GLEN BURNIE, Md.—A new Android App to test drivers is now available from the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) at the Google Play Store. The mobile application can test driving knowledge with a driver test tutorial that has been added to the mobile device. The app, which is also available for iphone/ipad users, has already been downloaded by approximately 100,000. For those without access to mobile apps, an online version of the practice test can be accessed through the MVA’s website at http://www.mva.maryland.gov.
“Driving is a lifelong learning process,” said MVA Administrator John Kuo. “We encourage drivers to use the driver test tutorial, which is focused on behaviors that can affect the safe operation of a motor vehicle.”
The Android App, with up-to-date driver safety knowledge, can be used by anyone at anytime. Only about a quarter of all who take the MVA’s driver’s knowledge test know what a double broken yellow line means on each side of a lane. It is the edge of a reversible lane, and traffic may flow one way in the morning and in the opposite direction in the afternoon.
“Many experienced drivers can benefit from a refresher as driving laws and recommendations are changed every year,” added John Kuo. “We hope that the addition of the Android App will make it more convenient to engage not only new drivers, but experienced drivers.”
The MVA has also rewritten the driver education curriculum and regulations to emphasize successful public safety strategies and added an on-road component to the driving skills test. The graduated driving licensing laws have been revised to raise the provisional driving age to 16 years and 6 months and more enforcement for infractions have been added as well. Texting and handheld cell phone use is now banned in Maryland.
The MVA hopes the new online knowledge tutorial will enable more to pass the safety aspects of the law test. For example, less than half of all who have taken the tutorial know that they may not pass a vehicle that is stopped at a crosswalk. The MVA’s 25-question knowledge test for new drivers reflects what is in the revamped handbook and tutorial.
The Maryland practice driving test apps were developed at no charge for the MVA by NIC Inc., through a self-funded eGovernment services contract with the State Department of Information Technology (DoIT). The new Android App is just another way that the Maryland MVA is working Toward Zero Deaths, to drive down the number of fatalities on Maryland’s roadways to zero.
Source: Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA)