← Back to context

Comment by jnovek

17 days ago

I’m an American and my vision, fully corrected, is right at the legal borderline to get a license without restrictions. I’ve never “failed” a vision exam at the DMV; one time the clerk even said, “good enough”. (Don’t worry, I never drive, I only keep my license up to date for serious emergencies).

13 comments

jnovek

Reply
AustinDev  17 days ago

A serious emergency isn't going to be helped by someone with very little driving experience. I don't follow your reasoning. If it was a serious emergency who would care if you had a license?

  • margalabargala  17 days ago

    People think about things differently. It may be that for OP, "but I don't have a license" would cause a second thought and waste time in an emergency. They may be self aware enough to head that off.

  • zdragnar  17 days ago

    A police officer would. The penalty for an accident might be negligent driving.

    The penalty for an accident without a license is, at minimum, driving without a license. You're also not likely to be covered by insurance without one either, even if you're not at fault.

    • xboxnolifes  17 days ago

      Sure, if you assume the one time they end up driving leads to an accident, which is a crazy assumption.

      There are bad drivers out there right now, driving every day that rarely or never get into an accident.

      1 reply →

orochimaaru  17 days ago

You also need a drivers license that doubles up as a real id if you want to travel by air. So the issuance of a DL isn't just for driving.

I'm not sure if they give regular state id's as real id.

  • mikkupikku  17 days ago

    This is one of the strangest internet myths. Every single state in America will issue a photo ID which is fully equivalent to a drivers license for every purpose other than permitting you to drive.

    Also, you don't need "Real ID" to fly no matter what they say. You don't even need a photo ID at all (although they'll force you to waste time if you don't have one. I found this out when I lost mine but still had to travel.)

    • lostlogin  17 days ago

      Here in New Zealand you don’t need any ID to fly (nationally), so even the claim that ID is required is shaky.

  • labcomputer  17 days ago

    You can also get a passport card. It's meant as a substitute for a passport for re-entry to the US by land or sea, but it counts as a Real ID (tm).

  • rootusrootus  17 days ago

    At least in Oregon they definitely do offer non-driver real ID cards. I’d guess that’s likely true everywhere.