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After 53 years I have to take my test again!

C

Cabinetman

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Location
Lincolnshire Wolds + Massachusetts
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Ian
Just moved to Massachusetts and I have to pass a driving test, start with a computer in the test centre and then after passing that, later I have to do a practical. Just for your amusement I have included a link to a series of test tests.
Now it’s all fairly common sense but they throw in Americanisms and other curve balls. Some of the possible answers are hilarious. I bet you don’t get 20 out of 20 on your first test! Lons had better!
Wish me luck Ian

www.epermittest.com

Massachusetts RMV Road Signs Test (MA) 2026 | w/ IMAGES

Don't let the RMV test intimidate you! Learn the ANSWERS to the 2026 Massachusetts permit test with the help of this FREE road signs practice quiz!
www.epermittest.com www.epermittest.com

If you want to do more move down the page after it gives you your pass rate.
 
pretty much common sense... there were two I guessed (correctly) - flagger, not a UK expression, but obvious from the sign - and the solid circle could have been no entry / yield from a logic point of view, but a correct guess meant...

1772458603860.png
 
18/20.
I'm wondering if I shall have to pass a French driving test. You are supposed to swap your UK licence for a French one in the first year you are here, but when I tried to do it (later than I should have) Computer Says No. I assume it was because of my age (past retireement age, not yet 70).
My current UK licence expires in autumn next year, so I shall have to do something before then. Whether it will be a straight swap, or a vision test, driving test... I don't know.
S
 
My understanding steve is you do not need to exchange your UK licence until it expires, so you will need to exchange it, no need for retest, just before it expires.
 
AndyP said:
My understanding steve is you do not need to exchange your UK licence until it expires, so you will need to exchange it, no need for retest, just before it expires.
Click to expand...
That is also my (rather uncertain) understanding. But I believe they are debating in Parliament about making wrinklies have at least a sight test, fairly regularly, after 70.
S
 
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After 60+ years, I wouldn’t fancy taking any driving test again. I might just be able to swot up enough to revise and pass the theory part but would worry about coping with the practical. Having driven an automatic for the past 3 years, having to use a manual gearbox to get a full licence might involve a bit of practice.

Mind you, I certainly wouldn’t be able to pass my test using the vehicle I used back in 1965. No brake lights, no indicators, no power assisted brakes or steering and no synchromesh gearbox.

K9.jpg
 
Steve Maskery said:
That is also my (rather uncertain) understanding. But I believe they are debating in Parliament about making wrinklies have at least a sight test, fairly regularly, after 70
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As part of the Brexit agreement UK licences issued before 2021 need only be exchanged when they expire. As i still have a paper one that is indefinitely😉
 
Andy, not quite indefinitely as the paper licences are only valid until age 70. After that, you get a plastic card and that has to be renewed every 3 years.

I'd be interested to know the reaction of the gendarmes in your area when confronted with a paper licence during one of their "papiers" checks. On the occasional times when my wife or I had to produce our licence, and we handed over a paper version, the gendarmes often went back to their cars and radioed their HQ for advice. Mind you, our licences were pretty tatty being 30+ years old.
 
When I’ve had to show my paper licence on random police checks, I smile a lot, mention Brexit in every sentence and explain when we did try to exchange them they were sent back, this was about 10 years ago now.
I was stopped going the wrong way into a carpark about year or so back, I went through a No Entry Sign. :eek:. The policeman had a good laugh about Brexit and let me off with a smile and don’t do it again. Mrs P still has a paper French licence too..

sorry, you are right of course paper licence does expire at age 70 but that is so far a away for me it seems indefinitely:)
 
Not as far for me as it once was...

I've been stopped a couple of times since being here. Once was on a trip back to the UK, in my UK reg car. I'd been waiting at roadworks, and when the lights flashed orange I drove on. Ofhere, ther is no green light for roadworks, so Off it went. Then came the blue lights...

I didn't speak as well then as I do now, and I'm hardly fluent now, but I explained what flashing amber means in the UK.

Non.

Inside the ring of flashing amber is a number. It is a seconds countdown until you get the go-ahead.. It's just a timer. So I got a telling off and was told to have a nice day. She did not ask for my licence, which was a good job, as I'd accidentally left it in the kitchen table in the UKL...

The other time was about 1pm at a roundabout in a sleepy little village (there are lots of those round herre). I was driving my French car. I stopped. I wound down the window. I said, "Bonjour, monsieur". He said, "Good afternoon, Sir, have you drank any alcohol today?". Two words and he recognised I was English.

Now I know I drink far too much, but even I haven't started by lunchtime!

He was fine, polite, had a bit of a laugh at my protestations about my French. He was just doing his job.
S
PS, the limit for alcohol is considerably lower here than in the UK.
 
Well, I passed! One wrong out of 25, but my horror on starting the exam the first six questions were nothing like what you and I have just been doing, they were all about the penalties for doing things wrong, and all looked plausible just different levels of severity. And different drugs using all the technical correct names of them. I said to the official woman afterwards that it was nothing like online and she said with a laugh, oh yes totally different. I don’t know why that’s on there at all – great!
Now to the practical, lots of arm waving lol.
 
I bet you don’t get 20 out of 20 on your first test! Lons had better!
Click to expand...

Eh, What, Why???

16/20 so 4 wrong at 80% and I freely admit there were a number of guesses in that.
The "Flagger" I got wrong as I thought it can't be that. Who knew the Americans have a sign for flagging. :ROFLMAO:

In my defence I've only driven in the US once though it was for 5 weeks / 3000 miles, and that was 16 years ago. Also I'm an old git with a failing memory. ;)
 
Lons said:
Eh, What, Why???

16/20 so 4 wrong at 80% and I freely admit there were a number of guesses in that.
The "Flagger" I got wrong as I thought it can't be that. Who knew the Americans have a sign for flagging. :ROFLMAO:

In my defence I've only driven in the US once though it was for 5 weeks / 3000 miles, and that was 16 years ago. Also I'm an old git with a failing memory. ;)
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Haha, Sorry to single you out Lons, I seemed to remember that you were a motorcycle instructor at one time? And I can imagine what you’re thinking, you’re correct that wouldn’t have made you an expert on American stuff lol.
 
Cabinetman said:
Haha, Sorry to single you out Lons, I seemed to remember that you were a motorcycle instructor at one time? And I can imagine what you’re thinking, you’re correct that wouldn’t have made you an expert on American stuff lol.
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You memory must be worse than mine Ian, :ROFLMAO: I was never a motorcycle instructor, never rode a motorcycle since my late teens.

I found driving in the US very easy tbh apart from in San Francisco with half the roads closed at the time and a bit tight in places for the Chrysler 300, especially getting into a multi storey car park entrance.
 
Oh dear, so sorry obviously I’m totally wrong!
That’s a big car to get around those curves, remember seeing all the colours of the rainbow on the guardrails within days of one opening once.
 
Cabinetman said:
Oh dear, so sorry obviously I’m totally wrong!
That’s a big car to get around those curves, remember seeing all the colours of the rainbow on the guardrails within days of one opening once.
Click to expand...
A 6 point turn on a busy road with trams etc and then up to the top floor with tight bends. It was the end of the trip so I was well used to the car by then.
It was almost new, black with chrome everywhere and I took it down the rocky dirt road around monument valley, it was red when we came out but the enterprising Indians had a car wash over the road. ;)

You probably half remembered the instuctor link when I posted a number of years ago that a motorcyclist drove straight out of a side road and into my wife's Mini when on the A road doing 50mph, lucky for us there was a motorcycle instructor happened to be behind him and was an expert witness for us to claim no fault accident.
 
AndyP said:
My understanding steve is you do not need to exchange your UK licence until it expires, so you will need to exchange it, no need for retest, just before it expires.
Click to expand...
That's interesting. Here in Finland I was told that, due to Brexit, I needed to change my UK licence to a local Finnish one. I would have expected the rules to be the same throughout the EU. Or maybe driving licences are different. I know at one time the licence expiry age was different in different EU countries.

When I changed my licence to a Finnish one we had quite a comical negotiation about vehicle categories. The categories on an old UK paper licence don't correspond exactly to the categories available for my new licence. One concerned buses. In the UK I was licenced to drive a minibus but not for hire or reward. No such category exists in Finland and I ended up with a licence to drive any bus of any size, despite never having driven a bus in my life. I had to give up some other categories though. Nothing important to me. Something to do with steam rollers for example.
 
Lons said:
A 6 point turn on a busy road with trams etc and then up to the top floor with tight bends. It was the end of the trip so I was well used to the car by then.
It was almost new, black with chrome everywhere and I took it down the rocky dirt road around monument valley, it was red when we came out but the enterprising Indians had a car wash over the road. ;)

You probably half remembered the instuctor link when I posted a number of years ago that a motorcyclist drove straight out of a side road and into my wife's Mini when on the A road doing 50mph, lucky for us there was a motorcycle instructor happened to be behind him and was an expert witness for us to claim no fault accident.
Click to expand...
There is someone on here who was a police motorcyclist (memory fails me now as to who that is), perhaps that's who you're thinking of...
 
Yes that’s ringing bells now.
Yes, it’s all over the States except where it says no turn on red, or an arrow turns to red. Should have the ability to turn left in the uk it’s so handy.
I was wondering just how much fuel is wasted in America by the use of stop signs versus give ways (yield) at junctions, there are millions? Of them and technically you must all stop the wheels turning at every one of them. Then you have to expend fuel to get the vehicle started again, must add up, and over all the years it must be huge.

Edit just looked it up and there are no states that ban the turn on red but there are cities NewYork and DC.
Driven in both and hadn’t realised-whoops!
 
In France Ian we have Stop signs on through roads in the middle of villages, not just at junctions and pedestrian crossings. I generally think that this means only come to dead stop if you see a policeman, otherwise slow down to crawl before proceeding.
 
My only experience of foreign cops was in Ibiza
We had hired mopeds to tour the island and I took the very first roundabout clockwise and met a police car coming the other way round.
The policia inside just laughed as I swerved around them
They were the ones in the blue shirts but along the dual carriageway down to the south we saw the ones in military green had pulled over a motorcyclist and were beating the daylights out of him
We took the backroads on the way back....
 
AndyP said:
In France Ian we have Stop signs on through roads in the middle of villages, not just at junctions and pedestrian crossings. I generally think that this means only come to dead stop if you see a policeman, otherwise slow down to crawl before proceeding.
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Crikey, the not quite stop is what everyone does here too. It’s called a California stop, but still illegal so care has to be taken.
 
Lons said:
A 6 point turn on a busy road with trams etc ....
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You've reminded me of my temporary commute near San Francisco. The route took me onto a five or six lane freeway. But I then needed the offramp only a few hundred yards further on the right. Hairy. Best tactic was to floor it down the onramp, pray there was a gap and then another and another. Somehow I survived.
 
I once drove from Toronto airport to Peterborough, an hour or two north, IIRC. It was a long time ago. Peterborough would be a one-horse town, if it had a horse.

The freeway was a million miles wide, zillions of lanes and I was terrified. Somehow I got there. I got lost somewhere in Peterborough itself, somewhere fairly residential. I took the car back and they dropped me off at the hotel. I asked the car-rental lady what some road sign meant. I can't remember what it was, but she looked at me aghast and suggested that I shouldn't really be driving...

The next day, at work, one of my colleagues asked me if I'd driven through <insert neighborhood here>. No idea, Why? Someone spotted a car going the wrong way round a roundabout...

I went again, a few months later. I took the bus. There were two passengers, the other got off quite soon, I was taken to the front door of the hotel. Phew!
S
 
Peterborough since your visit is now a city. Did you manage to see the lift lock on the Trent waterway/ canal system. probably nothing new to those from the UK but for me it was interesting. I was last in Peterborough five years ago purchasing a dock system for my son's cottage property.
 
duke said:
Peterborough since your visit is now a city.
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Is General Electric still there? My oppo was a bloke called Claire. (As opposed to a boy named Sue...)
duke said:
Did you manage to see the lift lock on the Trent waterway/ canal system. probably nothing new to those from the UK but for me it was interesting. I was last in Peterborough five years ago purchasing a dock system for my son's cottage property.
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No I didn't, but I do remember that they have Trent Severn water whereas we have Severn Trent...
I've seen film of the lift lock, I didn't realise it was there.

S
 
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