To think that all drivers should be made to resit tests

[DoublyTroubly]

Given how bad some of the drivers I see on the road are (especially but not always older drivers) I think that everyone should be made to sit a light-touch test every 5 years. If you can afford to drive then you can afford to pay £40ish to take a test, it would ensure everyone kept up to date with the latest driving rules and have the added bonus of employing more driving test examiners. If you're not good enough at driving to pass a test then surely you're not good enough to be on the streets!

So, AIBU or is this a no-brainer?

Here's the story.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086179/Colin-Horsfall-87-killed-Cassie-McCord-16-days-refusing-surrender-licence.html

It haunts me to be honest

I've always found it odd that I have to take a yearly assessment at work to prove I am still competent to drive a knackered little counterbalance that does maybe 10 mph on its best day or an enormous lumbering bendi that I cannot imagine moving faster than a jog and are operated only in a huge warehouse with very few pedestrians but not for a car that can reach 110mph and is surrounded by hazards.

Every 5 years I think is excessive but certainly every 10 for an assessment. I don't think it should be a test as such because lets face it, we don't have to be bad drivers to fail a test. My mum has been driving 30 years, never had an accident and she would fail a test because she crosses her hands on the wheel and looks over her shoulder when reversing. It should be based on safety not form imo.

Rural driving can be very dangerous. My in laws live in a very rural area, and there are lots of boy racers who tear down the lanes oblivious to the fact that there may be people by the side of the road, or horses just round the corner. Far more scary than driving on a motorway.

I definitely agree brasty, but I think they're mostly locals! (In fact round here the boy racers are mostly driving monster tractors with a silage or slurry trailer attached, very very scary.)

MrsDeVere - yes, city roads are equally alarming if you're not used to them - have done a lot of city driving in the past, but it still takes me a while to get back into it.

With regards to intensive driving courses, they can be a lottery. I did one, and half of the people on it had either lost their licence, or were from the States and needed to learn to drive in a manual car after previously holding an automatic licence. The guy who runs the course told me that it's usually the younger, more confident drivers who pass first time, but go on to get points on their licence due to arrogance on the road.

There's another intensive driving school near me, with a terrible reputation. They'd put pupils forward for their test, knowing damn well they weren't ready, then once they'd failed they'd charge them a premium for corrective lessons and cream off extra profits for 'fast tracking' their next practical test.

Rural roads are extremely dangerous, and have the highest accident statistics because people think that speed limit = 60 means that you can drive at 60, which isn't always the case.

As well as crashing into trees on bends, people carry out unsafe overtaking manouveres to get round slower drivers - lorries can only drive at 40, large vans at 50.

Regarding motorways, how about having compulsory motorway tuition shortly after a person passes their test? A motorway lesson is always recommended, but it could be that people can't drive on motorways unsupervised, until they have had a few more hours tuition?

The driving syllabus could include a number of compulsory road conditions that you have to get signed off - it probably does already, I'm thinking of driving at night, in fog, in winter, on motorways and dual carriageways, on fast rural roads, in cities etc. They could do some of these on simulators if not available locally.

I find slow City driving the easiest driving. And where I live, it is always slow.

Grandfather rights at 50? I'm 43 so not long before I'm put out to pasture then

My DH grandather was still driving at 95 and FIL and family begged him to stop. There was also a highly publicised case where the man's wife and daughter were killed when the older driver accidentally mistook the break for the accelorator. The husband is campaigning to make tests compulsory for older drivers. That said, my dad is over 70 and a great driver and many older people need their cars for independence. Likewise, seen many reckless younger drivers. The woman who hit me, despite me honking the horn and warning her not to turn right onto main roaf as I was driving past, was also in her 40s and admitted she shouldn't be driving that day (don't know why still). I think it's a case by case basis, but the rule needs to be gor all if there is a test, surely.

Grandfather rights in this sense means being automatically allowed to drive box vans, minibuses and trailers having only passed a car test.

If you passed your car test before a certain date, you can drive all the other vehicles without specific tuition and tests.

After that date you have to pass a test driving said large vehicle or driving a trailer, probably including parking it, which is what I know I couldn't do. Have a look on the back of your photocard to see what categories your licence includes.

Oh I have recently bought a dash cam after the woman went into my car.

Mostly, I agree the worst drivers are the tailgaters who insist on leaving no breaking distance when you are driving at correct speed. They try to bully you into speeding up, jumping lights etc. IME these are male drivers aged anywhere between 18 and 78!

Thanks Barbara for explaining as I was beginning to feel very old in the eyes of some younger posters (though my 21-yr old DN thinks 43 is ancient. sigh

Ah yes I think I may have grandfather rights after all. Looks like I can even drive the Bat Mobile looking at the back of my licence. I'm old

I learned to drive in the middle of deepest suburbia. I did the pass plus which gave me 6 hours on motorways which was well worth while. (A bugbear of mine is that before pulling in after overtaking, I allow the passed car their stopping distance. By the time I am ready to manoeuvre in, someone frequently, and inevitably in the cliche of a black German car is undertaking preventing me from pulling in, and depriving the other car of its stopping distance)

Shortly after passing my test I moved area which involved some rural driving. I still cringe at the memory of my first couple of attempts at overtaking tractors. I hadn't learned to gear down to get the maximum acceleration out of the car. Experience quickly taught me, and thank goodness no one was harmed, but that was more luck than my judgement. My licence has been flawless since passing my test despite errors from inexperience in that time.

There are flaws in the system. You can pass with gaps in your knowledge. Bad habits and complacency can set in. Reviewing people's driving every 10 years would be a good move. For minor points, it might just make people more cautious. For serious issues retests would be useful.

The difficulty in statistics is that they only show significant recorded damage. The types of incident that older drivers are involved in are less likely to be recorded-minor bumps/ scrapes that get dealt with outside insurance. Their actions may be indirect causes of other accidents for example driving unreasonably slowly for the conditions contributing to a poor overtaking manoeuvre. Many older people withdraw from higher speed environments. Keeping safe by driving in very familiar places doesn't necessarily mean that you remain a safe and competent driver despite a clean record.

It's a commonly used phrase, not ageist and as barbara says it means you can drive vehicles without any additional training. A 50 year old is likely to have passed their test prior to 1997 when additional tests were required to tow trailers for example.

Going back a bit, I completely agree with what MrsdeVere says about having to clock up a certain number of hours on the road (of proper lessons not just with a friend or whatever) before you can pass a test.

I think this would make the biggest difference of all.

Anecdotally, everyone I know who has passed their test quickly, and most of those who have passed first time, have either had major accidents, been banned from driving or had their licence revoked within the first two years. Those I know who past after two or more goes have, as far as I know, not had any of those things happen.

Before you say it, yes I passed fourth time after a year of lessons (aged 17). But I have never had any kind of accident, only ever had 3 points in 20 years and I drive loads.

Gearing down is a fairly standard part of driving, I certainly remember learning that as a learner.

However, it might be because I live in a hilly part of the country, which introduces a new question - if you live in an extremely flat part of the country (Cambridgeshire and surrounding area comes to mind) how do you learn to do hill starts and drive up and down hills safely? Have they built special hills?

For anyone still interested in Grandfather Rights, according to wikipedia, this is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Acquired rights is a non-gendered term.

Although, when applied to a change in qualification requirements for dental nurses a few years ago, the term 'grandmother rights' was used because well over 95% of dental nurses are female.

I passed in 1995, drove regularly for about 6 months, then barely anything for about 20 years. I found it quite scary that I could go and buy any car and just drive off after all that time. So I did the sensible thing and had some refresher lessons to make sure I was competent, particularly on joining and overtaking on motorways. One and a half months later I'm much more confident, but still aware of my inexperience on unfamiliar roads, so I look at the satellite images of any new route to get familiar with the road layouts and positioning for junctions and roundabouts. (Still got to tackle the dreaded M25 though 😉)

I'm confident that I could pass a test tomorrow and have been driving for nearly 20 years

Tbh, it means nothing if you're confident. Plenty of people with licences are confident and are shocking drivers.

DH's favourite phrase when behind the wheel is: Compulsory Retests!!

How did you guys know? :D At least he never swears at other drivers but would def support a campaign for it.

I agree with all the above, glad we're not the only ones that regularly discuss it :)

I def think we should have mandatory re-tests every 10 years. Things on the road change, we change, it would be a great thing if the re-test had something like 2h with an instructor to refresh then a test inc safe M-WAy driving since so many fuckers don't seem to be able to change lanes out of the middle lane despite the inside lane being empty.

"if you live in an extremely flat part of the country (Cambridgeshire and surrounding area comes to mind) how do you learn to do hill starts and drive up and down hills safely"

Nope, there was no hill start included in my driving test in Cambridge. Though my driving instructor did take me up castle hill almost every lesson, where you could pretty much guarantee you'll have to stop & restart due to traffic so I was actually fine with them (long time ago though - they may have changed the tests now).

Hill start is no longer a manoeuvre. But you are expected to show you can use gears appropriately on hills. I thought all test routes included at least one hill? Just as the test route I did in a City also included a small bit of countryside driving.

The problem is everyone thinks they're a legendary driver (well no is going to to turn round and say they're a below average driver are they?)

But truth is, most are average and some seriously below.

We are all human and all subject to mistakes.

RAC data shows 83% of drivers would NOT pass today's driving test, it has changed drastically over time - the next change is that it will include the use of the satnav on the test.

But the most major problem is that for most people, once they pass the test they think "right that's it, no more learning" truth is you should NEVER stop learning to drive, cars change, road rules change etc. Be honest, how many people have even picked up a highway code since their learner days?

The government has looked at re-testing so many times over the years, but it would be logistically impossible,

Not enough test centres, not enough examiners (and the test fee would not cover all the investment needed to train up extra staff at DVSA) and the government won't invest.

Also the wider implications - say someone is retested and fails, but they rely on their car for work? They can no longer do their job, so could lose the job, etc - It just at the moment is logistically impossible.