Graduated Driving Licences - Good idea?

[Iain H]

I am assuming this is in the right section as it was on Radio 5 news this morning.

There is a sugestion that all newly qualified young drivers should have restrictions placed on them, such as they can't drive at night, can't give friends a lift and they must have zero alcohol in their blood. All this sound pretty sensible to me, as I work with a load of teenage drivers in my second job, some of their driving is quite horrific!

I can only think of benefits this would bring to the roads, and would probably cut the amount of accidents young drivers have. We were all young and stupid and most of us survived, more by luck than judgement in my case, so what do you think would these restrictions be a good idea?

[supersingle]

No.

[sidicks]

The usual government policy - penalise the many for the actions of the few........

Sidicks

[Iain H]

Is it the actons of afew though? I agree there are many sensible young drivers but there are more than a few idiots too.

And do the sensible ones always stay sensible when they have a car full of mates?

I can see benefits to it, but if it affected me I would be very pissed off too!

[V88Dicky]

As long as there where caveats to take into account young people who may be working nightshifts etc.

Can't see a problem. Quite a few other countries do this also.

[Bing o]

V88Dicky said:

As long as there where caveats to take into account young people who may be working nightshifts etc.

It just becomes massively complicated to Police though - I used to work in a pub until 1am, and needed my car to get there. How do you differentiate between then, and when I've been out with some trollops and want to show how fast my Saxo goes?

[MX7]

I'd hope that the insurance premiums reflect the reduction in risk if it does happen.

Personally, I'd prefer that the test is changed to be similar to the one in Norway (or was it Sweden?). Teaching people to drive to a higher standard seems like the sensible thing to do. It will be more expensive to pass the test, but the insurance at the end if it sould cost far less.

[MKnight702]

It'll never happen. How could this be policed with a camera?

To make this work you would need actual police presence on the roads, otherwise it becomes yet another unenforceable law that devalues the whole.

[y2blade]

yeah, why not

[Tunku]

So no newly qualified driver allowed to drive to and from their place of work where they hold down a responsible job, just because it's winter. FFS! Get a fking grip.

[RedLeicester]

V88Dicky said:

As long as there where caveats to take into account young people who may be working nightshifts etc.

Can't see a problem. Quite a few other countries do this also.

Yep, I remember years ago being in NZ and picking up their Highway Code (or similar booklet thingie) and thinking their graduated system made such good sense, even for a principally rural country. Restrictions on time of day, age of supervision passenger, breathalyser levels, all sorts. Plus the fact that the convictions affected it - if you were on the lower level, it was bye-bye licence, if you were on a full licence you could be knocked back to a restricted one and so on. Seemed eminently sensible.

[V88Dicky]

Bing o said:

V88Dicky said:

As long as there where caveats to take into account young people who may be working nightshifts etc.

It just becomes massively complicated to Police though - I used to work in a pub until 1am, and needed my car to get there. How do you differentiate between then, and when I've been out with some trollops and want to show how fast my Saxo goes?

That would require more traffic police. Highly unlikely.

[Oakey]

So you pass your test at 17, but you're not allowed to drive at night until you're 19. You then reach 19, whereupon you're suddenly 'allowed' to drive at night... despite having zero experience of driving at night? And this will reduce accidents how?

[900T-R]

I would like to see an 'advanced' level so we can continue to enjoy our performance cars 'pure' without the nanny state controls that the EU is hellbent on imposing on all of us, corrupting the feedback from the car.

[beanbag]

Iain H said:

I am assuming this is in the right section as it was on Radio 5 news this morning.

There is a sugestion that all newly qualified young drivers should have restrictions placed on them, such as they can't drive at night, can't give friends a lift and they must have zero alcohol in their blood. All this sound pretty sensible to me, as I work with a load of teenage drivers in my second job, some of their driving is quite horrific!

I can only think of benefits this would bring to the roads, and would probably cut the amount of accidents young drivers have. We were all young and stupid and most of us survived, more by luck than judgement in my case, so what do you think would these restrictions be a good idea?

It's all from the "Brake" campaigning nutters and a completely ill-thought out set of ideas.

The following set of rules would be better (IMHO):

- If a driver commits a road offence with points within the first 6 months of gaining their license or two road-side cautions, they loose it. No questions.
- Within the first 2 years, 6 points.
- If a driver loses their license due to any of the above, they must do an advanced driver course ON TOP of their standard driving test. At their expense.

Not being able to drive at night or carry other passengers is just total stupidity. The alcohol idea is in principle a good idea but almost impossible to police.

[emicen]

Iain H said:

I am assuming this is in the right section as it was on Radio 5 news this morning.

There is a sugestion that all newly qualified young drivers should have restrictions placed on them, such as they can't drive at night, can't give friends a lift and they must have zero alcohol in their blood. All this sound pretty sensible to me, as I work with a load of teenage drivers in my second job, some of their driving is quite horrific!

I can only think of benefits this would bring to the roads, and would probably cut the amount of accidents young drivers have. We were all young and stupid and most of us survived, more by luck than judgement in my case, so what do you think would these restrictions be a good idea?

With the exception of the alcohol part, it sounds completely retarded if you actually think it through without a hype injection.

Lets take my friend at the moment who is learning to drive. She's in her twenties and has worked for several years in the pub industry. She's now a charge hand / supervisor and has to lock up on occasions. When she passes her test, under these rules:

- She can drive to work at 5pm but not drive home after locking up at midnight. Genius.

- She can drive to work at 9am and drive home at 5pm after her shift, but she cant give a workmate a lift home. Or indeed, pick up her sister on the way home or her mum on the way home.


Once again they just want to ban ban ban without looking at the key issue:

To pass your test in the UK you have to be able to perform like a trained chimp for 40mins in daylight at speeds up to as little as 30mph. After doing that, you're allowed to go straight out on dark A-roads and motorways at speeds up to 70mph.

[fadeaway]

Oakey said:

So you pass your test at 17, but you're not allowed to drive at night until you're 19. You then reach 19, whereupon you're suddenly 'allowed' to drive at night... despite having zero experience of driving at night? And this will reduce accidents how?

I'm not sure if I agree with the idea of graduated licenses, but this isn't right. When learning any complex task it needs to be broken down into simpler steps. Driving at night puts additional load on the driver. The less comfortable they are with basic driving skills, the less automated their car control is and the less developed their senses of awareness and observation, the harder this is.

Most people start driving on a quite road, to get the hang of it, and then build up new experiences gradually - busier roads, more complex layouts, harder skills (hill starts, parallel parking, etc...). No one would start learning to drive on a busy, unlit dual carriageway, at night, in the rain. You build those steps as you learn and improve.

[aclivity]

I'd prefer to see progressive driving by education rather than restriction. Perhaps something like you can pass your 1st test that allows you to drive, but you HAVE to pass a more advanced test within 12 to 18 months, otherwise your license is returned to provisional status. Be keen, pass the advanced test within a month if you want to. The advanced test would need to be much more testing of capability than the current one, possibly including some driving at night, driving on fast flowing dual carriageways or motorways, low speed manouevering and town driving. I'm sure there are more scenarios that could be built in.

[rudecherub]

Back when I was 15 or so, a lad in my village past his driving test on his 17th birthday. He had been driving tractors previously.

Age a good driver does not make, albeit the statistics show young men are the worst by accidents as a measure.

My own thoughts for many a year have been to introduce classes of car driving license not unlike HGV's

I would base the class on bhp/tonne, newly qualified drivers would be restricted to the lower power to weight cars.

It would be sensible to restrict them from night driving and motorways until they've had lessons driving on them, but I wouldn't limit a person by age from taking the subsequent test, certainly if they are 18.

i.e., if you're 18 you could if you are good enough qualify for class 1 performance car license, then you should be able to do so.

It's fair to say the insurance system does work to do prevent the young from getting into high powered cars, but this isn't a measure of individual ability but an average across the board by age etc.

[anonymous-user]

Oakey said:

So you pass your test at 17, but you're not allowed to drive at night until you're 19. You then reach 19, whereupon you're suddenly 'allowed' to drive at night... despite having zero experience of driving at night? And this will reduce accidents how?

You can't think that having two years experience driving during the day wouldn't make driving at night easier than it would be for a new driver?