Gone are the days of your drivers manual reading like stereo instructions! Now there’s a fresh new take on the material you need to know to get your drivers license. Debbie Lazaga has more in this month’s Drivers Ed with Debbie.
If you’ll remember, back in the midst of the COVID lock down, the DMV changed up how people could get their driver licenses. Well, the process is back to the way it was before the pandemic. However, not everything is the same.
What HAS changed is the reference material your testing was based on, you know the Driver’s Motorist handbook.
The DOT’s Director of the Bureau of Driver Services, Corey Kleist says changes happen regularly, but this change was a bit different.
“Our focus wasn’t as much on changing content as it was on changing the readability,” explains Kleist.
It’s about making sure that the material you’re responsible to know is understandable.
Kleist says, “We had received feedback from some of the constituents, who said ‘I understand the material, but it’s complicated in the way that you’re wording things.’ so we worked to change that.”
The concepts are the same when it comes to safety and the rules around properly interacting with other drivers, pedestrians and everything, but it’s just worded differently.
“The previous motorists handbooks had been written at 12 grade reading level. Now, our 2024 revision is written in its entirety at a fifth or sixth grade reading level. The content is the same. You still have to know the same things but it’s just written in a plain language format that’s easier to understand,” explains Kleist.
We all know we have a reckless driving situation here in Milwaukee, and one of the many suggestions to help with the issue is education. Now that there there is the Driver Education Grant program funded by the 2023-2025 biennial budget, more people are going to be able to get the proper training to drive safely.
Kleist says, “We feel that drivers who have gone through driver training are safer, less likely to be reckless and that’s why we’ve been such strong advocates for driver training.”
And now, the information you need to learn will be easier to understand.
By the way, Wisconsin DMV dot gov has The motorist handbook is available for free as a PDF here, but there’s also practice tests you can take.
