New proposed driving laws for young drivers

Ixon

Ixon

Ixon

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If this is passed in Parliament, then young newly passed drivers could be in for a tough time.

Imagine not being allowed to drive after 11pm or only being able to carry certain passengers. Well that could become reality for new drivers if a road safety campaign is successful.

Young drivers hit the headlines again this month after a new campaign was launched asking the government to radically overhaul the learn-to-drive system.

Road safety charity Brake is appealing to MPs to make some serious changes to the current scheme, which gives new drivers a full licence after the driving test is passed, from the age of 17.

According to Brake, a revamp of the way driving licences are issued would cut the number of road deaths in the UK by giving motorists better training. In the last ten years alone, there have been 8,109 young lives lost in road accidents.

The insurance industry is supporting the campaign in the hope that reducing road deaths will bring down risk and cut the cost of car insurance for everyone, especially young people and new drivers. In 2010, the Transport Select Committee agreed that better driver training was key to cutting the cost of motor insurance in the long-term.

Nick Starling, director of general insurance and health at the Association of British Insurers, said: “The current learning to drive regime is failing young people, as there is much more to driving than simply passing the driving test.

“Too many youngsters get behind the wheel ill-equipped for unsupervised driving. This is why we have long advocated structured learning to help young drivers build up their driving skills gradually and safely, and graduated licensing for newly qualified drivers.
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Surely you've got to ask if the people that are the ones more likely to lose their life in a road accident are also likely to pay any attention to arbitrary restrictions on their freedoms to drive? If the answer is yes then this may work to some degree, if the answer is no then it's curtailing the rights of thousands of young motorists to potentially no benefit except in terms of giving the appearance of trying to combat an issue.

I'd need to hear a bit more about it and how it is expected to be implemented but the above is still my first thought on it.
 
Its a good idea in my opinion. Its mostly the young uns that just got there licence causing trouble driving like idiots on the roads, especially at night at those cruises. Its partly there fault insurance keeps going up like it does.
 
I see far more pensioners driving dangerously, than young people. Should we also curtail all their freedoms?
I agree some changes would be a good idea, but looking at the last lot, there were a couple I disagreed with.

The young persons statistic, is it like the deaths due to speeding statistic, where it is most conjecture and guesswork? Is the young person that died the cause of the accident?
 
It's retarded to say the least. What happens if you work late nights for example, if you're bar staff, how would you get home without resorting to expensive taxis?

If the no passenger rule is enforced during the day also, what happens if a young driver needs to carry someone for business purposes?

There's far too many restrictions that are going to cause massive issues, they really haven't thought this through as far as i'm concerned.
 
For each (what looks to be a) new driver driving like a complete idiot, I must see about ten people around my age (~30) to 50 performing some incredibly aggressive and downright dangerous overtaking maneuvers. Maybe I just don't see so many young drivers. There is one in particular who I encounter a few times a month in a black fiesta (may be an ST) who seems to like overtaking on blind corners, but these restrictions would have no effect on him.

Perhaps it's just the number of tractors, slow lorries and slow (indecisive) drivers on the A19 that cause other drivers to lose their temper?
 
It's just yet another silly "BRAKE" campaign? I doubt if it will be given much time of day in parliament.

I think young people would like it though. Anything to bring their insurance down would be a good thing.
 
They already have this in some countries.
The first 2 years of driving if you are under 20 you are not allowed to drive after 11pm and you are only allowed 1 passenger. You also need to have a "just passed" symbol for those 2 years.
 
Looks a bit draconian but is it impossible? Not really as they have something similar in Australia today.

Newly licensed drivers are required by law to display P-plates:

Year 1 - Red P Plates
Year 2/3 - Green P Plates

Red P platers have limits around towing, alcohol levels and are limited by the numbers and ages of passengers they can carry.

Additionally both license types have speeds limits below what is posted on the motorways (i.e only able to do an 80kmph max even in a 100 limit zone) and Red P platers can only have zero alcohol levels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver's_licence_in_Australia#New_South_Wales

Bit crap if you ask me.
 
I personally do think the law should be changed for all new drivers.

First up anybody that just passed, should be supervised for the first 6 months of driving, to gain some experience before driving on their own, be it Parent,Spouse ect.

Motorway & night driving should be part of driving lessons & test.

Engine size limits on all new drivers for the first 2 years.

Just these 3 things would be enough in my book.
 
Ixon said:
I personally do think the law should be changed for all new drivers.

First up anybody that just passed, should be supervised for the first 6 months of driving, to gain some experience before driving on their own, be it Parent,Spouse ect.

Motorway & night driving should be part of driving lessons & test.

Engine size limits on all new drivers for the first 2 years.

Just these 3 things would be enough in my book.
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I agree wholeheartedly with the last 2, but not the first 1. Thats what lessons are for! You only really start to learn when on your own, and why should your partner / spouse / whoever go to work with you?
 
PhillyDee said:
I agree wholeheartedly with the last 2, but not the first 1. Thats what lessons are for! You only really start to learn when on your own, and why should your partner / spouse / whoever go to work with you?
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Well there is two types of new drivers.

The nervous driver, and the one's that think they know everything.

Both just as dangerous on the road, with supervision it give the nervous driver more confidents to drive on their own, without making dangerous mistakes, and same goes for the ones that think they know everything usually young blokes trying to impress girls with speed ect.
 
Ixon said:
Well there is two types of new drivers.

The nervous driver, and the one's that think they know everything.
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Really? Only 2?
What about people who are safe, not nervous but not over confident? Plenty of them around.

Not every new driver is a nervous girl or a cocky boy.
 
Ixon said:
I personally do think the law should be changed for all new drivers.

First up anybody that just passed, should be supervised for the first 6 months of driving, to gain some experience before driving on their own, be it Parent,Spouse ect.

Motorway & night driving should be part of driving lessons & test.

Engine size limits on all new drivers for the first 2 years.

Just these 3 things would be enough in my book.
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1, Absolute nonsense. How would it be enforced, how on earth are you going to get people willing to give up their time to do this, As someone earlier said, thats the point of lessons.

2, Motorway yes, Night, no, at least on test. Night driving should be part of lessons though, but theres no way it would ever be part of a test, simply due to the cost of asking the testers to stay working late enough to actually do a test at night!

3, What limit would you suggest, 1l? 1.4? You can get both fast and slow cars with the same size engine. It would do absolutely nothing.

Limiting when someone can drive is pointless, negates the freedom of driving. Limiting number of passengers, can't see the point in that either. Is there a link between number of passengers and chance of crashing?

As has been said previously on this forum, and as I have found out, driving with any sort of P plates on just make the people around you drive even worse because they see you as an obstruction, and drive like ***** just to get past you.

Harder tests, maybe re-tests after a certain time, make pass plus, or some sort of advanced driving skills course part of the basic learning process, would help things far more than any of the above.
 
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