Driving Tests every 25 years?

[Scrambledeggyegg]

I’m learning to drive right now... I’m in my mid 30s. I think everyone should have to retake their driving test every 25 years. To both raise revenue and get higher standards of driving. I feel if you have nothing to improve then nothing to worry about. If you’re good enough to pass the test you deserve to drive on the road. If not, then buses for you.

Like with the op. Pass a test then your opinion might be worth something.

At the minute it means nothing

But those people haven’t been doing nothing since they took their tests - they’ve been building on their skills, experiencing a myriad of driving conditions, learning how to deal with other drivers and emergency situations

or the opposite - I passed my test at 17, then moved to London at 21 and didn’t drive a car again for 15 years. The next time I got in a car I was extremely anxious and I now avoid driving at all costs. Under this plan my licence would expire and I’d be too anxious to re-take the test. Is that a good thing? Maybe. Am I going to drive again? Probably not, but the starting point of having a licence is better.

It used to be said that Learner Drivers learnt to pass their Driving Test. It was only after that they actually learnt to drive... I suspect this is still very true. So testing people 'regularly' (which 25 years isn't...) would do the same thing - people wouldn't drive during their test the way they drive the rest of the time.

But I suspect you're just being goady...

So what happens when people who rely on cars for their jobs, disability, school fail with a few minors op?
Are you in favour of providing them equivalent funding till they pass? Rent, food, disability suitable taxis, exemption from school attendance figures, free supermarket home delivery and priority slots?

How can you be in your thirties and be so unaware of the realities of people's lives?

Btw people who think they are great drivers never are. Good luck with the test.

It's currently around 5- 6 months to book a practical test nearby and none available for even longer in the city we live in. Theory tests are 2-3 months minimum.

There are hardly any instructors to be had nearby. All have huge waiting lists and some have closed theirs.

We can't keep up with the current level of demand for learners following covid. There are thousands of young people having to redo (and replay to do) theory tests as, due to covid, they've not been able to secure a practical lesson within the required 2 years due to covid restrictions.

So no, no point in doing it every 25 years. Maybe consider anyone who is being stopped for poor driving or speeding above a set amount having to be retest, it not just generally, no.

And I'd like to see a total change to the system anyway. I'd like it to be based in a continued assessment model for learners, who would need to clock up x number of supervised hours with competences that need to be checked off 2-3 times each. Examiners would be redeployed to do spot checks in instructors cars, during lessons, rather than doing one off tests for learners. A little more like the system for pilots, etc.

Have you heard of this word OP? It's 'experience'.

Driving for 34yrs (in my case), a member of the IAM for 25yrs (you'll ptobably have to look that up as you've no idea what driving means yet) equals 'experience'. A test every 25yrs (where did you even get that number from?!) is irrelevant.

Have you stopped to wonder why car insurance gets cheaper every year you drive without incident? Oh, silly me, of course not. You don't have that 'experience' yet...

As an experienced driver I can drive to test conditions to pass a test, do I drive like that day to day, no, and I would say most people don’t. If I paid for another test after 25 years it would have zero impact on my day to day driving skills.

As a driver of over ten years I’m well aware how driving has changed as being a driver I have experienced those changes, be it higher congestion, smart motorways, changes in the highway code etc. Lets hope you also notice these changes, it would be quite worrying if you needed a test in 25 years to alert you to changes.

This is very much the case in many ways.

And the current system is a flawed system as it doesn't actually result with a good driver necessarily. It results in someone who does well in the day, for 45 minutes or so. Where you take your test, the time of day, the level of traffic in the road, and the actual examiner on the day varies so much across the country it isn't even the same test they all do. A person could pass one day, but fail the next.

🤣🤣 brutal but hilarious

Love it 🤣 It's like being talked down to by a teenager who knows everything, except apparently op is in their 30s. Hope you manage to pass first time op or it's buses for you!

Also, the absolute worst drivers in my experience are van and lorry drivers, so maybe we should just get rid of all them and problem sorted.

I don't know why the OP is being given a hard time. It's scandalous that there are no checks on people's driving once they pass their test, they are free to do so for decades unless they seriously fuck up and lose their licence.

My 'is possibly achievable' suggestion is that all drivers are required to have a session with a driving instructor every 10 years, possibly linked to renewal of their photocard and the instructor will grade them in one of three ways:

competent - carry on driving with no further restrictions.
needs improvement - they have to have a few driving lessons to improve their skills and then hopefully be graded as competent.
too dangerous - immediate loss of licence until they've undergone sufficient retraining and passed a test - they're effectively a learner driver again.

Yes it would cost, but it would be a tiny fraction of what it costs to own and run a car and the pay off would be fewer road deaths and serious injuries, and lower insurance costs due to fewer accidents.

Would be a complete waste if time. You show you can drive competently to pass your test. Driving like a prick is a choice, and you're not going to make that choice in a re-test situation.

Driving will be an obsolete skill in the near future, assuming driverless cars actually appear. It will be much, much cheaper to take driverless taxis everywhere than to actually own a car, so the whole concept of owning cars will start to disappear. Once more than half of people are relying on driverless vehicles, it will be time to start thinking about making it illegal for human drivers to drive on public roads. The level of mistakes they make will no longer be tolerable.

I think there should be a refresher test every 5 years - highway code knowledge at the very minimum.

There are a lot of people driving who simply don't understand the rules of the road and/ or just aren't fit to be driving anymore and are a danger to themselves and others.

If you're learning now, then you surely must be aware how difficult getting driving tests at all are.

DD booked in February for a July one. She's a friend who was just trying to book and there were no close at a time she can do (which is most of the time) before December.

Add in everyone who would need to do a second and you could easily be looking at another couple of months to wait.

I'd support mandatory eye tests every 5 years though. Police did a "come and check" at a local fair at one point and they said they had so many people who told them they were fine, persuaded them to have a go and they were way under.

I think there should be some way of having to demonstrate each time you renew your licence that you have kept up your skills. I don't think that should mean testing every 10 years but I do think drivers should have to prove they have been insured, either privately or on a work vehicle, for a certain amount of time during the preceeding 10 years. I know that wouldn't guarantee someone had driven and it possibly would disadvantage people with less money who don't have a car, but it would hopefully go some way to ensuring people are not losing skills. Similar to a PP, my aunt has a driving licence, she's had it for about 50 years. She has driven for about the last 40 but there is nothing stopping her getting behind the wheel tomorrow.

It’s a silly idea when it’s younger people who cause by far the most accidents. Car insurance is cheaper in your forties/fifties for a reason.

I had my driving test this morning at the grand old age of 37 (and passed first time with 1 minor, thank you very much ) but back when I booked my test - at the beginning of APRIL - the closest I could get in both date and distance was a town 120 miles from me, on the 15th Sept. I was very lucky to get this morning’s cancellation slot through one of the apps a week or so later, and it’s the only slot that has come up for my town in all that time. My instructor told me if I failed today I’d be waiting until at least February for another test.

The problem is partly the covid backlog but also, examiners are leaving in droves because the pay is so crap. And while those that remain are doing their best to get through the backlog, the queue isn’t getting any shorter.

With that being said, there’s driving test driving and there’s driving driving. I know for a fact if my DH took his test today there’s not a chance he’d pass- too many bad habits picked up in the 20 years he’s been driving that he just wouldn’t be able to un-learn, and I suspect that’s probably true of a lot of people. Whilst I’ve been learning I’ve seen some frighteningly bad driving from people who presumably had licences.

Congratulations @lpsyUpsyDaisyDoo!

I absolutely agree, especially for older drivers. My grandmother was driving until she was 90 and it was awful, but impossible to stop her.

A lot of people learn the highway code once for their test and then forget a lot of it once they have passed, like a school exam. Do you remember your GCSE/ O level maths for example? Probably not because no one has asked you about it in years.

A lot of people do not understand basic rules of the road e.g. whose right of way it is in certain situations, what certain signs mean etc. It's not all about "driving like a prick" - people just forget things.

A refresher would force people to keep it in mind.

I'd suggest a different solution- lower the bar for removing people's licenses when they've been caught driving dangerously

everyone convicted of dangerous driving is disqualified for at least a year AND they have to take an extended retest

Fuck that it took me 3 times to pass the first one age 41

If you think this is the big issue facing the country, for the love of God, please don’t go into politics!