How long is the braking distance? That’s one of the 20 questions asked of 3,500 drivers in an ADAC test. However, not all participants answered correctly.
Most German drivers have massive gaps when it comes to traffic knowledge. In a recent ADAC test, the 3,500 participants were only able to answer just under half of 20 selected original questions from the driver’s license test, as the traffic club announced on Thursday.
Only two percent of the participants, all of whom had a driver’s license, managed to get at least 17 correct answers. The test persons performed best when asked about the distance rule. “Half the speedometer reading in meters” knew 87 percent. At least 80 percent also answered correctly questions about how long it took for alcohol to be broken down to one per mille, correct behavior at cyclist protection lanes and priority when turning.
The greatest shortcomings were found when it came to the question of which cars require a fine dust sticker. It was answered correctly by only six percent. When talking on the phone in the car, twelve percent knew. Less than a quarter also answered questions about driving physics in curves and using the fog lights correctly.
However, the answers presented to the participants were not chosen at random. According to the ADAC, the focus was on common causes of accidents in driving behavior and on test questions that are still relatively new in the repertoire. That could explain to some extent why younger drivers in particular did well in the test.
The drivers’ own assessments often did not correspond to what they knew. According to the ADAC, those who rated their traffic knowledge much better than the others did worse in the test.
