100% yes.... Every 5 years
Alternative could be as is said above and compulsory black boxes on all vehicles.
Most companies I drive for (hgv) use telematics which measure various aspects of your driving style from harsh braking and cornering to overspeeding or harsh acceleration. If this was introduced more widespread along with someway of encouraging better driving then driving standards imo would improve quite quickly.
I've been saying for years that every driver should resit their driving test every 5 years.
Can't see it being a vote winner...
Most companies I drive for (hgv) use telematics which measure various aspects of your driving style from harsh braking and cornering to overspeeding or harsh acceleration
The flaw there is Goodhart's law. If you are known to be measuring something then it ceases to be a good measure.,
For example if you check harsh braking then that might encourage people to decide to ignore the minor detail that an amber light means stop unless its unsafe to do otherwise. Harsh acceleration and you might have a vehicle crawling away after the light turns green and hence stopping more than one or two other vehicles getting through (which in turn might have someone think sod it and jump the amber).
I spent a couple of years where part of my job was providing managers with information from a call centre. I like to think I managed to convince them that whatever I provided was just a starting point for them to start paying attention to a particular person. For example if you decided the measure was an average of 2mins on a call there are several ways to hit that figure.
Sounds like a nonsense idea. Not like people are completely comfortable driving after they pass the test the first time.
Another test measuring basic skills isn't going to do anything for road safety.
No to retesting as people will just front it for the test then back to old habits.
Yes to :-
more traffic police
more average speed cameras
CCTV where motorists regularly queue jump / use wrong lanes deliberatly then fine them through the post with the footage e mailed to them.
Black Boxes for everyone.
Apart from getting more police, these are a lot easier to introduce than create more test centres when the DVSA is struggling to find locations as its is and recruit more examiners as it's rubbish job.
Apt post for a Friday, between 3 and 6pm people seem to drive like their hair is on fire.
"That says to me that you DO have to switch the engine off to use the phone legally, which is also what I was told on a LA minibus course."
No, this isn't the case; these are separate regulations. Reg 98 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 says that when stationary you must stop machinery to prevent noise (with various exceptions). Reg 110 was added by an amendment to the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 and includes a prohibition on driving while using a hand-held mobile phone (again with exceptions)
The key is what constitutes driving, and a temporary stop in traffic is still driving, e.g. traffic lights. If I've reached my destination (which could be a shop on the way home) and park then I'm not driving; whether I switch my engine off or not doesn't affect this but may be a separate offence under reg 98
In that case are the police right to broadcast the “rule” that they are currently stating that:
“You are causing an offence of using a mobile phone whilst stationary whilst the vehicles engine is on”
I’m all for interpretation and clarity, but there seems to be some confusion being brought into the “offence” of using a mobile phone whilst driving and/or stationary..
It either is an offence, or it isn’t an offence.
"...accident stats suggest that significant reductions have been made over the last 20 years in fatalities and injuries, which admittedly has flatlined in recent years, but then traffic levels have been increasing significantly, so to me the rationale looks a bit flawed – deaths and injuries certainly aren’t rocketing in the way being suggested (and no that’s not an attempt to minimise the devastating impact of the accidents that happen)"
Technology will have played a part here, e.g. ABS, airbags (fitted externally on some vehicles now) pedestrian-friendly exterior design, NCAP testing, Electronic Stability Controls, etc. and will tend to mask driver standards
Apparently we'll see level 4 autonomous cars in 2 to 4 years with level five soon after that. No doubt they'll be hugely popular with the tablet addicted generation. It doesn't take a great deal of imagination to see how mandatory re testing for dumb car ludites would become popular.
At the minute I think you'd just see a huge increase in uninsured and illegal drivers.
100% yes.
In any industry if you had machine that injured over 180,000 people a year and killed 1792, then the operators would absolutely be required to have regular retests and strict licensing.
Just look how many people don’t know how to signal correctly on a roundabout, don’t know that amber means stop, or don’t know what a dual carriageway is.
Every discussion of speed awareness course on here is full of people saying they learned useful information and were horrified at people on the course who didn’t know basic road rules.
So would you pay to resit your test every ten years?
Its interesting isn’t it that there are lots of people agreeing with the concept and willing to pay for the privilege, yet very few of them will have spent any money on driver training in the last ten years despite it being perfectly possible and likely to have more impact on their own driving standards. I infer from this that most people who think we should retest actually believe they drive better than most other people.
GrahamS has it.
Nope. Its not all drivers that need retests and extra training. It some drivers.
A ban should mean a ban on the topping up system. We have a huge number of drivers banned several times over and still driving. Increase penalties for bad driving, without insurance, MOT etc. And I mean increase significantly.
43 years driving and Ive been rear ended twice, only accidents. Do I need more training and resits of exam? Don't think so.
Punishments should be for those that break the regulations/law. In most, all, cases the people that commit the crimes are the very ones that are least likely turn up for tests or training. Such as driving without a licence, drink driving.
Every discussion of speed awareness course on here is full of people saying they learned useful information and were horrified at people on the course who didn’t know basic road rules.
True, but 4 weeks after the course do you think anyone changed their driving? Speaking personally I didn't. On the way home from the course I did, the next day a little bit, a week later back to how I was driving before the course. Would be exactly the same after a test.
As others have said, if you don't enforce road laws/driving safety then people do what they want until they get caught or crash.
There is a straight stretch of country road near me with a 30 mph speed limit. At least once a week I get overtaken on that stretch.
Also parking at school dropping off/collecting times is atrocious, with parents parking on zigzag lines and even on the pelican crossings themselves. Just stopping in the middle of the road, never signalling and pulling out on pedestrians, cyclist and other road users.
I see complete disregard of other road users and the speed limits. Jumping of red lights, quite often on pedestrian crossings and dreadful overtaking of cyclists ( on blind bends often with a few cm of room). And tailgating to the extent you can't see the front of the reg plate.
Very little in the way of a thank you if you let another motorist out of a side road. Also motorists coming at you when you have right of way on your side of the road, they just come round cars on their side, bullying you to stop yourself. Many times I've been forced to stop or ended up in the gutter.
I personally don't think I would pass a test today. However I always use my mirrors, signal, read the road well ahead and feel I'm courteous to other road users.
It seems you are taught to pass your text nowadays, not taught to actually drive.
It seems you are taught to pass your text nowadays, not taught to actually drive.
Every generation says that about about the next. Actually though the test has got progressively harder over time. The stats also suggest that the longer you’ve been driving / older you are the less likely you are to have an accident.
Generally not in favour but can definitely see some benefits. Maybe some sort of compulsory £20 non-road-based test lasting say 30 minutes every 5 years to include basic eye test, hazard perception, highway code, reaction time tests etc Tests could be weighted for example so failing the eye test is immediate fail!). Score 50% or less and will have to take a full retest with a couple driving lessons. 50-70% triggers a short refresher course. Over 70% and fit to drive for another 5 years. Maybe incentivise it too with insurance reductions depending on how well you score?
So lang as we see driving as a privilege and not a right ...
As I understand the underlying issue for the OP is to prevent or reduce the decline in driving standards, I'm not sure retaking a driving test per se would work. Personally, I'd prefer the approach of capital punishment for all those who don't know how to use a mini roundabout, or continue to use the middle lane.
In other words, those that don't understand the two fundamental requirements of driving in the UK: Give way to the right and keep left unless overtaking.
Instant death and their decapitated heads on spikes at the scene of their crime.
HTH
It sounds like a good idea and I'm in favour - but I'm not sure it would make a huge amount of difference.
Although some people may benefit from additional training, I think the major culprit to bad driving is attitude and I don't think a re-test will help with that.
By attitude I mean impatience, hostility and aggression. The "I'm more important than you" brigade. More traffic cops would help with that.
Oh where to start ,
yes Somthing needs to be done but It won’t
maybe dash cams for everyone ? Going a little far but with the lack of traffic police it might help
small edit
I’m all for making progress and don’t think speed is totally evil , just speed in the wrong place is poor judgement
is 80 or 90 on a motorway dangerous?
There might be something in the use of dashcams, the number of people who don’t understand the use of indicators when manoeuvring is astonishing, particularly with HGV’s, I had to brake suddenly on the motorway the other day when an artic just pulled out as I was about to go past, and there was something coming up fast in the outside lane, so I had nowhere to go.
The company name was painted on the cab, so a note could have been sent to the haulier with a warning, or to anyone potentially causing an accident by failing to look before a manoeuvre.
As regards speed, there are some here who get very sanctimonious where speed is concerned, and refuse to accept that modern cars can safely go faster than cars in the 60’s when speed limits were set, even the police ignore the 70 limit on motorways, the number of times I’ve followed marked patrol cars doing over 80, according to my satnav, and have slowly pulled away from me, because I tend to stick to an indicated 80, roughly 76-78 mph when I’m driving is more than I can count.
90 would be too fast, but cruising at an indicated 80 is perfectly reasonable, even in small cars these days, they have good brakes and tyres, and are much safer than when I started driving in the early 70’s, when cars still had drum brakes, cross-ply skinny tyres and no seat-belts, crumple-zones and airbags.