SiDHEaD

Do people think this would help raise the standard of driving in this country and weed out some of the really crap drivers?

* The test should NOT be used as a money-making exercise (difficult one for our government!!)

* Policing aside (difficult one), if you fail, you are given a month's grace to retake and pass - this is mainly to prevent people losing their jobs.

Discuss, and VOTE

Flame suit already zipped up, and I am hiding in a lead bunker

Andy

hades

I'll answer the question with another question or two (perhaps I should be a politician):

1. Do any people honestly believe that passing the existing test actually represents being able to drive to a reasonable standard?

2. Are the "really crap drivers" actually people who took their tests years ago and have gone downhill big time since?

3. Is perhaps the problem that the existing test is too easy to pass? Would a more challenging or multi-stage test to make sure people could actually drive well be of more benefit?

IMHO, the answer to the first 2 questions is no, hence I will vote "no" in your poll. The third question might be more interesting

Edit to add - I'm not saying the principle of re-assessment is necessarily wrong, just that I don't think retaking the existing driving test is the answer.

Dracoro

The scheme would cost bucketloads to run. The money would be better spent on more traffic policemen and media campaigns to educate the drivers on the road.

If you get convicted of a serious motoring offence (I don't mean 33 in a 30 Tony B.Liar!) or get banned for any period then you should have to retake your test.

Anyway, the government aren't interested in raising standards, as long as people get from a to b somehow without killing each other then that's fine by them. There's nothing to gain, monetary or politically. There's better stuff to spend the money on (if only they would!!! )

Sith

The test centers are overloaded as it is. Would be nice but not possible IMO.

boomer

No!

It would cost a fortune, and be an impossible logistical mightmare.

As Dracoro says, far better to spend the money on more Police who are actually out on the streets and roads and enforcing the laws that we already have!

How often do you see non-foggy foglighters, members of the motorway centre lane owners club, two wheels on the pavement parkers, box-junction blockers, night-time no-lights cycle on the pavement brigade, three cars through after the lights go red and other such law breakers get nicked?

And how often do the come to a halt at clear roundabouts, steering with a *** between their fingers, change lane without indicating, three mountain bikes obscuring the rear number plate and lights and similar imbeciles get stopped and the error of their ways explained?

We have enough rules already - we just need to enforce them correctly!

mb

V45DSM

IMO if you fail your test 4 times you should not be allowed to take it for a further 2 years. All these people who fail upto 30 times should not be allowed on the road. If you sit the test over and over again sooner or later you're gonna have an exceptional day and pass. Everyone who receives a driving ban should have to re-take their test.

Chip

Teach people to drive properly in the first instance and not just to pass a test which is what happens now.

I think all drivers should be taught to the same standard and sit the same typoe of test as an HGV driver has to. Saying that even the HGV test has been dumbed down from what it used to be.

Chip.

ajm

Voted no - they should instead concentrate on filtering out the chaff that gets through the first test!

BexTait

Driving's a lifelong learning curve anyway (or that's what my examiner told me). It's a good idea in principle, but would be expensive to run, for some people especially (oooo look, it's a roundabout and there's cars on it, never mind, I have right of way...). Perhaps be made to take a test similar to the ADI one?

ed_the_duck

The existing test is easy, but to someone learning for the first time it is pretty tough.
Re-testing is a good idea....... after three years driving it is going to seem easy. If you gonna have to spend time and money on another test then it may as well be a test that develops the experience and skill gianed in the last 3 years (kill two birds with one stone).

jaf01uk

I reckon they should do the same as bikes, limit new drivers to smaller engines and outputs, at the moment rich kids pass their test in something like a 1.0 corsa and then daddy buys them a high performance motor, recipe for disaster as I have witnessed on a number of occasions. I once picked up an 18 year old fisherman who had just written off a BMW who took great delight in telling me it was his 6th write off!! When I asked him how the hell he got insurance he said that the fishing boats insurance
covered him!!

Should be mentioned that driving is a privilege not a right!

Tiggs

all new drivers should have THE SAME CARS to drive for the next 5 years, some little 900cc smart car thing.

it would act like school uniform does to kids fashion......it would kill it! no one with big exhausts, no need to show off, no need to race BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL IN THE SAME CAR!!!

SiDHEaD

Maybe not 5years! i'd still be in one now

MarvSTi5

Totally in agreement with jafO1uk

Also reckon that those who have just passed their test should display green L plates for a year and be speed restricted (like they do in Ireland).

Jerome

In Canada you have to renew your licence every 5 years. You don't have to retake the test, but you do have to go in person to a test centre and take an eye test.

If a new driver reaches a certain number of points within 2 years of passing their test, they have to do a retake.

Also, to get a full licence takes 3 tests: - The first is a written test on the highway code, the second one on a test centre track to ensure you have good car control, and a third one on the road, which includes motoways. I've taken the first and third tests and they were fairly straightforward. There are restrictions on alcohol etc for provisional drivers.

Despite all this, Canadian drivers are ****e.

Chris L

Not sure how practical it would be to retest 20 million drivers every three years! However, there are things they could do like making advanced driving training compulsory after gaining your basic license. If you don't do it, you would be restricted as to the type of car you could drive (say, set the limits based on engine size or power, like motorbikes). I would also like to see them introduce compulsory eye tests at least every 3 years.

Anyone who wears glasses (me included) will tell you how much your eyes can change in 1 or 2 years. It staggers me that there is no legal requirement to have suitable eyesight to drive a car! The problem certainly gets worse as you get older. Eyesight will worsen and I hate to think of the number of people who suffer from night blindness / tunnel vision currently driving in the UK!

If the government was truely interested in improving road safety, it would have taken steps like this many years ago and not bothered with cash generating speed (sorry, safety) cameras.

Chris

Leslie

Re-testing would be very expensive, impossible to administrate, and would not really do any good anyway. After the test everyone would go back to their old ways.

Best is to have stringent penalties for bad driving and make people who offend pay for a driving course as happens now. The courses do a great deal of good.

Les

hades

Chris - there is a legal requirement to have "suitable" eyesight to drive a car (same limit as per the driving test, number plate at ?20m? in good daylight), although it's down to you to inform the DVLA if you haven't rather than on them to test you. It is an offence to drive with eyesight below that limit.

Always frightens me when I hear the stats that 1 in 7 drivers (or whatever) are below that standard. At my last eye test, I was told I'd just scrape through the legal limit for driving without glasses. I have worn glasses for driving for years. If I don't, I'd have to slow down for all the motorway signs if I want to read all of them, and the like, and it just feels wrong.

edit to add - the other proof of it is once comparing lap times on a Kart circuit between wearing glasses and not. I was quite a lot quicker when I could see well. Remember this is comparing good against just legal vision, not against illegally bad.

Nexuas

Think they should concentrate their efforts on getting all the unlicenced, banned, and illegal drivers/cars off the road first.

Once everyone one on the road is law abiding i.e. Road fund tax, MOT, insurance, driving licence, then they can look at improving the standards.

Does anybody know the results from the great british driving test that they did on ITV about a month back. I saw the start of this and at one point only 60% of the audience were on target to pass the test AND THEY WERE ALL BRITISH DRIVERS!!!!!!

I would be happy to take a retest (Think maybe 1st retest after 3 years then at 5 year intervals after that,) but I would rather everyone on the road around me have a legal, valid driving licene. Also think there should be a ZERO ALCOHOL level for driving, it has been proved that you are still a danger when under the legal limit!!!

Sorry to rant.

lmsbman

Most Police forces run a driver improvement scheme. Basically, if you are reported for a minor careless driving and have no similar convictions, then you will be offered driver improvement rather than going to court. You have to pay for the course (approx £120) and complete it satisfactorily. This stops people who make minor mistakes from getting points and hopefully makes them better drivers.

Scooby96

Re-test anyone banned IMO but the original testing needs to be more stringent

angrynorth

This is a good idea, I've been arguing the benefits of a scheme like this for years. Think of the benefits, the roads will be quieter due to people who are incapable of driving e.g. some elderly, yobbish drivers, people with dodgy eyesight etc. They would all fail the tests.

Insurance premiums in the long run would reduce, you would get less little bumps in car parks. I do think they should place more emphasis on knowing the correct driving style for the conditions/road/car though.

It would make the roads safer, and would encourage people to keep their driving skills up at the top level. I would happily retake my test every year if that meant I could remove some of the idiots who don't even know whose go it is on a roundabout.

If I failed? (which i wouldn't of course ) Nobody to blame but me, I'd have to make sure my driving was good enough before I put your family in danger by not being able to drive to a good standard.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Something needs to be done in one way or another....There is virtually no police enforcement on driving standards anymore. Everything is too dependant on cameras

As everyone knows, cameras don't catch dangerous or bad, or just poor drivers.

Either re-testing, or more REAL enforcement. I don't care...just as long as it keeps everyone up to scratch and out of my way

jaf01uk

These are a good idea, but apart from pass plus and the IAM (who have a bit of an image problem at the moment) there is very fiew opportunities for jo public to improve their skills even if they want to, why not make these available without having to commit an offence first,

PS. I dont mean track craft type off road courses, I refer to real life on road stuff

T.C

This issue was actually raised in parliament a few weeks ago.

Mr Dhanda, MP for Gloucester, inquired about drivers being retested for their driving licence on a regular basis.

Kim Howells, Minister of state said that the Government does not consider that regular retesting of all drivers would be a proportionate measure to deliver road safety benefits. Courts already have powers to require those drivers who offend to undergo a driving test. Where a driver is guilty of a serious offence, this involves an extended length driving test.

What he is really saying is that they won't impliment it because it is a guaranteed vote loser.

jaf01uk

This countries answer to everything really, address the problem after the event, they try to justify scameras as road safety when really they dont give a crap about addressing the real issue, driver education! they dont care how many accidents there are as long as they happen within the speed limit, how blinkered is that? Procurator Fiscal (CPS in England) in our area has instructed police not to prosecute careless and wreckless driving unless someone is injured!? but dont you dare do 73mph on a deserted A road at midnight or you'll have an appointment with the beak. Double standards?

PS. An example of this is the cockle pickers, the locals have been reporting illegal workers for ages and nothing was done? These lives could have been saved!
Rant over, thank you,
Gary

SiDHEaD

Has no benefit because it doesn't bring in a laod of dollar like scameras!!

Andy

Leslie

AngryNorth,

It must be really wonderful to be so elitist that you can run the abilities down of so many others on the road in such a superior manner. You must tell us all how you do it.

When you find that your faculties are not as they were in future years, will you be honest enough to surrender your licence?

Les

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Before they can bring in a law like this they need to 100% improve the public transport system, most people are dependent on their cars whether you like it or not, how do you propose they go shopping etc if they have no car and can not rely on the bus.