To get your driver’s license you first need to learn to drive and then pass some tests. How you learn depends on your life goals, what kind of driver you want to be. Will you be a menace to society? Or will you glide through life in the vehicle of your choice? In making this decision, remember that you can become an educated driver FOR FREE. Also remember, everyone will know what kind of person you are once you’re a licensed driver.

When can you apply?

First, decide what kind of driver you will be: average or educated. The educated driver is perceptive, courteous, and skilled in handling a vehicle. They enjoy lower insurance premiums, better trade-in values, and are rarely guilty of a traffic crime. They aren’t professionals – just above average. We need more educated drivers on the roads because the average driver is the leading cause of death for people under 30, killing about 41,000 young adults and children every year. Car crashes cost U.S. Americans $417 Billion in 2024 with $141 Billion of that accounting just for property damage.

DMV will issue a license to a person who is 16 or 17 years old and has passed the DMV knowledge test (or “limited knowledge test”, as I like to call it), held a permit for 6 months, and brings along a parent or legal guardian to give permission (because they’re a minor). If you’re an adult, you can get a learner’s permit, practice behind the wheel enough to pass your driving test, and you don’t have to wait six months like the kids do.

How will you learn?

In Oregon, people are not required to take a driver education course. It’s not offered in most high schools anymore. So, you have to learn from any licensed adult willing to teach you and let you drive their car. What about an instructor? Yes, you can pay an instructor, but you still need a licensed adult to supervise the driving you do without your instructor. After all, you can’t meet with your instructor on a daily basis… probably… and you’re going to need frequent practice to become an educated driver, or even just pass a driving test.

Those of you who are eager to get this done have probably figured out the shortest path to getting a license. If you’re at least 18 years old, and if you’ve been driving for a while (illegally or with a learner’s permit), you can just take both tests (written and driving) and you get that license. This is apparently how most Oregon drivers get a license. They end up on the roads with a superficial understanding of how traffic is regulated or how roads work. They have limited skills in managing space, scanning ahead and keeping the vehicle between the lines. Some can't even manage the basics like merging or knowing the difference between high beams and lo beams.

Become the driver you want to be

Driving a vehicle is an activity as personal as getting dressed in the morning. And it’s also as public as giving a speech in front of hundreds, maybe thousands of people. When you drive, everyone you encounter willknow something about you. Are you patientor pushy? Courteous or rude? Are you perceptive or do you never see what’s coming until it’s too late? You will show the world your true nature when you are a licensed driver.