Nido

here

More nanny state requests

Some poeple need more than a year, some people need days!

I'd done 15,000 miles on my fifty when 16, so had a fair idea of the rules of the road! Been driving on private land from about 12, test 2 days after 17th birthday no problem

Surely the whole point of the test is to see if you can drive at an acceptable level The duration of your lesson period is not equal to your standard of driving. I know people who have had lessons for 3 years and still can't drive for toffee

Hanley

Driving instructors will be rubbing their hands together

Ker-ching!!!

stilover

......

Abdabz

Simple way to start is to have a tiered licence system like with motorbikes. The car one being based on different tests allowing increases in power/rate ratio's or insurance grouped cars?
Pass Plus should be made compulsory and tougher also?
Age of driving raised to 21 maybe?

I dunno, these are all ideas that popped into my head when I was listening to other peoples ideas on the tele this morning

stilover

**** that. I learned to drive in my Dad's Cosworth. Once I'd passed, I was allowed to drive about in it. Friends were very jealous and life was good .......................... until I crashed it, D'oh

Nido

The "tiered" system I haven't got a problem with, just the having to have 12 months of lessons when you don't necessarily need them is what annoys me

Don't think the minimum age is the problem, raising it would just cause problems for people that live in rural areas, where transport is essential. Hence my 15,000 miles on my trusty 50

Thinking about it I don't suppose you can take your test near your 17th anymore anyway, as don't you have to pass the theory before you can apply for practical? I missed all that thankfully

Can you do your theory before 17th birthday

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

I don't really see the point of a tiered system, I'll wager the incidents involving young'uns are in their little hatch backs and Kev'd up 1.2l Fiestas and Novas, so don't see how it would stop this happening.

pwhittle

as a driver and trained driving instructor (which I don't do now BTW) I think the standard of training is the main issue with the pathetic standard of driving. Passing the test isn't that easy, unless you just keep taking it until you fluke it (I think there should be a 3 test limit, followed by more training). But drivers just aren't (in general) adequately trained for the state of the roads now.

There's a good arguement for making the test considerably more taxing (like the one instrutors do), which would in the vast majority of cases increase the amount of training people had before taking it.

this proposal probably isn't fair to some new drivers, but having seen the standard of road awareness of most 16 year old's riding chicken-chasers like lunatics, I don't want them driving cars anywhere near me...

PaulC72

So if the training isn't good enough maybe they need to start at the beginning and make it harder to become a driving instructor, especially as there seems to be an influx of new instructors around these days maybe they are not training people good enough or putting them for the test too early.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Thats a bit mental isnt it, giving a young, inexperienced driver a Sierra Cosworth, must be trying to get rid of you.

Saying that a lad I used to work with has had an Elise, Tickford Capri, Cossie etc all before being 25 without (major) incident.

Generic User

I agree...a 500cc Axiam could as easily kill somebody as a 1200cc fiesta or a 2000cc Mondeo. So treating them as different based on the driver's responsibility and ability is not the best solution.

I still find it barmy that they request all of this but I see no mention of real testing or practical tution on motorways

Nido

I think that's beacause of us yokels

Where I lived when doing my test was hours away from the nearest motorway. In saying that I agree that there should be some form of training before you can use them, don't know how that would work though.

The std of motorway driving in the UK is terrible, particularly around holiday times (christmas etc) when I tend to be back. People that haven't used the motorways since last years trip to Aunty Ethel are the worst, thankfully you can spot them a mile off (driving gloves, pristine A reg Maestro, lots of grey heads sitting in back )

richs2891

Personally dont think that its just the youngsters that need better driver training - its the majority of drivers that I feel would benefit from continued driver re education every five years or so.


Richard

OllyK

I admire the attempt to improve driver standards for a change, I just don't think this is the way to do it. More training does not mean better training.

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

You should see the road sense(or lack of it) of the 16 year olds driving around like ***** around here on their 50 cc mopeds. I live about 400 yds away from the local college and they are forever driving inches from cars bumpers.

TonyG

Hmm, does anyone else spot the slight flaw in this? There's no mention of how many lessons need to be taken, so I guess you could have one lesson a month (12 lessons) rather than 1 lesson per week (52 lessons) and still comply with the rule.

Moley

iTrader: (9)

Couldn't agree more.

The experience of drivers isn't the issue, its their mentality.

My girlfriend lives opposite 3 teenagers, and their mates are forever driving up and down the road (a cul-de-sac) as quick as they can. Is only a matter of time untill their is an accident.

Jerome

In Ontario they have a motorway (highway) part of the test. However, the standard of driving on these highways is much much worse than the UK. Worse than anywhere in Europe I've driven and only marginally better than the middle east (and at least they get 76 virgins if they screw up).

I agree we need some form of motorway testing, but it needs to be much more demanding than anything Ontario throws at you and separate to the normal test - which really doesn't reflect real life driving anyway.

bigsinky

you guys on the mainland are lucky. in norn iron we have to put up R plates for a year before we can do more than 45mph