Watching BBC Breakfast this morning, the guests are the brother and mother of a young man who ended up killing himself in a car crash. They’re speaking about campaigning for graduated driving licences for younger drivers.
I’d be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on this, especially as it’s something that could impact our older cadets. Indeed, I very vaguely remember losing a loose friend from a different squadron when he was 18 and lost control of his car.
I’ve seen this work well in New Zealand, where there are restrictions on alcohol intake, power of the car/engine size and numbers of passengers, as well as driving at night. But do you feel it’s something that would work here and if so which restrictions should be implemented?
Same thing happens in Canada, and yes it’s a good idea. For those in work or education in particular there would have to be considerations about travel during unsocial hours in regard to travelling to and from their place of employment to home.
I’m 100% behind graduated licences. We already have it (to some extent!) with motorbikes; and whilst it doesn’t entirely remove risk, I believe it’s saved many lives already.
Applying the same logic to 4 wheeled metal boxes of death could also help reduce the number of incidents with young inexperienced drivers damaging themselves and their mates.
New Zealand and Australia both have variations of graduated licences too - and have done for many years too!
I wonder if this is just an extension of moped/scooter licencing as a solution?
Having regularly cycled everywhere as a child, then moved onto motorised 2 wheels before driving a car, my roadsense was a lot stronger than some of my contemporaries. So I don’t think I’d see a reason to restrict L-plate travel on 2 wheels (up to 125cc) really.
The night time restrictions are difficult to square because it would basically mean you can’t drive in the winter anywhere. We rely on young people to work at times noone else wants to, and people who need to drive to or from work for late shifts would be unable to do so depending on when the sun rises.
Limits on BHP, modifying, and carrying passengers are things that can easily be brought in for young/ new drivers. Black boxes and front and rear dash cams for telemetry when young people do have accidents, easier to identify cause of prangs. Licence start with 9 points so any traffic infraction will cause loss of licence and retest during the first 6 months of driving. This raising by 3 points every 6 months after passing test. Only with a full 12 points can a new driver drive any vehicle or modify a vehicle.
Yeah sure bring it in… as long as you bring in the same for everyone over a certain age too (I’m not actually in favour of bringing anything like this in by the way. Yes I understand the risks as I once too was a young driver but don’t you think they’ve got it bad enough without taking away more? Kids these days won’t even be able to buy a pack of fags in the future!)
Makes a lot of sense to me. Thinking back to when I got my licence aged 18 New drivers are inexperienced, immortal and dangerous. They aren’t aware of their own limitations or the limitations of their vehicle. Taking corners too fast, not adjusting for conditions, showing off in front of girls/boys etc.
Don’t agree with restrictions on elderly, unless they have poor eye sight or other medical conditions. Drivers are already obliged to inform the DVLA if they have medical conditions that affect their driving (at any age), so no need to make it about being elderly. We do, however, need more over 30s with D1.
Yet more boomer authoritarianism. Young people have been told:
Cant go to school college or uni - lockdown
Can’t smoke or vape
Can’t get on the housing ladder
I would have thought youth leaders would have more support for young people’s independence
But I suppose if 16 year olds get the vote, they can start a political party to complain against all the above
As has already been stated young people tend to work hours that aren’t compatible with “not driving at night” and insurance costs tends to deal with them having over powered cars.
We don’t have the capacity for the tests we need as it stands, so adding more layers isn’t going to help.
What would be good is night driving, skid pan and motorway driving being compulsory lessons if not part of the test.
We already have recognised graduated driving standards, with various levels of advanced driving tests available from the IAM, RoSPA, whichever department regulates driving instructors, the police, etc. It’s just that it’s only the most rudimentary test, in which the candidate essentially proves they can operate the controls and comply with the law, that’s mandatory.
Well, the Old Bill don’t seem to have the resources to stop the myriad of drivers with no license, MOT or insurance. That ignores other offences such as mis-represented number plates, etc.
So, how would this proposed graduated scheme be policed (& financed)?
We already have restrictions on new drivers in Northern Ireland. If you were designing a scheme to licence drivers from scratch, you wouldn’t have zero motorway driving before the test, not include anything about it in the test, and then have unlimited access to motorways immediately afterwards — would you?
Two solutions spring to mind. Either make it part of the basic mandatory standard, but tested synthetically: or have motorway driving as an optional add-on so only those who need to drive on motorways take the motorway test.
New drivers are inexperienced, immortal and dangerous. They aren’t aware of their own limitations or the limitations of their vehicle. Taking corners too fast, not adjusting for conditions, showing off in front of girls/boys etc.