Driving

Driving in Moldova is a man's thing. I can probably count on one
hand the number of times I've seen a female mini-bus driver in
Chisinau, and I know only a few women in my entire village who even
know how to drive, let alone possess a license. This would seem to
place women in a less independent position than men. If a family
owns a car, the woman must always wait for a man to go anywhere. I
can't help but imagine this situation in my own family in America.
If my Mom needed my Dad to drive her everywhere she wanted to go, one
of two things would happen: (1) my Dad would never go to work because
he would driving Mom all over town, or (2) Mom would never leave the
house because Dad would need the car for his own tasks. From an
economic standpoint, this would seem a waste of time and labor, not
to mention chauvinistic.

Considering this situation, I was excited to learn of at least two 17-
year old women, Anna and Maria, in my village who are attending
classes to learn how to drive. [In Moldova, you can get your license
when you're 18.] However, when I learned the details of the process
from Anna, my excitement ceased. Getting a license here is pretty
damn expensive!

First, the girls had to pay 1200 lei ($90, though the price has since
gone up to 1350) in order to attend a 3-month long course. Each
class is 3-4 hours long and meets 2-3 times per week in a classroom.
Although payment for this class is mandatory, attendance is not.
Several of the students, who believe that they already know the rules
of the road skip the classes. In addition to this classwork, Anna
chose to get optional driving lessons at 75 lei a pop. She's taken
about 10 lessons. Then all students are required to pay about 300
lei for their actual driving exam. The exam is similar to the
driving test that nearly all American teenagers take when they get
their licenses, except a police officer administers the test from the
passenger seat and there's not parallel parking "question."

I've just told you that Anna's family will spend about 2300 lei for
her to get her license - plus there's the possibility that she may
need to give a 200 lei "gift" to the test administrator in order to
make sure she actually passes the test. So, if we assume 2500 lei,
that's about $190 just to get a license. Bear in mind that a
starting teacher makes about 600 lei per month.

In light of this cost, I can understand why a family might choose to
only get a license for one child, or for no children at all. Anna's
parents deserve some applause for breaking with tradition and helping
their daughter learn to drive. Hopefully she will use this privilege
to go places (figuratively, and literally) and leave on the curb her
way of thinking that men are inherently better drivers. [Someone
remind me that I said this the next time I go to make a joke about
women drivers...]

I don't remember exactly how much I paid to get my NJ license, but I
doubt it was so much - and it was nowhere near being over one-third a
starting teacher's salary. I also don't think I spent over 100 hours
in a classroom to learn how to drive.

What I do remember - and I'd welcome some comments here from those
who recall the process more clearly than I - is having a 3-week cycle
of my high school gym class that was devoted to driver education.
Assuming a 40-minute class, 5 days a week for 3 weeks, this means I
spent about 10 hours in a classroom. I, like Anna, also took
optional driving lessons, but I think I only took 2 of them and I
have no idea how much they were. The actual examination and license
was probably around $45.