Nigel wrote:Hmmm maybe not so good, a few points ih here I couldn't agree with :
Road safety The European Road Safety Charter calls for the halving of road accident fatalities by 2010, currently deaths in the UK stand at over 3000 per year, this figure is totally unacceptable and we aim to reduce this by the following measures.
We will instigate contact with all road safety organisations to fulfill this aim.
We will be open to discussion with the insurance industry to find a way to introduce high discounts for those drivers who have taken and passed a mandatory advanced driving organisation test.
Yes.
We would also like to extend this to those who have voluntarily retaken and passed The Driving Standards Agency Test.
Limited use.
...All new drivers must have a minimum of professional tuition before being allowed to be only accompanied by a qualified driver. We support this to be 20 hours tuition. Professional tuition should be extended to include motorway instruction.
Motorway instruction? I think after passing the test, or once the basics of SC and DC work have been taught to a decent standard... only accompanied by a qualified driver - prove this for every new driver, how exactly? Idea's not a bad one, but it's impractical.
All qualified learner drivers are to display a P for Probationer plate to the front and the rear of the vehicle for 1 year after passing the Standard Driving Agency Test.
Red rag to a bull. You're out for the first time after your test, you make a stupid mistake - stalling, or something - cue abuse from frustrated following drivers.
I'd rather encourage taking of further training once say, 20 hours further driving with a licence-holding passenger has been done. Again, though, how do you do this without opening up logbooks to forgery?
We support the full time adoption of GMT +1 British Summertime and call for an immediate ending of the present system, this measure alone would save lives.
This is something that comes up a lot, I've only been driving for a year so I'm not paricularly informed on it - I'll sit on the fence for this, and am more htan willing to listen to those dealing at the sharp end.
We believe that a zero drink drive policy should exist, therefore a complete drink drive ban would be supported and campaigned for.
Again, a subject of much discussion - a great many people, myself included, don't touch a drop before driving - but education rather than a blanket limit is the answer. As in, don't go out on a binge the night before, and drive when you get up.
You've got to allow for small amounts - someone with a particularly slow metabolism might still have a drop or two in the blood, but drive to a consistently high standard. Again, educate people and make it their choice to not drink.. and keep up the campaign to stop people trying to calculate - "2 beers over 2 hours, I'll be below the limit" rather than "I'm not going to drink at all, I'm driving".
I could put this point across a lot better, and I probably will when I've had time to look into it further, and not after a 12-hour night shift *yawn*
Car crime should result in a lifetime ban from driving.
So anyone convicted of anything car crime related will then simply drive while banned. The answer is much tougher sentecnes. For everything, really - but since we're on traffic... for no insurance, licence and the like - jail sentences for second offences and larger fines, regardless of the offender's income - if they can't afford to do it, they won't. If they get off with a stern warning and a fiver a week out of their paycheque, they'll just do it again.
If they're breaking into/ stealing cars, jail first time. And no nannying, either. Bed, bucket and four walls. (I won't go down this road right now)
Lastly a review of street furniture should be undertaken, with a view to decrease or remove this where possible.
I agree hwen it comes to clumps of jungle and sculptures on roundabouts, trees and hedges overhanging cornering sight lines, and otherwise obstructed vision from either design or poor maintenance.
More use of white paint to warn traffic of danger (similar ot hazard lines, SLOW and chevrons on bends... also dashed outline hatchings on residential streets near schools and the like), without putting physical barriers in the way when it's not. None of this red tarmac nonsense.
Nigel wrote:They also believe holding a driving licence is a privalage, I think its an entitlement !!!
Ah, this old argument rears its head again
If you want to, and you meet the requirements - age, ability as tested, major health issues*, and of course being able to afford to insure your car to at least 3rd party - then yes, you should be entitled to drive.
However, if you are convicted, by people not automated enforcement, of dropping below the standard, then you should have it removed. Oddly enough, the points system is quite good at this, when applied by humans in a reasonable position (traffic... police... are they foreign?).
*I mean drivers taking care of issues such as diabetes (I know this is a stickle r for some Eurobods, what with licenses being revoked and the like), not banning drivers with them outright - but if your eyesight is on its way, for example, then it's simple - you shouldn't be driving, and doctors should be able to notify the DVLA of this, with appropriate action being taken.
This is all my two cents, I may not make perfect sense, I'm probably wrong in some regards... and I hope not to offend anyone, if I have, give me a kick.
Pete
"There's always another day, and I would rather miss a few than get one badly wrong." - TripleS, on overtaking.