Drivers should have a minimum of a year of lessons!!

Entai

Entai

Entai

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In the news today, the ABI (Association of British Insurers) are suggesting that learner drivers should take lessons for a minimum of a year before taking a test. Various road safety groups are backing the idea as well.


Personally speaking, about time too. It is too easy to pass the test without knowing how to drive. IMO all that learners learn, is how to pass the test not how to drive.

[Rant] Bring this in, then make provisional, (P), plates and advanced level training compulsory, and maybe add a year of experience as well, so that you cannot take your "P" plates off untill the advanced test and another year is passed. Then maybe we wil see a real world improvement in young peoples driving skills, and perhaps all our insurance premiums may fall a bit, if they are not having to pay out so much to accidents involving young drivers. [/Rant] ;)

Just my opinion on the subject, what are yours?
 
I suspect current learners will say this is a crazy idea but personally i think its a good one. But then again my mate passed his test and 18 months down the line, still cant drive for toffee :(
 
so glad i passed my test 9 years ago and dont need to worry about it anymore, only had 8 lessons before my test.

(although a friend of mine let me drive his car with learner plates etc, we both worked for same company and were both insured).
 
This is a stupid lesson unless...

They grade your test.

Similar to how GCSE / A-Levels work.

A-C is a pass.

Anything below is a fail.

If you score an A then your insurance will have more of a discount than someone who scores a C.

Reason I think this is that everbody learns at different paces, so, if they want to enforce a year to learn then they need to change how they pass people.

After 3 years everybodies licence/pass grade is equal though, unless you have done some sort of advanced course.
 
Although limiting how soon someone can pass to a year is just a tad extreme, I do think there should be a minimum limit of how many hours someone has to sit with a QUALIFIED driving instructor (i.e. not your parents)

I wonder how many people pass their test without any formal tuition? It can't be good for teaching road awareness and safety!
 
I don't like this idea either, because I think it would promote rebellious kids to drive without a licence.

I passed after only 6, 1 hour lessons with 4 minors - does that make me a bad driver?

In comparison, a friend of mine passed after 6 months, around 20 lessons, got 8 minors and has crashed his car 4 times in 3 months.

It's a mindset thing, that leads to dangerous youth drivers, not the amount of time they've taken to learn.
 
ratface said:
I did more than 52hrs in a month when learning or are they going to say you need to do 100/200hrs a year etc
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52+ A month is near 2 hours a day, every day, thats some going.
Isnt it true that the UK already has one of the hardest tests anywhere in the world?
 
moss said:
Isnt it true that the UK already has one of the hardest tests anywhere in the world?
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Apparently so, but if making it even harder to pass means that even one less person a day dies, because of young drivers, surely that is a good thing??
 
I'd rather someone take 3 months and as well as an hour a week with an instructor, drive their parents car daily, than take 12 months but only drive once per week.

It's experience behind the wheel that's important, and just because you've spent a year having lessons doesn't mean you have it.

I first drove on the roads on the day of my 17th birthday woth my parents. It was a cold wet miserable dark november evening and I went out for an hour. I had my first lesson later that week. I had a month off around christmas/new year (although still kept driving during this time with my parents), and passed in March the next year.

Touch wood I've been driving now for over 5 years and would like to think that out of all of my friends, despite taking the least time to learn and pass, that I am probably one of if not the safest and most aware driver.
 
Entai said:
Apparently so, but if making it even harder to pass means that even one less person a day dies, because of young drivers, surely that is a good thing??
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Making it harder might improve driving skills, but it still wont change the attitude of many young drivers, who believe they are the greatest driver ever.
Theres loads of young drivers around my area who belt around the streets at silly speeds, quite often cutting corners and failing to stop at junctions, bad enough in a car but when im riding, I often have to pull the far left of my lane when approaching junctions just to avoid cars cutting into mine when turning in.
 
Lowe said:
introduce a motorway part of the test
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I agree, or at very least if it's not feasible to get on a motorway from some test centres, then make sure that part of the requirement for booking a test is a few hous spent on a motorway with the instructor as part of your lessons.


z0mbi3 said:
8-15 lessons with a good instructor > family & parents alone.
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Indeed, but 8-15 lessons with a good instructor AND dozens of hours with parents is even better still.
 
Define 'a years worth of lessons' does this mean i could start learning one the 1st Jan and do one hour then do another hour in feb then one in may then take my test after 1st Jan?

Thats taken you a year but yet you haven't actually done anymore learning than you would have done with the current system.
 
I think its a bad idea, with only more problems being created. There are already lots of people (mainly foreigners) paying people to sit their tests, this is because they have had lessons, but fail the test and dont want to keep taking them. There will only be more cases of this and dangerous people driving on our roads.

Then there will be the kids who think they can drive, cant be botherd with a year of lessons, drive their cars with no license/insurance etc

The driving test needs to change, but putting a minimum number of lessons is just rediculus IMO.

Why cant people come up with ideas to fix problems and not some crazy new scheme where there are more holes in it than swiss cheese.
 
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