I got my G1 today, so I can now officially drive a car (with a co-driver who has had their license for 4 years or more). The test is a joke, and not even a cruel one at that; they ask you what a stop sign means...what gives? I'm not saying the test has to be a full-on exam, but at least choosing signs that people CONFUSE (as opposed to willfully ignore) in real-world driving as questions might encourage young driver-aspirants to perhaps study a little. You have to be 18 to vote here, but do they test your political knowledge? Nope. You have to be 19 to consume alcohol, but they don't test you to see if you know exactly what it does to you. But they give you an easy little test, and at 16, you can drive a one-tonne vehicle at up to 80 km/h.
For the interested among you, that's 1000kg moving at 22m/s. Stop that car in the space of a second (for example), and it stops in 11m. The energy release is nearly 250 000J (if my calculations are correct). An uninformed vote, too much alcohol, and one wrong move in a car...they're all - obviously - very dangerous. If an easy test at 16 can let me do one of those things, why can't I prove to my city, Province, and/or Country that I will not abuse the right to vote? Or prove that I know well enough not to drink too much?
Am I crazy? Do you even need to ask? Seriously, though...why do we make the silliest rules, and then enforce them for fear of admitting they need to change? There either need to be better rules, or less rules. I dunno which is better than the other, but either one beats the status quo.
In other news, I know a guy who is starting a Firefly RPG campaign. I guess I'll need some old-west Threads, and a dollar-store six-shooter capgun for effect. Can't take the sky from me......
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