To conclude there must be many thousands of people on the roads who have not passed the driving test.

[redange]

I cannot believe the appalling standard of driving i see every day. To 'Legally' pass a driving test today requires a higher standard of competency than 35 years ago. In order to pass today requires an awareness of Hazard perception, correct use of Gears (if in a Manual) understanding of speed and distance and before that a difficult theory test. Therefore, how is it possible that the standard of driving is infinitely worse. The only conclusion can be that many thousands of people are driving illegally and dangerously on the highways of the United Kingdom.

Going flat out through red lights is common round here

Watching police interceptors or the crash investigation show and it shows how many people are driving around with no license or insurance. The majority shown seem to be young white males who drive too fast and with very little care or attention.

Agree

He can have his own insurance. Why would he need to be driving on someone else's

Can I politely tell you to f off with your ageist generalisations.

I shall now wait for someone to comment that it mostly seems to be women drivers and tell them to do one too.

This amazes me because when my Dad was diagnosed, DVLA required him to have an assessment which of course he failed and his licence was revoked. He was furious but it was absolutely the right thing to happen. I’m not sure what’s gone wrong here!

ETA, There was meant to be a quote from an earlier post about the increasing number of drivers who have never passed a UK test, to which my response is - And if a driver cannot understand English, it surely follows that they can’t read nor understand road instructions or signs.

Yes, generally speaking, driving standards are appalling: speeding, illegal parking, lane discipline, inability to understand ‘merge in turn’, bullying, driving too close, drug and drink driving, ignoring pedestrian crossings, cutting in and breaking hard …

Roads policing has been cut to almost non-existance and this is the end result.

Yanbu

Its honestly a nightmare driving in london

No. They. Didn't.

Don't post things that are not true.

See here

I don't know but it certainly feels like it these days. I want to shoot the people who enter dual carriageways at 45mph and cause tailbacks in rush hour by pootling along at bloody 50 in perfectly fine conditions (that's just today's annoyance)

We need a lot more traffic police ( or ANY traffic police..) but we also urgently need actual reliable public transport, which is just not a thing outside of London.
I think there are a lot if people who shouldn’t be driving and don’t actually want to drive but there are no alternatives.

We need more police in general tbh

Yeah, but no-one does anything about the untaxed and un-MOTd. Long story but in early Oct I was worried about visitors to a neighbours. Car was untaxed, un motd. I reported to the police - neighbour is vulnerable. Nothing done. Car hadn't been taxed or mot in over a year. I had the full licence. Car then changed hands - 6 weeks on still no mot or tax. I have rereported via DVLA and crimestoppers. My DC just tell me that is a pool car for a drugs gang. WTF.

There’s so much speeding - it’s scary. People do it around schools near children etc, they don’t seem to care. I saw someone mount a pavement the other day and nearly hit a runner. It is definitely getting worse. I worry about my kids driving one day. Hell I worry about their safety as pedestrians.

Re the sob stories, my exMIL was constantly speeding. She amassed 12 points and was banned. She appealed, saying she couldn't work if she was banned, and was let off. Didn't stop speeding.

My mums neighbour often used to offer mum a lift to Tesco’s with her if she was going to do her shopping (my mum doesn’t drive). This went on for years, maybe once a fortnight.
One day the neighbour got pulled over by the police (she told my mum about this later) - she’d never taken a driving test in her life and had been driving her own bloods kids about for YEARS 😱

Our experience is that the GP may be asked to do an assessment, but it is purely reliant on the person being assessed being aware of how they are driving and their own (declining abilities). Our family friend is insistent they are safe, would never speed, would never cause an accident etc, however, we've witnessed them being lost in car parks, unable to locate the door handle to get in to the car and they in fact had an accident and couldn't recall where it happened (a friend was with them who could though). The DVLA sent the person a form after they were reported for dangerous driving - the form was a joke and the person genuinely thought theyvwere a swerignthe questions correctly when they declared themsleves competent. They had an assessment with the GP previously and they are apparently fine, I guess largely because they said what the GP wanted to hear. The GP had never met this person before, had no background, nobody followed up with family or friends to see if the person being assessed was a reliable witness, and the person is no longer under the review of the memory clinic as they refused medication and so there was nothing further they could do and were discharged from the service. It is absolute madness. Unless this person chooses to give up driving (which they won't willingly as they are adamant they are safe, don't recognise at all how poor thie memory is, how confused they get or how poor their driving skills ow are), then there seems to be little anyone else can do to force the issue.

Have you ever watched Police Interceptors? You would be correct in your assumption.

The problem with a driving test is you spend your lessons learning the route from the test centre you’ll be using, I took my test rurally (because I lived there). Country lanes don’t phase me but in no way did it qualify me for city driving.

I am going to be blunt. In London there is a much greater proportion of non-native British drivers. That can and will be European. Eg Italian , Spanish where driving culture is to the max. But also south east Asian, Asian etc, where it is pot luck on the road in those countries. My family was west London based and the waves of culture through those communities , similar to East London, just different ethnic groups. Driving to see my family - just dreadful. Most roads became single lane due to all the parking either side and no spaces. It became Billy big-balls as to who gave way. Lucky I could manage that but not nice. There was no care at all about driving convention. I doubt many had UK driving licences.

I have been asked at petrol stations at least a couple times by girls around 18/19 asking me how do you open a fuel tank. They have also asked what fuel they need to put in. They did not have a clue whether the car that they are in is a Diesel or Petrol car. Similarly I have also inflated tyres for 'young' boys who did not know what pressures the tyres should be.
This is part of Roadcraft which a lot of older drivers learnt, or were taught by their parents. I was very lucky as my father was an avid driver who had many 'luxury' cars and taught me how to drive 'Positively' briskly and how to 'own' the road . He also taught me about how road conditions affect Handling, Braking and the appropriate speed for conditions the cars ability Sadly this does not seem to be the case today. Often today you see the cars with the lowest power during' Suicidal' overtakes on Country Roads. Overtakes you would think twice to attempt if you were in a Ferrari 12 Cillindri!

Perhaps part of this drop in standards is because 'Driving' is no longer fun or considered a pastime. My father would just get up at 5/6 am and on (weekends/holidays) and ask me to go for up to a 2- 3 hour drive with him. Mum 'furious' when we got back because dad had told her he was going to get milk.

I was also fortunate that i have driven owned many High Performance cars at a time, when there were no 'Cameras' and it was a far 'fight' against the Traffic Police. However, let me get this straight I no longer 'Speed' because i think the roads driving standards and attitudes are infinitely worse than even 10 years ago.

People are taught to pass their test not drive and like years ago you learn to drive properly once you have your license. However, people don't seem to care to improve or even maintain a basic decent quality of driving anymore, this crosses generations, it's not just an old vs young or male vs female thing.
The amount of cars I've encountered driven by people who can't navigate a roundabout or understand giving way to your right. It's scary sometimes.

I think you’re right-I often read of men being caught (often after an accident) who have no insurance, no licence and seem to have got away with it for years….

Just Eat and Deliveroo drivers round here are often lethal. They are also not the person named on the app whatsoever as the companies allow the drivers to subcontract out to whoever they want with no restrictions. So all of these anonymous delivery drivers are flying about and I doubt they have business insurance let alone anything else. The standards you see are appalling.

Correct - L plates displayed and always with someone who’s passed their test, he doesn’t need to take any tests because it’s not illegal to do this as apparently you can drive with a provisional licence indefinitely.