Plan to overhaul driving tests

If you haven't passed yet, you better do it quick as a new style driving test is probably going to cost a lot more


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7387384.stm

looks like a good idea but FIRST they want to sort out the current mess such as Illegal drivers,
Illegal Cars,
Untaxed cars,
Uninsured cars
And Immigrants who are driving Unlicensed (international driving license is only valid one year from date of entry to the UK unless they are from a EEC member state then their license is valid )

its already hard enough to pass

although the cost of learning to drive going up may be a good thing... there are too many people on the road already lol

Having held an A.D.I. "Badge" for 21 years, I've gone from idealist wanting change to a cynic having seen change come about by people who are not qualified to make it, employing consultants who have experience in classroom education but little or none of driver training. Recently, The Roads Minister admitted under questioning from a House of Commons Select Committee that the Hazard Perception Test had ".....brought about no discernible improvement in road safety....." Existing, admittedly poor in some cases, test centres are being closed down in favour of Multi-Purpose Test Centres which are better in most cases but are further away. The criteria for these centres is that no-one should have to travel more than 20 miles to have a test. That means that from West Manchester, for instance, candidates may have to travel to Warrington, as they may from Liverpool. To the East, people in Huddersfield may have to travel to Bradford and so on. My suggestion would be to leave the test unchanged but successful candidates would be limited to
1.3 litres and 60 bhp, restricted to keeping to within 20 miles from their home address and banned from Motorways and National Speed Limit roads. If they wish to do any of those things then they must take additional training. If you train to be a pilot you can't go straight on to an Airbus. You start off on a single engined Cessna or similar, then move on to twin prop, then maybe twin jet of a certain size etc., etc. Perhaps the most important thing is to impress on everybody wishing to take a driving test is the need for excellence. Not that you'll muddle through and then "....Really start to learn to drive when you've passed your test...." The day people pass the test, they drive with 100% discipline but 10% skill. As they progress, the skill level rises, the discipline decreases. Instead of 100% skill and 100% discipline drivers end up with 50% skill and 50% discipline. 75% of crashes in built up areas are at junctions, yet most are as a result of "Looked but did not see". Talk to a Paramedic (I'm married to a member of Ambulance staff) and they will tell you that drivers who cross their hands when cornering frequently punch themselves in the face when the airbag goes off. Hooking thumbs round the wheel rim results in broken or dislocated digits in a crash and when you sit with your feet on brake and clutch at the lights and get hit from behind broken ankles are frequently the result. In that rear ender, if you've left too little space between you and the car in front you get shoved into that if hit hard enough. Producing more tick boxes on forms isn't the answer, it's producing better drivers who have more skill than needed to operate a washing machine. The next stage? Periodic driving tests to a standard you would expect someone of 5 or more years experience to display. Yep, you heard it. Re-tests every 5 years. Pick the bones out of that one.

Beard, I am going to kill you. I hate your ideas.

Then I'm going to kill you Because I quite like them

it was the "every 5 years" thing that i took an immediate and violent dislike, nay, hatred to.

Take me as the average stereotypical young male driver, who isnt a "bad" driver as such, just one that hates tests, and the chance of failing which would not be good at all, for work or for social life.

But don't you want to get all the annoying people who pull out without looking, have lights on when they shouldn't and not when they should, don't understand how a traffic island or traffic lights work and drive at 40mph everywhere off the roads?

true

ok, maybe retests would be a good thing, even if it annoyed the majority of motorists.

but the ammount of bureaucracy that there is already, I'm considering being a gyppo.