probably get a special license for that, too. I also love the idea of a medium-speed license that lets you drive Medium-Speed Vehicles, affordable cars that are more substantial than the Fiat Topolino and capable of, say, 45 mph (compared to some previous suggestions, I'm being generous).

The tests would have to be hard enough that passing would require demonstrating real skill, and experts should probably fine-tune my ideas, but they at least have potential. And that's just the beginning. We could add even more licenses, and they don't necessarily have to involve driving skills. Maybe if you want to drive a vintage car, you have to sit through a bunch of videos showing all the ways cutting corners and shoddy work can come back to bite you (followed, of course, by an hour of crash videos showing vintage cars being destroyed by modern vehicles). Normies would probably get scared off, but true enthusiasts would love spending a few hours watching idiots' mistakes come back to bite them and some cool crash videos. 

Then again, you could also argue that a vintage car license should require a driving skills class, since they don't handle the same as modern cars. Imagine hopping out of a modern Miata with power steering, hydraulic disc brakes, ABS, traction control, stability control, etc. and getting into a 1965 Ford Mustang that doesn't have power steering or power brakes. It would probably be a good idea to learn what you're doing before you spin out after getting caught in a surprise thunderstorm. Again, though, I'm just the ideas guy. 

Regardless of how many licenses we ultimately agree on, it's clear the U.S. would benefit from having more of them. We see people driving cars they have no idea how to handle all the time. We see the crashes on the news. You read about some of the crashes here. You're tired of me linking to the post about how driving is getting safer in every other developed country except the U.S. No idea is perfect, but it would at least make our roads safer at the cost of a few more DMV employees at every office. That sure doesn't sound like a bad tradeoff to me.