SUV license.

it should be required that you have a completely separate license to be allowed to drive an SUV. today on the freeway, it took a woman driving a Lexus SUV fifteen seconds to change lanes. she turned her signal on, so being behind a bit, i waited for her to come in. she took about 15 seconds to look, then double check then triple check and even slowed down a bit during the process.

if it takes a “normal” driver 15 seconds to change lanes because you are having trouble seeing out the back of your own SUV…  you should receive additional training.

then i thought about our licensing system and there’s something stupid about it.

a C license allows you to drive any vehicle below the weight of 26,000 lbs. a B license lets you drive a vehicle over that amount.

26,000 lbs.

most likely you learned how to drive in a car weighing about 2,500-3,000 lbs. and currently are driving a car in the same ballpark. so, why would a C license allow you to drive anything that’s even close to 26,000 lbs? for example, a school bus weighs 22,000 lbs. if you’ve never driven a school bus before, i guarantee you won’t be competent driving a school bus through traffic your first time.

in fact, the C license shouldn’t even allow you to drive anything near 10,000 lbs. which is why we should have something in the middle- a C2 license (aka SUV license). in a better world, a C2 license is required to drive anything the size of an SUV or larger (large trucks included). tired of seeing all these huge SUV’s on the road with a tiny woman behind the wheel? me too, and with the C2 license i assure you will see less of that.

in fact, they should make a rule- if you have difficulty climbing into an SUV you shouldn’t even be allowed to have a C2 license. you know the saying: if you can’t lift a ladder, don’t be a fireman.