Soon I will undertake my most high-stakes driving challenge

Not the 16-hour offroad rally that starts tomorrow afternoon. Haha, not that. After that.

I'll be taking the final test for a driver's license in Ontario by submitting proof of a foreign license.

What's on the line? Not bragging rights or a plastic trophy or even a prize of meaningful value, but years of my life, of which I've already spent too many with little profit.

I get one shot, and if I fail I'll be back at square one, YEARS away from a second chance at the test

In the offroad rally you can win even with some navigational mistakes - a perfect run is unheard of and sometimes the winners are the team with the least-massive penalties.

In the driving test, one mistake could mean instant failure

In any other driving competition, nobody cares where you're looking as long as you get the job done and maybe keep your eye out for track workers and (predictably placed) flag stations. You may have to keep an eye out for flags and possibly unmanned checkpoints.

In the driving test, the course will be packed with all kinds of signs to look out for, each one a potential to make a mistake. And if I don't make it properly obvious to the navigator that I'm looking in my mirrors at the correct times...well I found out about that one before in a lower-stakes environment. Spectators are free to dash across the course too, just like the darkest days of Group B.

In most driving competitions you have some idea where you'll be driving and what to expect.

In this test, the course will be an unknown street route, no pace notes, no course walk, not even a look or a study of a track map, and I'll be wheel-to-wheel with the most dangerous competitors out there: Everyday street drivers

Remember that in Canada, everything is metric. So lefts are metric lefts, braking distances are in cm, signs are in English and some other funny language...its all very confusing. I give you 1 in 20 odds at passing.

Did you move to Canada? I thought you were in the Caribbean.

Good luck!

Not yet, working on it...this is part of it.

So first you get your drive license then you aim for a CDL?

No plans for a CDL.

Remember to stop behind the lines and check your blind spots, should be fine.

When I took my Ontario test, we got turned around from the normal route (which is well known by every driving school in the area) by a flagman due to construction. Actually, it was a flag woman, which set my examiner off on a rant about women taking over all the jobs. I agreed to everything he said and I passed.

The route on that one included a left turn out of the testing station on a divided four lane road. How does that work? You drive across two lanes and then pause on a low center divider while waiting for a clear spot to pull into traffic for the lanes going your direction. It's a maneuver I haven't had to perform since. As a bonus, the speed limit was 50, traffic on this quasi-divided highway was going 80. You can't speed or you'll fail, if you don't speed you'll get rear ended. Nasty.

Good luck! It actually might be worth asking a local driver's school what the route is, the examiners are creatures of habit. Some schools will also do a practice test for a small cost.

Remember, in Canada STOP means... Spin Tires On Pavement.

I'm planning to get some lessons, a practice test might not be a bad idea either.

Are you doing a written, or a road test?

IIRC I have to do both.

Why do you have to wait years to re-take the test if you don't pass?

I don't have to wait years, I have to go through the whole learner's process as if I'd never driven before which takes years. Those are the rules. I can't blame them considering the way people drive up there vs. here and some of the other places I've seen. I always cringe a bit at first when I'm on the road in Canada, I see people do things that would cause horrendous wrecks with the kind of driving skill I'm used to seeing. It's like F1 vs. grandmas on golf carts in a retirement community.

This helps when it comes to the written portion of the test.

What's all this fussing aboot? Eh?

Try for the CDL, it must be easier. I've yet to see a well driven truck or bus pass through here with Canadian plates.

Couldn't you just exchange your current license for an Ontario license? I got letters covering 5 years of experience from my previous states and walked out with a new license. It took quite a bit to get the right letters but once I had them, no issues.

In reply to Wally:

I have a theory that the sort of people we send to be police in the US, instead go to trucking school in Canada.

Just come to North Carolina. The toughest part of the test is the eye exam.

bgkast wrote: Why do you have to wait years to re-take the test if you don't pass?

Canada has a graduated drivers license system. If you start at 16 you should have a full license by about the time you start shopping for a zimmer. It's actually been very successful at keeping kids from driving.

Update: Passed the written test today, the questions weren't tricky but there is a lot of rote memorization required. Now I have to get a lesson or two and schedule the driving test, the local office has a 2-month waiting list for them so I might have to drive a good distance to do it.

NOHOME wrote:

bgkast wrote: Why do you have to wait years to re-take the test if you don't pass?

Canada has a graduated drivers license system. If you start at 16 you should have a full license by about the time you start shopping for a zimmer. It's actually been very successful at keeping kids from driving.

I'm already shopping for a Quicksilver, and I still haven't gotten my full G. It's even worse in BC

Keith Tanner wrote: The route on that one included a left turn out of the testing station on a divided four lane road. How does that work? You drive across two lanes and then pause on a low center divider while waiting for a clear spot to pull into traffic for the lanes going your direction. It's a maneuver I haven't had to perform since. As a bonus, the speed limit was 50, traffic on this quasi-divided highway was going 80. You can't speed or you'll fail, if you don't speed you'll get rear ended. Nasty.

I failed my first test to get my full driver's licence at 16. I drove "too cautiously". The route she took me on involved a construction zone with signs all over the place but no posted speed-limit. I decided driving 30km/h in what NORMALLY would be a 30km/h zone made sense. I guess she didn't feel the same way.

Well today's the big day. I think the hardest part will be not blowing through a speed limit, which is very easy to do - you don't notice how conservative Ontario's speed limits are until you try to follow them! Even 1kph over the limit means an instant fail Sort of like how the bomb in Speed worked, but in reverse.

Also I hear that I must never remove a hand from the steering wheel unnecessarily, even for an instant. I can do that, but that's very different from my usual street driving.