Changes to new drivers soon?

[Sam]

My first car was a 4 litre jeep cherokee   but I did get my first car at 13 and played rally driver in my fields and on friends farms pretty much once a week until I passed at 17. Now thats a good way to learn how to drive (could powerslide my jeep on wet roundabouts all day long as soon as I passed   ) We wrote off a few cars on the farms by been simply retarded, you ever seen a pug 105 jump a lincolnshire 10ft irrigation ditch? No didnt think so, nor did we because it didnt make it  

But on a serious note, I dont beleive that my reactions and driving 'skills' would be anywhere near what they are (not saying im ossum) without those years of skidding about and have definately saved my skin a few times.

[trog_nfs]

Rather than teaching what we need to know to pass the test, drivers should be taught how to drive on a motorway, on a skid pan, bad conditions etc

Also, the instructors cars are always brand new and have every safety gizmo under the sun. To go from that to a car with no power steering, abs or airbag, which is what usually happens as its all we can afford to buy and insure is ridiculus. You get taught to brake with abs, but once you've passed its up to you to work it out

[R32UK]

they sholud change the test to the same as finlands

[dragongreengolfgti]

What about the recent law that 18 year olds can now drive hgv's will it mean they no longer can 

[Jay]

Typical government, putting up barriers and not looking to improve things where it really matters.

Limiting the BHP in conjunction with improved training and awareness and making the test harder would be a better step and would reduce imbeciles on the roads. Also not giving them a provisional license until they have sat and passed their theory would instantly mean a reduction of imbeciles on the roads, until they have an idea of what is out on the roads. My driving instructor said to me that most of her students already had cars and drove around without a licensed driver in the car with them. Ofc, this may just mean more unlicensed/uninsured imbeciles are on the road.

I could think of many ways to decrease the % of imbeciles, but banning new drivers from 'essential' experience is not the way.

[Phil1980]

I think they should be targetting older drivers also especially those with no idea of the difference between the accelerator & the brake.

[hobbiniho]

i agree that driver training needs to be better, as with caistor i learnt to drive in fields which gave me the essential skills to control a slide even if it is caused by applying the handbrake  , this has saved my bacon on the road as three months after passing my test i hit black ice on my way to work one morning and before i knew it i was going sideways but had already started to apply opposite lock as an almost instinct reaction, if i hadn't been pissing about in fields with cars i would not have known what to do and would more than likely have landed in the ditch

[bodga]

BHP restriction for new drivers IMO

Stop rich parents buying sons M3's  ect.

A big +1

Local race tracks of some sort too so new drivers can let off steam and practice their driving skills without risking the lives of others ( i will be there too )

seriously though when i was younger (in the early 90's)we used to go to a retail park at a mc donalds, mc d's made a bomb out of us, we all had a bit of fun racing across the car park, which was pretty big and no one got hurt.

Police would come to the car park but no one got booked

in the end though some killjoy fitted barriers to the car park that closed it after 8pm

It kept a load of us off the streets thou for a couple of years. 

[Phil1980]

I do think there should be restrictions on the power output of car someone can drive, up until an age of say 21 then let them drive what they want.  I know that someobody can still kill someone driving like an idiot in a fiat panda, but they are far less likely to show off in that than in a hot hatch.

[russ-vdub]

Yeh restricting bhp wont do jack, you can still get a 1.1 up to 100mph and wang it round a corner to fast. All about the training