Here in America, we start drivers training at 14 and get a license to drive on our own at around 16- wondering if this is the same in Europe?
Here in America, we start drivers training at 14 and get a license to drive on our own at around 16- wondering if this is the same in Europe?
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In Denmark: you can start taking lessons at 16 years and 9 months. If everything goes smoothly you can then get your driving license at 17, but until you turn 18 you are only allowed to drive with an experienced driver in the passenger seat. The experienced driver must be at least 30 years old and have had their drivers license for at least 10 years.
I think it is kind of uncommon to take your drivers license before turning 18. But as someone living in Copenhagen my view may be skewed here. The necessity to driving is obviously different depending on where you live. For rural areas with poor public transportation the need is higher than if you live in a city.
Personally I still haven’t taken a drivers license at the age of 41 as I don’t have a need.
In Poland, you can start taking a lessons before you turn 18, but you can take the final exam only when you turn 18.
Driving in The Netherlands is much stricter regulated. I started when with driving lessons when I was 18. I took me 30 lessons or so and €2500 or so before I got my license. Nowadays you can take lessons from 16,5 and have a license from the age of 17. However, up till 18 years old you need a supervisor next to you while driving.
That would be the AM licence in Sweden. You need to be 15 and have passed the theoretical test.
AM qualifies you to drive EU mopeds (max speed 45 km/h) and the abominable “A tractor” vehicle which has a 30 km/h speed limit but no upper weight limit. SUVs and semis are therefore within reach of 15 yr olds.
We can start taking driving lessons at 14 for the B1 category (small cars with dry weight up to 550kg) and at 16 for regular cars. So, you can get a normal B1 driving license at 16.
Car in Germany at 18. With a parent or other declared person already at 17. There are small slow scooters you can drive already at 15 alone. But the importance of this might be very different to how it is in the us. In big cities many young people don’t even get a driver’s license. And even in semi rural areas a decent bike and/or a public transport ticket already give you a lot of freedom. I got a good bike at 13 I think and was basically able to go wherever I wanted in an 20km radius
Edit: driving at 17 with parent not 16
You can start theory at 16 in hungary and take the actual exam at 17. But you are not allowed to drive abroad 17-18 as other eu countries may have different rules
You can drive bycicles whenever you want.
At age 14, you can get a licence for mopeds. At 16 scooters.
Cars at 18.
Finland: the basic age for a car license is 18, but some years ago some politician got the bright idea that 17-year olds could apply for a special permit to get one at 17. The result has been that 1) these youngsters end up driving their buddies around town who haven’t applied for the permit yet, and 2) they get in tragic accidents as their sense of responsibility isn’t up to the task and the social pressure of showing off is immense. Within the last month there have been two accidents with fatalities which is a lot in such a small country, 3) since all it takes is for the kid to say they need a license to go to school or hobbies, essentially everyone who’s bothered to apply, has got one.
A 15-year old can get a moped (max. 45km/h), a microcar or a certain type of quad. A 16-year old can get a license for an “A1” motorcycle with something like 15 horsepower, and the license is upgraded to regular bikes along with age.
The challenge is not how to handle a car or other vehicle. The challenge is finding a balance of rules and regulations that takes note of how much in kids are still in the process of developing.
Driving at 14 just sounds insane to me.
While not even having a proper instructor, and not even being able to drive manual
You can start driving at 17 & can pass your test at 17.
However, at 16 if you qualify for certain things (Mobility section of the Personal Independence payment), you are allowed to drive & pass your test at 16. Otherwise, if your 16, you can only drive a ‘Quadricycle car’, which will be limited to 28mph (45kph) & you’ll have to display Learner plates, so long as you have completed a Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) course (which are 1 day courses designed to allow you to ride a 50cc Moped if 16 or anything up to 125cc if 17+)
Well, in Germany you can do BF17. There you are allowed to drive with your parents or other adults at the age of 17, after you’ve done your full driving licence. However you can’t just drive with anybody, those person have to be named, need a certain number of years expierence and shouldn’t have gotten to many heavy fines or driving bans in a couple of years. (don’t know the exact numbers)
In special circumstances you also can obtain your license at 17, if you have no other reasonable modes of transportation. So you can start your lessons at 16, do your theoretical exam 3 month before your birthday and the practical exam 1 month before birthday.
Driving lessons always have to be made with an official driving school, therefore the license also gets extremely expensive. (We’re talking about at least 2500€, some people have to pay 4000€ or even more.
UK you get your provisional at 17 (or late 16) and there isn’t schools you just get into a car and start learning on the road with someone sitting in the passenger
You’ll then need to pass a theory which you have to study for yourself and book in yourself, then you can take the practical which is 45 mins on the road which I think is the same in most places
In Germany the minimum age to get your car license is 18 and you can start taking lessons half a year before you turn 18.
Then there is a special program for accompanied driving at the age of 17. This allows you to drive at the age of 17 but only if you have an adult as your passenger who had their license for at least 5 years, is at least 30 years old and has no more than 1 point on their license. For this you can start taking lessons half a year before you turn 17.
You can obtain a license for a 50cc moped from the age of 15, which also allows you to drive micro cars that are restricted to a top speed of 45 kph.
And you can get your class A1 motorcycle license at 16, which allows you to ride 125cc bikes with up to 15hp.
In the Netherlands you can start lessons when you’re 16,5 years old. At 17 you can get the license but can’t drive alone until you’re 18
Reading the comments it seems it’s pretty much the same in the EU. Coming from Czechia we have exactly the same rules as the Germans.
For a car, you have to be 18 to enroll at the driving school. So the earliest you can have a car licence is 18 an a few months old.
For a bike there are 4 levels (AM, A1, A2, A)
The first one (AM) which only allows you to drive 50cc mopeds you can get at 16. Then you can get the A1 at 18 which unlocks bikes up to 125cc. Then the A2 at 20 which unlocks bikes up to 47hp. And finally the A (full unrestricted) licence for all bikes at 24.
In Portugal i believe you can start having theory lessons (road code?) at 17, you then have to pass an exam and if you are 18 you start proper driving lessons followed by a driving exam.
But if you want to drive a 50cc scooter or a quadricycle (also known in Portugal as a “oldpeople killer” or “pension eater” lol) you can have a licence for that at 16.
Bike: whenever (and obviously no licence)
moped: at 16
Car: You can start your licence for a car at
17(correction: 16y and 9m). You can drive at 17, but only with an adult who has a licence themselves in the car (and who is in a state fit to drive themselves). You can drive freely at 18. The lowering to 17 happened some years ago. I am against that. Young drivers are already disproportionately involved in accidents, so lowering the age is a poor ideaReal driving starts at 18. With 17 you can drive but must be accompanied by an adult driver.
Then, there are bikes and vehicles with limited power. You can drive class AM with 15, that’s limited to 45 km/h.
In slovenija, you can drive at 16 with an adult that has a licence if they are over 21, have the licence for over 2 years and don’t have too many points. But you must first complete a first aid course, a test about traffic rules and do at least 20h of driving with an instructor.
Then at 18 you can take a final test on the road and get your licence. Then in 2 years you must also complete a safe driving course or you can’t renew your licence.
In Latvia, from 14 you can get 50cc scooter/motorcycle from 16 you can get 125cc scooter/motorcycle and from 18 you can get car license.
In the US, to me the ages seemed insane, but after visiting US, I understood why it is so. You can’t live a functional life without transport there, everything is so far away and so far apart.
I’m gonna need to know what state you live in because I’m from New Jersey and we can’t get a learner’s permit until 16 and a driver’s license can be issued no sooner than 17. A permit at 14 sounds absolutely bonkers to me.
In Denmark, you can start taking driving lessons at the age of 17, but you can only get a driving license when you turn 18.
Americans.. Allowed to operate a motor vehicle that can easily kill at 16. But having a beer? Oh noes.. need to wait another 5 years. Definitely makes sense.
In France you can start to drive with one of your parents who has driving licence when you are 16yo. It’s called “accompanied driving”.
Regular driving licence is available to pass when you are 17yo since 1st January 2024. Before it was 18yo.
In mMurica’ we start driving at 16 and using our brains at 35. In Europe, We have driveres license in full at 18, altough we can drive at 16 a certain type of engine and a certain type of car. ( can vary a bit from country to country )
You can start learning at 16, take a driving test at 17, after which you get your 2-year probation license.
Probation license has limitations such as:
Each broken rule costs money or jail time (8-30 days), and points. When you reach 6 points, you lose your license for 3 months, at 9 points you lose it completely and you need to go back to the driving school.
For a full driving license, you lose your license for 6 months at 18 points. The points are erased after 2 years, if you don’t break the rules, however, when you get your license back, max points are reduced to 15 (then 12, then 9). If you lose your license the third time, you lose your right to drive for good.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that this is for a car (category B – no more than 3.5t of mass, no more than 8 seats). Other categories like A (A1, A2, and AM) for motorcycles, or C and D for trucks and busses differ from B and have different rules.
EDIT2: Modified No.4 to better express the rule.
Iceland. Can get a driving instructor at 16 and obtain a special license to drive with an experience driver (+25 year old) along side them to practice. Driving license is obtained at 17.
In Spain you can start taking lessons (with an instructor ONLY!) at 17 and 9 months but you can only take the exam after your 18th birthday.
In Belgium you can get a learner’s permit at 17 and a full license at 18 (assuming you jump through all the hoops)
But your question was when you do start driving, not when you could, which are 2 very different things. Around me the trend is to start learning once you’re done with your studies, or once you start needing a car for work. In my case that meant getting my license at age 23, and started commuting by car at age 29 — I almost never used my license during that 6 years gap, only once when visiting America. My colleague is only starting to study for his license now, and he’s 28
That’s in a fairly urban area though, but even in the countryside people tend to be content with cycling until they really need to do long daily trips, which is either when you get a job far away or when you start a family
In Hungary you can start the theoretical lessons 3 months before you turn your 17 and you can get the license after you turned 17. Also you need to do emergency exam show you can tend to wounds , you can do CPR , what are you doing in case of a vehicle that transporting dangerous goods spills etc.
It is very expensive for most of Hungarians if you pass everything for the first time (which is rare because it is all about money so they fail you 2-3x at least) is around 800-1200€ which is a monthly payment of most people.
Norway: You can drive a moped at 16 if you pass a very basic test, and 125cc motorbikes. At 16 you can also start driving cars with a driving instructor or with someone who have had their license for at least 5 years and is older than 25. At 18 you can take your test. If you pass you’re free to drive whatever cars you want wherever you want.
In France you can start driving a car without a license or a moped from the age of 14, otherwise there is accompanied driving from the age of 16 and the “real” license at the age of 18.
In Serbia you have to enroll at a driving school. You first do theory lessons (40 classes, a class is 45min) and take a test and then after a medical examination, if you’re at least 16 you can start driving lessons (also 40 classes) and then you can take the driving test and get a probationary license at 17. You get a full driver’s license at 21 if you passed the test before age 19, or if you passed it after age 19 you get the full license 2 years after.
Also unlike in the US, you can only practice driving with a licensed driving instructor.
You can start driving on the road under parental supervision at 16 if your parent gets a permit to teach you to drive. (Said permit is basically a formality, basically anyone can have it with 0 effort.
Then you can get a license at 18 or you can apply to get it at 17 if you have a valid reason for it (Long drive to school or something like that)
You can also get a moped or a tractor (Tractor also includes road legal ATV’s) license at 15. almost everyone gets a moped in smaller cities and rural areas.
In Italy at 14 we can drive a scooter (max 50km/h, so you can only drive it in cities or regional roads) after passing a test. Scooter insurance is the most expensive for a reason 😬 (the insurance is compulsory on Italy).
At 16 I believe we can apply for light motorbikes (max 125 km/h) and some specific agricultural machines (after a test, of course).
At 18 we can apply to any kind of vehicle driving licence. I believe with the standard one we can also drive scooters and motorbikes under 125 km/h, otherwise we need a motorbike license.
Here in germany we get them at 17 but you have to drive with an older driver. You get your full license at 18.
UK, you can start lessons at 17, but the training and testing regime is hard. Theory and Hazard Perception Test before you can start lessons. Lessons are expensive and there is a lack of instructors and examiners. Then a test, you have to pass all of the safety criteria, one major failure, and that is the end of the test. There is a limit to the number of minor errors, but generally you don’t find out about those until the end of the test.
For a couple of years (IIRC), if you get caught and build up 6 points on your licence, you lose it and go back to the start.
At 18 you may start getting lessons. If you have a good-ish reason you can start getting lessons a year earlier.
Mind that this is for cars, trucks and motorcycles.
15 year olds can get a licence for mopeds, quads, scooters, tractors and such. These are limited to 45km/h (though propably at least half are modified to go at least 60).
But of course, this is all by law. It’s not unusual for people to drive mopeds at 14 or even 13 already. I learnt to drive a car (just driving the car. Not to know all the laws and rules) at like 11 or 12
In Denmark, you can start on your drivers license while 16 and a half. You’re able to get your license when you’re 17, but you are only allowed to drive with an experienced driver on the passengers seat – by “experienced” I think it’s either an age limit for the passenger, or amount of years they’ve had their license.
But, if you own a big field or piece of land, you are allowed to drive on private property with no age limit. So we got 12 year Olds in cars, 8 year olds in ATV’s and such (especially tractors) driving on private property for fun.
But how does the driving lessons work in the US? And how much does it cost?
Where the hell in the US do you start driving at 14!? Here in Jersey it’s permit at 16 and license at 17.
Training starts at 16 and at 17 you get a preliminary license and can start driving with your parents (if they have a license), with 18 you can drive on your own
You can learn to start driving at 16 I believe. And if you get your driver’s license before 18 you need supervised driving by someone who has a driver’s license for at least 5 years and in good standing afaik.
I’m not really sure, got my driver’s license at 25 and don’t care about the rules for young drivers
Passed and had my own car at 17 in the UK.
Had a 50cc moped at 16 to get to work.
Pretty sure you’re allowed to drive tractors at 14 here, seems ridiculous to me though