Althouse: Maryland gives up on requiring parallel parking in the driver's license test.

May 21, 2015

Maryland gives up on requiring parallel parking in the driver's license test.

The government asserts that it eliminated this part of the test because of "redundancy."

39 comments:

Phil 314 said...: Now that the cars have figured it out.; 5/21/15, 7:20 AM
Michael K said...: Eleanor Holmes Norton hasn't figured out any parking. Hillary doesn't have to. She has servants for that,; 5/21/15, 7:29 AM
traditionalguy said...: One in a hundred ever learned how to do it right anyway.; 5/21/15, 7:29 AM
paminwi said...: It's why I failed my first test. I was trying to parallel park a Pontiac Bonneville!; 5/21/15, 7:31 AM
Etienne said...: I took my first driving test in a 1957 Desoto. On the way to the test, my dad had me stop three times and parallel park. I did it with ease.

I begin the driving test and the man says parallel park right up here. I fail. Oh crap!

The man said, forget about it, I couldn't parallel park in this tank either. I was going to say I've done it a lot, but thought that information would be redundant.

Just some historical data for the people possibly upset about this.; 5/21/15, 7:37 AM
Curious George said...: I just squeezed into a very tight space in Milwaukee the other day. I was both quite surprised and proud.; 5/21/15, 7:40 AM
rhhardin said...: It's been at least a couple of decades since I've parallel parked, but that's rural Ohio.; 5/21/15, 7:44 AM
tim maguire said...: Parallel parking is redundant? Does it appear again in another test?; 5/21/15, 7:52 AM
tim maguire said...: My wife can parallel park cleanly in a space only a couple feet longer than the car, but give her lots of extra room and she's lost.; 5/21/15, 7:53 AM
Tank said...: Sometimes in NYC the spot is not big enough, so you have to make it bigger. I did this while driving Mrs. Tank's car once when we were running late for a concert; I can still hear her screaming.

It helps if you are driving a tank-like vehicle.

I don't recommend this strategy for use while taking your driver's test.; 5/21/15, 7:55 AM
Scott M said...: Up next, Maryland will discontinue requiring EMT's and RN's to prove they can tap a vein because it's icky.; 5/21/15, 8:05 AM
Deirdre Mundy said...: Can this be retroactive?

I've always had an asterix after my license (in my head). I failed multiple times, I was leaving for college, and I couldn't parallel park. So... I cried. And I swore. And I promised that I would never paralell park. That I would take the train into the city, that if I found myself driving in a city, I'd pay for the garage, that I'd make a friend park for me.

So, he caved to my tears and passed me.

And I grew up, avoid parking in cities, (unless there are 2 parallel spaces next to each other so I can just drive in), and married a man who can park and will do it for me.

But now, I can hold my head up and work with pride, because it turns out I didn't cheat after all! I was just forward thinking.....; 5/21/15, 8:10 AM
MadisonMan said...: I solve the problem by driving a beat-up 1973 Chrysler New Yorker. When I start the parallel parking process, Prius/SmartCar/Outback owners come running to move their cars out of harm's way.; 5/21/15, 8:13 AM
Tank said...: You're ready for NYC MM. Only no one is moving their car, you have to help yourself.; 5/21/15, 8:18 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: I've been told that a woman can tell a lot about a man by how he parallel parks.

Does he ease past the spot with a confident, assured manner, before sliding gracefully back into the awaiting space with a sensuous turn of the wheel? Are his wheels parked in that perfect space in relation to the curb? Does he let the car idle a moment before turning off the engine, secure in putting it in the right place in all the right ways?

Or does he white-knuckle a fit of jerking actions into an awkward angle while cluelessly bumping into the curb? Does he get out of the car to inspect his results, hoping that it will suffice?

Chicks notice these things, and I notice them noticing them.

I am Laslo.; 5/21/15, 8:29 AM
CStanley said...: In my case the redundancy was that my Dad wouldn't have let me take the test if I hadn't demonstrated proficiency to him first- which included parallel parking, changing a tire, checking oil and knowing other basic mechanic checks like looking at the belts, battery cables, and radiator. Plus, the trick he taught me about flipping on the cabin heat if the car starts to overheat came in handy later- cooled the engine right down so I could get to the next exit ramp off the interstate.; 5/21/15, 8:39 AM
Peter said...: If you want to be tough, make 'em parallel park on a steep hill in a stick-shift vehicle?

In any case, driving tests in the USA have never been very tough, and no reasonable person would reasonably expect a newly licensed driver to be able to handle truly difficult driving situations.

The assumptions seem to be that practically anyone should be able to get a license, and drivers will self-limit their driving to stay within their comfort zones.; 5/21/15, 8:48 AM
Original Mike said...: I've always found parallel parking easy; you just need an algorithm.

1). Pull along side the car with your back end even with his ...; 5/21/15, 8:59 AM
Jay Vogt said...: Globally referenced, Americans are about average in their driving education and consequently their skill. Germany, France and Sweden are noticeably better. They take real pride in it, and don't suffer fools kindly.

I've wondered why we don't up our game in driver education and training. It would seem to me to that the return (safety/$ invested) would exceed many of the tech fixes that we deploy such as airbags, traffic cams and maybe even anti-lock breaks.; 5/21/15, 9:21 AM
MikeR said...: Huh. My son had his driving test in Maryland two weeks ago. He enrolled online at their convenient website (only IE works). He got an email confirmation. When we got there, we waited in line to find out that they had no record of him at all. They gave us a number to wait and speak to a supervisor. After half an hour's wait, the supervisor was very sympathetic (I made that part up), but they were booked solid. She did get him an appointment for a month later, actually two days before his learner's permit expires.
But at least now he won't have to parallel park, which we have practiced extensively till he got good at it. Stupid.
My son's comment: Do you really expect me to trust these people with my health care?; 5/21/15, 9:32 AM
Known Unknown said...: I blame the Terrapins.; 5/21/15, 9:57 AM
Shanna said...: Our parking test was a series of right turns around a small block and then sliding into a normal parking spot. Not terribly difficult.

I learned to parallel park living in DC because I never had to do it in high school. It only comes up rarely now, but once you have the skill down you've got it.

If you want to be tough, make 'em parallel park on a steep hill in a stick-shift vehicle?

Heh.; 5/21/15, 10:19 AM
tola'at sfarim said...: ill go out on a limb and guess disparate impact was involved; 5/21/15, 10:31 AM
MikeR said...: Wow - tola'at sfarim = bookworm, right? What a neat name.; 5/21/15, 10:34 AM
Brent said...: Mike - I don't see the problem. Heart Attack? Pre-register at a convenient site and when you show up, they won't have a surgery spot, but they will be happy to book your surgery in a month.

Irony aside, self-driving cars cannot come soon enough. If something as basic as following a few simple steps to parallel park is setting expectations too high, we are beyond safely teaching people to drive.; 5/21/15, 10:40 AM
Kyzer SoSay said...: My driving eval person didn't make me parallel park, at least not all the way. I pulled up to where I needed to be, cranked the wheel as I slowly backed in, and she said "You're good, we can keep going down the road now." I was happy because I actually didn't think my angle was as good as it shoulda been, but apparently she couldn't tell.; 5/21/15, 11:18 AM
chuck said...: Why don't they set up license vending machines? Put in your five dollars, get a license.; 5/21/15, 11:23 AM
Kyzer SoSay said...: I hear California is implementing that in the barrios.; 5/21/15, 11:25 AM
rhhardin said...: My FAA flight examiner, at 17, wasn't much interested in skill beyond basic but was hugely interested in thinking ahead of the airplane.

[cuts power] Where are you going?

[points straight down at airport not visible at the moment] Hanover.

That effectively ended the flight test.

I don't think driving tests go that way.; 5/21/15, 11:50 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Nonsense, Jay. I always think of Trevanian's Shibumi:

There was no place a safe pass could be made, but that, of course, would not deter a French driver, whose adolescent impulse to pass is legendary. The car behind continued to close the distance until it was only a meter from his back bumper. It flashed its headlights and sounded its horn, then whipped around while they were in a tight blind curve.

Hel relaxed and slowed to let the car pass. The horn and the lights told him that this was not an assassination attempt. No professional would telegraph his move like that. It was just another childish French driver.

He shook his head paternally as the underpowered Peugeot strained its motor in its laboring effort to pass, the young driver's knuckles white on the steering wheel, his eyes bulging from their sockets in his effort to hold the road.

In his experience, Hel had found that only older North American drivers, with the long distances they habitually travel on good roads with competent machines, have become inured to the automobile as toy and as manhood metaphor. The French driver's infantile recklessness often annoyed him, but not so much as did the typical Italian driver's use of the automobile as an extension of his penis, or the British, driver's use of it as a substitute.; 5/21/15, 11:58 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: My son took his driver's test earlier this year, in Madison, and he fretted about parallel parking. He practiced for a long time, starting from failure and despondency, which gave way to incremental improvement and confidence, and by the end of the evening, he became almost expert. He didn't even get a chance to show off his proficiency during the test -- they didn't make him do it.; 5/21/15, 12:00 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: "I've been told that a woman can tell a lot about a man by how he parallel parks."

At the gas station women also observe how efficiently a man puts the gas nozzle into the car's gas tank.

There is a theme.

I am Laslo.; 5/21/15, 1:13 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: A woman can learn a lot about a man by how he jacks up his car to replace a flat tire.

Does he move in smooth strong strokes with the crowbar, erecting the car up to where it belongs, or is he straining and winded after a few awkward pumps?

Worse: does he call 'Triple A' instead to have someone do it for him?

AAA means no XXX.

I am Laslo.; 5/21/15, 1:38 PM
ken in tx said...: I have read that in Germany and other European countries, it takes about as long and as much money to get a drivers license there, as it does here to get a private pilots license. Driving is an elite thing there. It's an everyone thing here.

Also, you can get a hunting license there that allows you to hunt in city parks, but it takes forever and a lot of money to get it.; 5/21/15, 1:44 PM
RichardJohnson said...: I cannot recall the last time I parallel parked.; 5/21/15, 3:03 PM
Æthelflæd said...: Jay Vogt said...
"Globally referenced, Americans are about average in their driving education and consequently their skill. Germany, France and Sweden are noticeably better. They take real pride in it, and don't suffer fools kindly.

I've wondered why we don't up our game in driver education and training."

Economics. It would be a HUGE hardship for many. Thank goodness American rural kids don't have to go through European-style driver's ed, but can drive into town for a part-time job with relative bureaucratic and monetary ease.; 5/21/15, 3:08 PM
Brando said...: As a Maryland resident, I'm not sure I like the idea of drivers who never learned to parallel park--a lot of them are terrible at it already. They're also just terrible drivers in general--notorious in the region. Maryland plates basically mean "give me a wide berth, I don't know what I'm doing and am confused by motor technology".

I remember that being one of the hardest parts of the test when I was a teenager--practicing constantly to be able to do it in one try. Until we eliminate all street parking, I don't see how we can avoid having to know how to do it.

The real trick of course is parallel parking on the left side--that takes some getting used to.; 5/21/15, 3:21 PM
Deirdre Mundy said...: Maryland DMV was notoriously bad. I now live in Indiana, home of the 8 minute DMV visit. (If you go to 12, they apologize profusely.)

They think I'm exagerating when I talk about spending an hour waiting in line to get into the line where they tell you what line to get into!; 5/21/15, 4:19 PM
Deirdre Mundy said...: And this is why Mitch Daniels needs to be president, BTW--- He even made the LICENSE BRANCH a decent experience.; 5/21/15, 4:20 PM