I got a letter from the DMV yesterday. I have to go there and take a written test and a vision test to renew my license. I read the letter carefully. It asks if I have any disease or condition that hampers my abiity to drive. Well, I’ve been driving for more than thirty years and I have been in about 7 or 8 accidents and the only one that was my fault happened about a year ago. So I can truthfully answer that question, “No”. Some of my accidents were fender-benders. In two of them my car was considered totaled. I haven’t taken the written test for about 25 years. I remember when I took it last. I had full-blown schizophrenia;my disease was at it’s peak. But my parents came with me. The DMV is ALWAYS packed with people. I remember freaking out on the people around me while I did the test. They were taking drivers license photos behind me and I remember every time the “flash” went off I thought it had to do with my thoughts and so I was posing for each pic. Schizophrenia is bizarre, right? But yeah, looking back I amaze myself with certain things I’ve done like that experience. But I am a little worried about passing the test this time. I guess the best thing to do would be to go down there before the test and get that booklet they publish about driving and study it. Maybe they would even send me one in the mail. I have until my birthday on March 11th to renew my license.
Good luck on your test. It brings back fond memories of studying with my friends in High School. Happy times!
Why do they require a retest?
Jayster
I don’t know. Last time I renewed my license was about 7 years ago and I took a vision test but not a written test.
Odd. Okay, study for it, I advise!
Jayster
Oddly enough…
https://apps.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/dl600.pdf
The drivers hand book looks like it’s on-line.
Good luck.
@SurprisedJ. Thank you. That is a big help.
I always wondered how I should answer that question. They ask if I have a disease and whether or not it is bad for my driving. I mean I don’t want to answer wrong so I can drive but sometimes I feel like I am too afraid to drive because of my hallucinations
I have to try again to get my drivers licence on the 29th Jan. I hate these driving tests, they ask such stupid things from you in the car like putting a handbrake up at the stop street. I never even use a handbrake, I mean, I drive an automatic so I never need it. I’ve been driving for two years already, but am still legally a ‘learner driver’. I don’t know how some people on the road get their licences…
My driver’s license is valid until 2037, but I do not really need it because I have no automobile. I have never got any tickets, except a parking ticket to a rental car in Lisbon, Portugal because ‘Nelson’ who took 20 dollars did not guard this rental car. Even though I lived over two years in my auto in America I never got any tickets. I did have to go to the eye test few years ago to keep my driver’s license which was good because the eye doc found out I have glaucoma. Another eye doc took my license away for a week, but was returned after the second eye test with my glasses on.
Drivers licences have to be renewed every five years here in RSA. I was not sure that I was going to pass the eyetest at the licence office so I got a test and certificate from an optometrist which I presented to them. They accept it like that and I passed my renewal. I’m up for renewal in January 2018 again.
I have to have an annual driver’s license physical for my bus driver classification (school and regular passenger buses). My doctor is aware of my Sz, but does not regard it as a problem. Well-managed Sz should not be an impediment to driving a personal vehicle or even driving professionally. Having said that, if I’m having a bad day, I hang up my keys and stay home. Doesn’t happen often, but preserving my own sense of pride is not worth risking the safety of others, which could happen if I were to drive while distracted by symptoms.
10-96
Not even when you park on a hill or slope? Where I live, it is illegal to park a car without a functioning parking brake on a grade. Standards can pop out of gear and the parking pin that holds the vehicle in place on a hill can fail. We also use the parking brake on school buses when embarking and disembarking students. Failure to use the parking brake during embarking and disembarking is a major infraction.
10-96
When I first moved to California, I remember I failed my first written test because the laws were slightly different than in my home state. I studied the book in the lobby and took the test again the same day and passed. I don’t live in CA any more but I’ve had to take a written test a while back when I renewed. I think they do that to try and weed out old folks who shouldn’t be driving without being discriminatory. I mean if they do it to everyone then they aren’t discriminating. Good luck… Going to the DMZ is stressful for everyone but sz doesn’t make it any easier.