driving age

Discuss
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6904821.stm

I have a 19 year old daughter who's been driving for a year now, still waiting for her first prang and a reasonable driver but, I am still terified that she might end up being "a bunch of flowers" by the side of the road. So, as a parent I think I'm in favour of the proposed changes.

A very old news story but i dont think changes are needed, it will make very little difference. Your first year of driving is dangerous regardless of how old you are.

[Drew Carey]

Yes it is old.....for some reason it ended up on the BBC's "Most popular stories NOW" list.

I also agree, that making it 18 would be unlikely to change much. But I do think we need more driving lessons....not just driving around.....but more structure....with specific skills learnt and tested.

[punyXpress]

. . . and attitudes.

[timwilky]

I had 6 lesson and passed my driving test age 17 in 1977, never had a fault accident in a car and probably average of 40,000 miles/year. I had mate who passed on his 17th birthday. Lessons teach you to pass not how to drive. If you want to teach that you need to change the test.

Two of my neighbours kids wrote off cars in days of passing. Both I guess down to the fact they are 17 year old lads with more car than ability.

Should the system change for young driver? I don't think so.

[dirtydog]

Originally Posted by Drew Carey

I also agree, that making it 18 would be unlikely to change much. But I do think we need more driving lessons....not just driving around.....but more structure....with specific skills learnt and tested.

Makinng it 18 wouldn't change a thing, if you're going to drive like a moron when you're 17 that's not going to suddenly change when you turn 18 is it? Hell i'm 31 and I still drive like a muppet sometimes!

The thing with the lessons is they're teaching you to pass a test not to drive and I reckon that's where aprt of the problem is.

More skills learnt and tested? Only thiing that will change is how much money driving instructors charge and how much a test will set you back. A driving test at the moment will cost about £60 (cant remeber the exact amount though) Kitkats daughter has just booked a re-test for herself

So tbh it's all a load of rubbish

[Biker Biggles]

Originally Posted by punyXpress

. . . and attitudes.

This is what causes the vast majority of accidents and no amount of testing can do much about it.You could argue that if you make the test harder the arrogant passees would be even more convinced that they were superhuman drivers.

[Drew Carey]

Originally Posted by dirtydog

So tbh it's all a load of rubbish

I agree it is all a load of rubbish. I learnt to drive on farmland etc, did a few lessons on the road then took test and passed. Was I ready for driving on the road???? No......even I made mistakes, but I was lucky.

I don't have a great idea of how it can be solved......but something does need to be changed in the long term I feel.

[dizzyblonde]

Keep chavved up corsa's off the roads is what I say,

More room for old hooligans like me to learn

[dirtydog]

Originally Posted by Drew Carey

I agree it is all a load of rubbish. I learnt to drive on farmland etc, did a few lessons on the road then took test and passed. Was I ready for driving on the road???? No......even I made mistakes, but I was lucky.

I don't have a great idea of how it can be solved......but something does need to be changed in the long term I feel.

I only had a few hours of driving lessons before passing my test 1st time
Was I ready to be on the road? Probably not but wasn't too bad as I'd been riding my 125 on the road for over a year by then.
The way I see it is good driving will only come with experience. Have been trying to drum a lot of what I learned over the past 14 years of driving cars, vans and a couple of years on the lorries and some of it has sunk in but she's still a bit rubbish at forward planning