How old were you when you learned to drive?
 

I'm curious to see the breakdown of age groups for when you people learned to drive (I don't mean getting a license.. I mean being able to operate a moving automobile "well").

I'm 21, and I've never been behind the wheel of a car. The opportunity never arose, and I never felt the need to. My family never had a car either, so nothing to practice on.

I have always used public transportation, and never even considered learning... but now that its time for me to live independently, I figure this will be important to know. One of these days I'll sign up for driving classes or something...

yeah , i didn't get my license until i was 19. i'm 20 now and still don't drive that often. i wouldn't be comfortable in a freeway. or even certain highways :T or heavy traffic. heh.

The first time I drove was when I was 13. I didn't get my license until I was 18 though.

18... didn't start learning or get my license till january this year. I'm glad I waited, but I lament my newfound dependancy on my car =\

Started as soon as I could, which is 16. I love driving ^_^

Started at 16. Dad couldn't wait to teach me so he didn't have to drive my mom all over the place [who doesn't drive and refuses to consider it].

I learned to drive at age 15 in the parking lot of a local factory after hours (read 1:00 in the morning)

Took drivers ed. at 15. I think that is awfully young -- the first time I drove a manual car I had an accident and was scared to drive after that. I didn't get my license until I was 16 1/2. (I grew up in the city and a car was a must.)

I didn't even start until I was 17. I had a bike, and saw no need for driving.

Started as soon as I got my learner's permit on my 16th birthday.

I started riding a trail bike at 11 - 12. I started driving a car around 14. Added tractors, quad bikes, and other odds and sods to my repetoire.

here in az you were allowed to get your permit at fifteen and seven months (the rules have changed, but because they don't apply to me i don't know what they are)... i was there the second day of that seventh month for my permit, and i got my license the day i turned 16. got to use it, too... my mom forgot her book at the mvd, so she sent me back to get it.

Started at 16, got my license on my 18th birthday. Learning off of a stick is fun, plus I can drive basically anything now. It's not too hard, plus I prefer a manual now ;)

I got my license at 23.

I was lazy... Everyone drove me around. Plus, in college I didn't really need one. Didn't have a car anyway. But once I graduated, my parents got sorta sick of driving me to and from work.

I don't know what I was waiting for... I love driving!

I was driving golf carts around at 12, then trucks and things at 13. Of course that was all on private property. Got my license at 16.

I learned sitting in my dad's lap driving a suped up Ford pickup.

My dad took me out right after I got my learner's permit. My wife, on the other hand, had to wait for me to give her the opportunity to drive my car. She didn't get her license till she was 18.

In New Jersey I think I got my permit when I was 15. I learned to drive from a driver's education class.

first time i ever drove, i was 13, in a 57 chevy pickup. got my learner's permit at 15 and full drivers's license on my 16th birth day. there could not have been a better present!

I couldn't wait to drive. Started with a permit at 15. Got to drive to high school, etc.

Now that I do drive so much, I don't enjoy it as much and usually prefer if someone else drives.

Back when I got my license in NJ (1980), you weren't allowed behind the wheel before age 17.

I started driving when I was 14, got my learners permit at 15, and my license at 16.

I got my permit at 15, and license at 16. I didn't drive until then. Not even illegaly. I drive tons now.

It was 15 for me, it was required in school to take drivers ed and I always got to drive cause u have to drive a car to get anywhere around here.

Okay. Picture this.

I'm 10 years old. I'm on my grandfather's lap in the driver's seat of his Jeep Grand Wagoneer--a proto-SUV--in 1985 or so. I'm driving, he's instructing. This is on private land he co-owns, so it's more or less legal.

At one point, we're coming up on a T-intersection that I need to turn left at, where the road that tees off to the left is actually about a 45 degree angle from the road I'm on. So it's a SHARP left turn.

At some point, when I've got the turn about halfway-negotiated, my grandfather tells me to brake. To this day I SWEAR I hit the break. The car evidently got confused about which pedal I'd hit, and surged forward.

Somehow we got turned MORE than the 45 degrees. Which would have been okay, except that there was a big log--about 4 feet in diameter--laying across the grass between the two roads. The Jeep's front tires hit it, climed the log, Grandfather and I both slammed our heads on the ceiling of the car, and the car promptly high-centered itself on this enormous log, the front tires four feet off the ground. When the car came to a stop, the first thing granddad said was, "Don't tell your grandmother."

We opened the door and jumped out. About this time, my dad was closing fast with the video camera. That's right, the moment is recorded for posterity.

We ended up jacking up the front of the jeep and pulling the log out from under it with a tractor. My grandmother didn't know about this incident until 15 years later or so. Still not quite sure who spilled the beans.

I started at 15 but that doesn't mean I actually learned how.

But I still think I'm the best driver on the road... just like everyone else.

started driving uot in the middle of nowhere around age 14, licensed at 16

I think I was 15 when I got my learners permit, though I drove with my parents in the car a couple times before that, just down the block and stuff, but actually learning to drive in traffic etc was 15 for sure.

I learned when I was 15 and got my permit. : /

As far as operating one well, that would be about the time I got my liscense, which was at 28. People reacted oddly to that, "You *just* got your license? You haven't had one suspended?" Nope, I just had not ever had a real opportunity to have a car before. When my ex got a big bonus, he said "Learn to drive, and we'll get a car." Man, my ass was there! I got a license within a week, and we had a car. Sweeeet.
Not, I have no car. *frown* But am saving up for one.

I got my learner's liscence when I was about 16 or 17 and had a few lessons at my parents' urgings, but never learnt properly, and have never really felt the need to. I get by well enough walking, biking or catching busses or rides with mates. I can't afford to run let alone buy a car at the moment anyway. I'm currently 22.

I drove a tractor at age 10. I went on wheat harvests with my dad's family every summer from age 10 to age 17 driving combines.

I drove a pickup for the first time at age 11 because Grandpa and Uncle Jim went to a bar, got drunk, picked a fight with two guys much bigger and younger than they were, and no one else would go get them. Grandma died still mad at me for that; she wanted them to spend the night in jail, and we were supposed to leave for harvest in two days. Jail for them meant no harvest, and I wanted my share of the money.

I got my learner's permit on September 24, 1990, and scored a 93 on my driving test September 23, 1991.

Yeah I took driver's ed at 15 and got the license at 16. We had a great teacher. This one guy was always freaking out when pigeons strayed in front of the car. Teach was like "Now children, ignore dem birds walkin in front of duh car, if duh bird's too dumb to move out duh way it deserves to get hit real good."

i got my learners permit as soon as i could... which is 16 here.
got my provisional permit at 17.
and i was totally legal at 18.

glad i did it back then, because it now takes about 4 years rather than 2. with all sorts of added nasties like log books and such.

I was 13 or so, and boy, is it a horror story.

We had a ford festiva, and it was a standard. At my grandparents house, there's a black top driveway that is about 3/4 of a circle, sloped, with probably close to an 1/8 mile inbetween the house and the road. Hope you've got a decent idea of it. My mother decided the best way for me to learn to drive was to start at the top and go toward the road IN REVERSE. I ended up ruining the transmission, of course, which was an even larger issue because my father had just had a severe work related accident, and was out of work with no kind of disability yet. Needless to say, I didn't want to drive again for quite a while.

My dad used to let me steer while driving when I was preschool age. Then in first grade on the drive to school (rural area) we spotted one of our cows that had escaped the fencing. Dad wanted to chase it back the mile or so to our pasture, so he showed me how the pedals worked, and I drove along beside dad and the cow as he chased it back home.

Also our driveway was 1/2 mile long or so and in the sping would become a long mud bog. Dad would have to tow the truck in and out to the county road with the tractor, and I'd steer the truck as we went. This was around the same time.

Where I live in Canada at the time you could get your learners permit at 14, and going in to the DMV for the exam was my B-day present. Been on the road ever since...

Even have had a couple of "driving" jobs.

learners permit at 17 and then license just before i turned 18, although that was provisional and now i am fully legal :p
i don't have my own car though and generally take the bus to uni so i don't drive too much....

Awesome! Thanks for your replies, everyone! You've really helped me put this into perspective. The results are pretty much what I had expected, but I am glad to see that I'm not the only one who learns to drive way later than most (but still hasn't :D)

I started at 17 and got my lisence by 19.

Started driving tractors when I was about 8, moved onto cars at about 10. Not exactly a large police presence in that little town I was living in.

I'm with the under 11 crowd. Tractors at 10, trucks and cars from 13 on and didn't bother to get a licence til I was 19.

Permit at 15.

Phew. Thought I might be a bit old. I started at 14 when I got my learner's license.

i learned as soon as i was legally able too. age 15.5. I see no point in learning before the legal age anyhow. you cant really do much with your knowledge

When I was 14 or 15 my mom used to let me drive her car down my uncles driveway. He lived back in the woods, with a pretty long driveway. Got my learners permit when I was 15, but didn't get my license until I was 19.

always drove tractors and shit. When I was little I sat on laps and steered. When I was tall enough to reach the pedals in the car my dad would have me drive him to the city (150 miles) while he read the newspaper or a book. After he got remarried his new wife made him stop.

Got my license at 16.

on dirt roads in the country,my dad had me sitting on his lap, steering, when i was about 6. as soon as i could reach the pedals he started schooling me on how to do the rest.......growing up in michigan in the 70's things were extremely car-oriented. by the time i was legal to take driver's ed (16), i had been driving a manual oldsmobile for years. it was kind of a problem, 'cause the instructors wanted me to go much slower than i wanted to.........

i remeber sitting on my dads lap learning how to drive when i was in 4th grade

learned to drive when I was 17

mom went into a mental hospital, only good thing that came out of it was a hardship license when I was 15.