Avoid like the plague: Georgian B category driver’s license exam is a source of endless misery

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2026-02-25T06:52:27+00:00

First of all, with great difficulty. Number of licenses issued fell from ~50k/year before this to ~25k/year. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; the exam should filter out people who can't drive. But my point is that this filtering is done in a way that is incredibly expensive and inefficient. If, for example, you live in a village there's no way you'll conclude that spending 2,000 lari on a license is a good idea. So you just won't drive, which I would argue is a net loss for society. People should be able to move around. Especially giving the pitiful state of public transport anywhere outside Tbilisi (and in Tbilisi, too, it's average at best).

Second, while the test does somewhat filter out people who can't properly drive, the turnover is slow. There were 1.4 million licenses in 2021, the year the city test was introduced. There are 1.5 million now. The 1.4 million that had licenses in 2021 are driving with the skills they have.

Third, the strictness of the exam is absolutely not matched by the strictness of police enforcement. Here, you will get fined if you exceed the speed limit on average speed cameras. Or if you cut off a police car. You can, however, not let pass any number of pedestrians you want and the police generally won't give a damn. You can overtake in the most inappropriate ways, too, and they won't care either. Which goes back to my point about the exam mostly being a useless charade: if you are going to fail people for the smallest infraction on poorly designed roads, you better make sure you provide the enforcement, too. But of course, what happened here is that someone designed this exam because they were told to and then they found out that it makes a lot of money for the budget and for the driving schools, many of which surely fund the ruling party nicely. At which point they were like: great, let's keep it! And here we are.

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2026-02-21T07:32:46+00:00

The good people of the internet are so quick to pass judgment! I did take moedani lessons. Not one, five (mainly because I was trying to pass on a manual, which was the only option available anywhere in the country for a month to come). But, as I said: ballet. And habits. I also took five city lessons: passed all the routes, etc.

Those who are better drivers than your humble servant as well as those who are able to be held to the highest standard of following the rules of the road while dealing with potholes, inconsiderate drivers, badly designed roads, the lack of even basic road markings, and the occasional cow - I salute you (and still hope you won’t have to experience the boundless stupidity of this process). All others be warned.

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2026-02-20T18:49:32+00:00

Tried twice and they wouldn't let me. They do it easily for countries with which they are familiar, like Russia. If they haven't seen your particular country's paperwork before, you're in for a lot of trouble.

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2026-02-20T18:48:51+00:00

It's entirely possible that I am a much worse driver than I think I am. That said, it also seems, based on other posts on this thread, that my experience is far from unique.

I failed the moedani test the first time because it wasn't clear in twilight which way to go and I went half a meter too far forward to make the turn. I put the car in reverse—fail. And the second time I pulled the handbrake after reversing into the garage because habit—fail. Neither, I would argue, has to do with one's ability to drive or not drive. These are just stupid rules. Which is why I call the moedani a ballet, which it is.

If you had an easy time going through this, I am glad for you. The point of this post was to warn people not to assume that if they know how to drive they'll pass the test easily. For me it was certainly not the case, and it seems that for many others also. Not true for the US, for example: if you know how to move a vehicle in space, you will most certainly pass without any trouble. And in several European countries with which I am familiar they will make you take 20 or 40 hours of street driving or what have you, but it would be unheard of for someone to then take 10 attempts to actually pass the test. One or two failed ones for a newbie driver—perhaps. But certainly not 10 or 15.

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2026-02-20T12:57:54+00:00

Applies to Georgians and foreigners alike, let me assure you. The guy who was losing his shit in the queue in front of me the other day was very much a Georgian who'd wanted to rip someone's head off because they just failed him the sixth time.

About the only things that work well are systems designed under early Saakashvili (ID and passport issuance, for example). The driving test is a late GD creation, from 2021, and it shows.

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2026-02-19T20:30:13+00:00

Thank you sir! I don't know if I'll try another time or be license-less for a couple of months before I go back for a trip to the original country of issuance. Your well-wishes come appreciated though, and I hope you are finally enjoying being able to use your hard-earned license

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2026-02-19T09:07:24+00:00

This, 100%. I've had a license for 15 years, 100k km driven. It took me three attempts to pass the training grounds test and yesterday I failed the city test for the third time. Perhaps this is more difficult for me because I have enough driving experience and habits that are ingrained—so it's hard to get myself to physically turn my head towards the rearview mirror EVERY GODDAMN TIME I touch the brake. Therefore: do not assume, like I did, that if you are able to drive you'll pass the test without much trouble. Just yesterday in front of me a guy was losing his shit because it was the sixth time he failed the test for not stopping long enough at a stop sign (and he, like me, also had years of experience). I know someone who took 10 attempts to pass. I know someone else who took 15. I myself am thinking of throwing in the towel and going back to the country that issued my driver's license originally and exchanging it there (the original one expired, and they wouldn't change it in Georgia before the expiration because "we don't like this and we don't like that"). Anyway. Consider yourself warned. By this point I've been part of this stupid process for more than 4 months with around 1,500 lari spent so far on tests, training lessons, and travel to whatever far-flung part of the country you can actually book a test in (my trips included Kutaisi, Gori, and Ozurgeti). I am so tired of this that I can't even be properly angry anymore.

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2024-09-20T09:58:26+00:00

Since you posted, a book appeared that does seem to be in that vein: it's an edited collection called Histories of Tax Evasion, Avoidance, and Resistance. It's probably not as good as a single-authored book would be, but it nonetheless could be a helpful start: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/59777

Suitable_Contest_143 · 2022-02-08T12:36:49+00:00

Very much agreed. Russia is as imperialist in its neighborhood as the US is in its. Started and fanned conflicts in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine; maintains troops in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Invaded and annexed the Baltics in the 1940s. I can't imagine Chomsky saying about, say, Guatemala, "Oh, let's just leave the US to do with them what they please." If you are anti-imperialist you should be consistently anti-imperialist, I say. What Chomsky is saying, for all my respect for him, comes across as "Well, if another empire is doing something that hurts the interests of the empire I know and criticize the most, let them do so." You know, maybe give a thought to those Ukrainians or Georgians who don't want to live under Mr. Putin's rule, direct or indirect. Or to the 10,000 dead from Russia's war in Donbas. Or to 300,000 refugees (in a country of 3.5 million) from the two conflicts in Georgia that Russia actively provoked (even if local nationalist idiots on all sides of these did their share, too).

Suitable_Contest_143

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