Søren wrote:Education and encouragement of responsibility is key, along with the targeting of real risk groups.
Fantastic. Younger drivers (I class myself both as young and inexperienced) need to be more informed of their duties as a driver. Its not to get there, its to get there in one piece.
I have seen many young NQD's fly down country lanes doing aggressive overtaking manouveres in fully laden cars. Which is something that was on the news not too long ago.
I must point out that its unfair to blanket all young drivers like this, I have come across several different types.
1) People who have no regard for other users except the passenger or on lookers they are trying to impress
2) Drivers who are concerned about safe driving but have the wrong idea and think they are right
3) Drivers who are concerned about safe driving, think they have the right ideas but go further and seek confirmation of their ideas. Confirmation of ideas can come in several forms from talking to "experts" to doing advanced driving courses.
Although the above can be applied to any driver I feel that it picks out young NQD's because
1) experienced drivers have experience, so can see what situations can develop from that innocent car sat down the road
2) older driver NQD's tend to know the importance of discipline and pay better attention purely because they have more "life experience".
Although there are always exceptions to these.
I think if you go with an ADI or atleast somesort of driving school the presence of pass plus will be made obvious, and its incentive of a nice insurance discount (although I'm aware of cases of abuse of this system
).
I think part of the education that you speak of Soren is to introduce more mandatory (or even preferred) requirements for young NQD's. For example, a requirement where by you have to have atleast 2 hours with an ADI instead of just learning from your parents (again there are exceptions, a parent may not be an ADI but could have ROSPA gold).
Will my idea increase the number of unlicensed (hence uninsured) drivers on the road? Maybe, but something has to be done, and I just don't feel that the current system is good enough. You have to pass a theory test which in theory (no pun intended) covers everything, but how many people actually pay attention? Remember these younger drivers spent atleast 12years in school, did they all pay attention and get good exam grades (I am not suggesting a link that poor exam achievers are poor drivers, that is another debate for another time)? A prime example of the flaws in the current system is me and my driving. I passed my L test not having driven once at night, in the rain, fog, ice or snow. In fact I drive for the first time in snow this year 2.5 years after passing my test. I also think its stupid that you are able to drive on the motorway being self taught.
I remember when I was 15 some people from the DSA came to my school and gave us a presentation on driving, basically covered how to get a provisional, the test procedure, the cockpit drill, MSM and they then (non patronizingly) begged us to make sure that whoever we got out lessons from atleast had the green ADI badge in their window.
My conclusion after this long and nonsensical rant, placing restrictions on younger NQD's isn't the answer. Its education, and getting them to steadily build up their driving instead of taking everyone oneout the day they pass their test.