Motors Learner Drivers should learn for 12 months?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5359426.stm

To be honest, it's not just learning MORE, it's learning better. After you pass THEN you learn for real. Motorway driving should be a given as well. I also think the advanced driving courses should be taught as standard too.

 

Pass plus should definately be taught as standard.

But learning for a year? That'll just increase the amount of money driving instructors get and maybe reduce the number of people that can learn to drive each year whilst increasing taxrevenue.

 

I think something like the system of "P" plates in Australia would probably work better than forcing people to learn for a year, as you said you learn more after you pass.

The AA used to offer a free 2-hour motorway lesson after passing, don't know if they still do, but I think motorway driving should be part of driving lessons - after all, motorway driving is completely different from pootling around at 30mph, and requires a totally different set of skills.

 

You're right. Motorway driving requires far less skill than driving in busy city centres.

 

Motorway driving requires way more concentration. IN a city if someone does something stupid then usually maybe one or two more cars get involved. On a motorway this can quickly build up into an enormous pile up of much grander proportions much quicker. The extra energy a car posseses on a motorway is soooo much more than on a normal road (4-6 times more). Personally I dont want anybody with an L plate on the motorways, though I think there should be a seperate test you have to take AFTER you can drive on your own thats a specific motorway test.

I dont think 12 months is fair to be honest, especially considering driving test people are *******s who will fail you for no real reason and then stick you back on a 3/4 month waiting list for your next test. Provisional driving plates would be ok to be honest, I dont really see any problems with that as long as the extra costs incurred are minimal - after all driving can be a very expensive skill to learn.

 

The BBC is totaly mis-representing this. I just saw one of the guys in the group who did this study, and they were just talking in general about what raising the lesson length would do. He said while they mentioned a year, none of them were actually advocating that, it was just talked about.

Kinda pissed off with the beeb here, this is poor reporting.

edit: I also strongly favour the P-plates system. Someone who just passed their test the previous day is expected to be as good as anyone else by all the drivers on the road. If other drivers are aware that there's a new driver about, they can take things a bit slower and safer, and give the newbies more slack. It just makes good sense.

 

WHAT? Less? Changing lanes at high speed, coping with high speed and potentially dangerous situations with multiple lanes of traffic. Sure, it can be boring as hell but it can also be quite stressful if there are lots of people doing a lot of things and dick heads going against the rules of the road to get somewhere a bit faster.

 

Undertaking is pro.

 

We do have P plates here (geen P in a white square) just nobody uses it really because you aren't required to by law.
The thoery is good but I don't think it would work as well as actually just ensuring people keep the rules of the road drilled into their heads after the tests. My main gripe is lack of indication on roundabouts.

Personally Im of the mindset that after you have had your licence a year you should have to go back and do another thoery and actual practical test to ensure you are still able to conduct yourself correctly or atleast something of that manner.
Also perhaps lower the ammount of points new drivers get to 3 within the first year, then 6 in the second and 12 there after. I think this would frighten more young drivers into slowing down as they have not got a "safe" number of points available to waste on one offence as such (pretty much everyone I know has atleast 3 points because of speeding).

Thats just my views though

 

Sorry but IMO motorway driving is piss easy. Town driving, where you need to watch out for everything and anything, is far more taxing.

The first time i drove on a motorway after passing my test i remember thinking what the fuss was all about. It's easy. Aslong as your aware whats going on around you.

I've had far more near misses driving in built up areas than on motorways.

 

An empty motorway is easy, a busy one isn't.

 

then tbh your the kind of person I want to avoid on the motorway. People who think that its a piece of cake are the ones who are likely not to notice the guy speeding up behind you, undertaking and whatnot - and when you try to change lane...

 

I spoke to my instructor about this today. Most people he teaches pass within 25 hours. So what else are they going todo for the rest of the year? Its better for him to get more people passed.

 

Absoultely. You dont get told to check your blind spot on the motorway which I nearly had to learn the hard way. I still dont understand why side mirrors are concave, it's ****ing stupid. Not anywhere when you're driving do cars drive alongside you almost at the same speed apart from on the motorway, so you are only taught to look in your mirrors not over your shoulder. Busy motorways are far more taxing than busy towns. It's a case of nipping into gaps at low speeds and finding the right lane, if not, around the block and start again.

 

You've obviously never driven on the M25 on a weekday. Motorway driving takes far more concentration and awareness of what's going on around you because you have much less reaction time, even moreso when the motorway is busy.

As I said, it's a different set of skills.

 

I'll second that. I passed with BSM and still had a few lessons in credit, so traded them in for the Pass Plus course and felt it was worth every minute. It gives you the experience that you cannot normally get with your instructor. I was a lot more confident just from 6 hours of motorway/night/rain driving than 20 hours of normal town driving.

 

This is already in place to a certain extent. For 2 years after passing you only have 6 points on your license.

 

I'm in favour of the idea of a mandatory minimum timespan of lessons.
Regardless of whether you can 'drive' the car like a pro after the first few hours, you don't get to be a good driver without experience, and you don't get that without hours in the car.

I learnt for over a year. I was unsure of myself at the time and of the progress I was making - underconfident of my abilities. I took 4 tests - first one I was so jittery with nerves I messed up. Second was flawless (3 minors) until the guy failed me for something he argued "could have been blamed on the other guy", third was flawless until the end when my brain switched off and I made an amateur mistake, and then I went to a totally different town and blew it for all sorts of reasons.

A lot of things contributed to the fails (personal problems) but because of those, and due to my continued lessons, I gained a LOT more experience in the car before I passed (went to Uni for a year, then came home and passed straight off in a car I'd only driven two or three times, with 4 minors, go figure).

Not only did I have experience, but I had guidance at all times, so I could pretty much iron out every slightest kink in what I was doing wrong.

Now I'm not saying that everyone should do that, because it costs a fortune! But the fact is that two years after passing my test and driving daily, I feel that I am a very competent and safe driver.
It frustrates me no end that I have to pay through the nose for insurance, because of the asshats that can't drive to save their lives who smash into each other all the time, when I am far more qualified than they are.

I really do believe that if something like this was instated it WOULD save lives by preventing overconfident cocksure young kids from going out too soon and killing themselves, and it might even drive insurance premiums down a bit.

 

Given a choice, I'd rather drive on the M25 on a weekday than drive on the normal roads in London on a weekday. At least motorways are relatively simple...

 

IMHO the town vs motorway driving technique debate is silly.
Both require concentration and awareness in equal measure - i.e. your full attention.

On a motorway you don't have to worry about oncoming traffic or pedestrians, parked cars, high kerbs, traffic islands, animals running out in front of you, cyclists, and so forth.
There is FAR less to worry about in terms of things that could be thrown at you at any time on a motorway, trying to rubbish that claim is pointless.

But you can wipe out and kill yourself along with a lot of other people in one fell swoop if you don't pay attention.

Equally, the opportunity to write your car and your life off in one second flat is greatly diminished in a town environment, but the amount of smaller - but equally dangerous - hazards in a town don't make that any simpler.


If you think that one place is 'easier' than the other, then it means you're not committing yourself properly to one way of driving, which IMO makes you a dangerous driver and someone I wouldn't want to come across on the roads.