princessyin

does anyone know whether the law has been passed about the learning age for driving changes from 17 to 18 and which year/age group this would effect, eg. the law will apply to people born after 1989 etc?

Mica Blue

Bloody hope not! There would be chaos on the roads! Uninsured / under aged drivers etc..

How do the government expect people to get to college? on a bus? yer right!

Seems a stupid idea IMO

BedHog

What's the point?

Surely insurance costs these days keep most young people off the road - or at least in slow old bangers!

If this is the case then hopefully they will do something about all the old codgers who are much more dangerous......

princessyin

would be a big loss to driving instructers cos theres bound to be a loophole with the age limit being moved up, plus my brothers been nagging me to ask cos he's worried about the age being moved up the exact year he was hoping to drive, which is next year.

chenko

Im sure this came up last year, and the year before, and the year before...

anyone stopped to consider truth?

billythekid

there are no plans to change the driving age limits.

Dream Weaver

Sign of the times

When i was at college very few of us had our own cars, probably about 30 people max out of 100's

And mine was a knackered MG Metro

suprabeast

they've been sugguesting this idea since i learnt to drive which was 5 years ago...

...doubt anything will happen

Dr Hu

I reckon they should increase it to 21........

(ducks for cover )

But I'm being serious..........

AvalancheS8

Perhaps they believe that most people are capable of walking or riding a bike if they refuse to take a bus.... FFS, get a moped if you can't be bothered to propel yourself.

Leslie

Bedhog,

The only problem with older people driving is the impatient and selfish behaviour demonstrated towards them by young drivers.

Remember that if you shout about getting the older drivers banned from the roads then one day in the future you too will suffer the same as they surely would. The lack of public transport hits them harder than anyone.

Les

Avi

This has been coming up every year since 98

Dream Weaver

Or the fact they can barely see over the steering wheel, dont know how to use roundabouts, and have no idea what speed limits are for. They travel along at 40mph in a 60 NSL zone, but then continue through busy villages at 40 rather than reducing down to 25/30

tucker101uk

damn right i agree dream weaver - i have had so many cases where older drivers, and i dont mean OLD, just OLDER, have cut me up, or pulled out in front of me on roundabouts, etc...

I dont think young drivers should be penalised as harshly on insurance... I was having this conversation with a 67 year old the other day... talking about using the engine for breaking, i said fair enough as long as you rest your foot on the brake to show your brake lights, to which he addimantly replied "dont be so stupid - its the person behind who should be watching the gap between you and them all the time" (therefore having no time to pay attention to the road!!!)

AAAAAH! i said... so thats why its illegal to have one or more brake lights faulty... i see...

john_s

iTrader: (1)

This runour was going round before i was old enough to drive... think it's one that passes round all schools / colleges amongst the 16 year olds!

John.

imlach

Sign of the times I'm afraid.....lazy youth of today seem to think it is a right to own a car as soon as they turn 17

I can honestly say that on my Engineering degree course in Edinburgh (1988-92), the class was probably 200 people - of which perhaps 5 had cars.

Too many lazy ******* being brought up today

Tim-Grove

17 18 whats the difference?? might as well make it 20

imlach

...err, and why not? The biggest risk of any age group is the very young - hence the high premiums....you don't expect the insurance companies to run young people's insurance at a loss do you?

It'll always remain high - mixture of youthful exuberance, immortality (perception of!), and inexperience makes for an explosive premium

j.r-xrs

Personally I can't see that moving the age around will help with the number of accidents new drivers have. There is lots of data around stating that more accidents occur due to inexperience, rather than an individual’s actual age.

I think the way to go is IQ testing and character statements, if your considered to responsible enough to own a car then you can get a provisional licence. This might stop misbehaving at school if teachers judged in some way, it would be something other than exams riding on school, may keep more people interested etc.!

As many people have said before, this is just a rumour and has been around for years!

Leslie

Dream Weaver, I have seen just as many instances where your post could be largely applied to young drivers, except that they are often doing 60+ through the built up areas, and considerably faster than the NSL everywhere else, dangerously so.

Tucker101 etc. You were rambling on about engine braking and brake lights, I really found it difficult to follow what you meant. Or why it was significant about the other man's age. In fact if I worked it out correctly, then he was talking common sense, if you take your foot off the throttle then the driver behind should be able to detect that you are slowing down without the need for brake lights. The brake lights indicate a more significant speed reduction when you apply the brakes. Useful for inexperienced drivers!

The fact is, the roads are there for us to be able to get from place to place and not for practising how to be a racing driver. Those of us who like to drive fast have to realise that others have a perfect right to drive more slowly and therefore deserve some consideration. Elderly people just require a bit of thought and understanding, its all down to having a bit of patience and just a little generosity for a change. It will come to us all-even you perhap's. Your sense of superiority over the elderly is very much misplaced.

Les

Dracoro

Check out this thread http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=326871