In Britain you're allowed to drive a car when you are seventeen. You have to get a special two year driving license before you can start. When you are learning, someone with a full license always has to be in the car with you because you aren't allowed to drive the car on the road alone. You don't have to go to a driving school- a friend can teach you. The person with you isn't allowed to take money for the lessons unless he's got a teacher's license. Before you are allowed to have a full license, you have to take a driving test. You can take a test in your own car, but it has to be fit for the road. In the test you have to drive round for about half an hour and then answer a few questions. If you don't pass the test, you're allowed to take it again a few weeks later if you want to. In 1970 a woman passed her fortieth test after 212 driving lessons! When you have passed your test, you don't have to take it again, and you are allowed to go on driving as long as you like, if you are healthy. Britain's oldest driver was a man who drove in 1974 at the age of 100. Before 1904 everyone was allowed to drive, even children. Then from 1904 car drivers had to have a license. But they didn't have to take a test until 1935. In the early days of car driving, before 1878, cars weren't allowed to go faster than four miles an hour, and someone had to lead a car with a red flag.
