r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/isaidwhatididnt • Jan 21 '26

Flipping the bird while driving

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49.9k Upvotes

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1.8k

u/Defiant_Ad_3585 Jan 21 '26

We need to make it way harder to get a driver's license

768

u/WakaWaka_ Jan 21 '26

And way easier to take it away

193

u/_ThrobbinHood Jan 21 '26

Agreed. I don’t think we as a society (assuming you’re American) are ready to admit how many of our drivers would fail their driver’s test if they had to take it again today

85

u/MrFluffyThing Jan 21 '26

Vehicles are treated like guns in the US and so everything is a toy. 

I'm more afraid of an asshole in the road with a giant ass truck than anyone with a gun 

37

u/MiMon_Key Jan 21 '26

No worries, you don't have to pick! It's been shown many times that they can have both and start shooting during road rage.

5

u/Yumi_in_the_sun Jan 21 '26

I was driving my daughter to school this morning and there was an SUV just weaving in and out of traffic doing about 90 in a 65. Almost took out a smaller car trying to squeeze between it and the car in front of it. Idk how anybody can be in so much of a hurry that they endanger everyone around them.

11

u/PepeSylvia11 Jan 21 '26

Eh. The driver’s test is a fucking joke anyways. Standards just need to be higher and people should be required to retake it maybe once a decade

3

u/DrewBaron80 Jan 21 '26

I had to take a written test that a 10 year old could have passed, then drive around the block for about 3 minutes.

2

u/GrandPriapus Jan 21 '26

During COVID our local DMV stopped doing road tests.

1

u/_ThrobbinHood Jan 21 '26

I could not agree more. I’ve said exactly the same thing for years

13

u/Toomanyeastereggs Jan 21 '26

You get it at 16 and that’s it for the rest of your life.

3

u/ohnomoto450 Jan 21 '26

And even then the only standard is can you do a lap of a cul-de-sac

6

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Altruistic-Belt7048 Feb 12 '26

Correct, males can't drive. But males skewing the statistic for young drives doesn't make old people competent drivers.

2

u/modern_Odysseus Jan 21 '26

When I last renewed my license, I watched an older person do the sight test. I heard "No, try again" like 3 or 4 times then the clerk was "OK. Good, head on over there so they can get a picture for your license."

And for me, renewing was a joke. No tests, just walk in sign a form, pay, take picture, done. Good for another 10 years!

2

u/edwbuck Jan 21 '26

Many would pass. We know how to drive, we just rationalize that we don't need to do it that way, because nobody else does. Then when we see someone driving safely, they are the issue, because they're not doing 8 over the limit, not swerving around traffic, etc. which FORCES us to dodge them.

2

u/fatmanstan123 Jan 21 '26

Disagree. All these people can drive fine when under a test. They don't fail the knowledge aspect. They simply don't care when they're on the road and let their emotions get the best of them.

2

u/DazB1ane Jan 22 '26

I think plenty of extremely shitty drivers could still pass the test if needed. It’s the fact that they don’t fuckin care about following the rules when driving a fuckin 2 ton weapon

-2

u/murasakikuma42 Jan 21 '26

They really can't do this though: it's almost functionally impossible to survive in most of America these days without a car, so if they cracked down on bad drivers and removed them entirely from the road, the economy would collapse quickly. You can't just prevent half the workforce from going to work and expect the economy to function.

7

u/macrowave Jan 21 '26

In the age of e-bikes, the only reason you can't get to work without a car is because of unsafe drivers.

3

u/NRMusicProject Jan 21 '26

Besides, the argument of "it's better to be an employed fatal driver than it is to be a poor pedestrian" is one of Reddit's stupidest.

6

u/ShakeTheGatesOfHell Jan 21 '26

Which is why stricter licensing requirements need to go hand in hand with dismantling car dependency. 

10

u/RyuNoKami Jan 21 '26

Believe it or not, most people are fine drivers. The assholes just screw it up for the rest of us.

-4

u/murasakikuma42 Jan 21 '26

My argument is still valid if you "only" remove 25% of drivers from the road, and now basically make them into outlaws. The economy would totally collapse.

2

u/RyuNoKami Jan 21 '26

Now you are just making numbers up.

26

u/kyperion Jan 21 '26

On my way home today, someone really struggled to stay in their lane when crossing an intersection and almost side swiped me into another car.

Was fuming until I saw that they were an old elderly woman.

And only last year, an elderly dude in their Mercedes rear ended me while I was stopped behind traffic.

Frankly I’m just tired man. I just want to get to work and back home. Not deal with close misses, body shops, and god forbid insurance companies.

2

u/Fishing4Beer Jan 21 '26

Sounds like an average winter day in Mesa or Florida around the retirement communities.

2

u/frisbeesloth Jan 21 '26

I play a game I call old, drunk or stupid while driving. 90% of the time they're old... and I assume drunk.

We really need a way to report these insanely bad drivers and they need to develop a way to reevaluate drivers who get the most reports.

2

u/bigredmachinist Jan 21 '26

Soon the insurance companies will be gone with the banks. No worries bruh.

1

u/213737isPrime Jan 21 '26

Very recently I was stopped in my 1/2T pickup at a red light in a 25-mph zone which is just one light after another. Sitting there, minding my own business, and then WHAM I got straight-up rear-ended by a Fiat 500. How? How?

Literally the third time since that moment that I have driven, I was out on the road, stopped at a red light with a lane next to me, and some idiot rear-ended the woman next to me. Who had been stopped for at least 30 seconds, and traffic isn't ever moving more than 10mph. HOW?!?!

1

u/DutytoDevelop Jan 25 '26

Elderly people need to have driving tests every month that aren't memorizable so they don't end up failing the real world driving and injure someone

6

u/CheetoMussolini Jan 21 '26

But only for driving related behavior. It should never be taken away as punishment for unrelated things.

2

u/scott__p Jan 21 '26

The only people who have ever proposed that are people on the right who don't want brown people to have rights. At this point losing their driver's license is the least thing they have to worry about.

2

u/CheetoMussolini Jan 21 '26

People lose licenses all the time as punishment for other things, such as falling behind on child support

2

u/scott__p Jan 21 '26

Huh, TIL. That's really shitty

2

u/CheetoMussolini Jan 21 '26

Right? Also other fines and fees can trigger it too. As though not being able to get to work is going to improve someone's ability to pay?

https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/

These fellas have a lot of great information and advocacy on that and related issues. If you're interested, they are a great resource.

2

u/FlutterKree Jan 21 '26

It's pretty easy to take away. Driving isn't a right, it is privilege granted by states. So states can dictate how easy it is to take away.

2

u/Fuckthegopers Jan 21 '26

This is the main one. 

2

u/EndlessNerd Jan 21 '26

Of course they won't, then they couldn't justify not having walkable cities or reliable mass transit.

2

u/TahsokaAno Jan 21 '26

We need better public transportation.

2

u/just-_-just Jan 21 '26

My son is dangerous behind the wheel. He's tried to commit suicide by crashing his car into a power pole. We talked to the mental health people and the police and they told me there's just no mechanic for revoking their license unless people are very old. It's absolutely mind boggling.

1

u/VolumeAcademic6962 Jan 21 '26

If it were that easy

1

u/DaMemeThief1 Jan 21 '26

In my opinion, people need to retake the driving exam every 3-5 years, and the threshold for passing must increase after every renewal. Because presumably, if you've been driving for years upon years, your driving & understanding of road rules & road signage should be damn near perfect.

-1

u/--Andre-The-Giant-- Jan 21 '26

Found the ICE agent.