I'm annoyed they've already effectively removed the hill start and holding it on the clutch by allowing electronic handbrakes and hill hold. Bloody ridiculous if you ask me. Dumbing it down even more is not going to make for better drivers. Soon you'll get your license just if you manage to turn up on time.

Not all Pratnavs work the same way, and blindly following them has placed people in lakes, rivers, the sea, wedged between 2 buildings, 20some miles off course when they've failed to call a junction (it got it right on the way back, and it wasn't signposted)...

 

Turning in the road using forwards and reverse gears demonstates knowledge of length and width of vehicle, steering and clutch control, observation...

It doesn't matter how tough or easy you make the test some people will still be stupid. Mainly young men.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-30274409

Nothing said obviously but 17yr old driver in a cheap car with 4 passengers loses control and hits a tree.

 

I'm not sure any test or control measure would really stop that. Daft boys will be daft boys. Most of did stupid things but most of us got away with it.

Fewer young people applying for their driving licence

 

http://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/fewer-young-people-applying-driving-licence-1124957009

 

Passing your driving test has long been seen as a rite of passage, but the rising cost of running a car is driving more and more young people off the roads. The Department for Transport’s recent National Travel Survey shows a sharp drop over the past 18 years in the number of young people holding a full driving licence. While in 1995, some 43% of 17- to 20-year-olds held a full driving licence, that has plunged to just 31%. The fall is sharpest among young men, where it has dropped from 51% to 30%, while the percentage of young women with a full driving licence has slipped from 36% to 31%. Over the same period the proportion of 21- to 29-year-olds with full driving licences has also fallen.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2014/sep/16/cost-driving-young-people-off-road

Edited 1 December, 201411 yr by Laurie61

That would be because of the aforementioned priced of insurance.

At the time I passed I knew I couldn't afford it, but wanted to have the license.

Minimum £4k for any car I put in the sites.

Unless you fiddle it, you can't afford it. Pushed up by where I live, my age, my gender (apparently not relevant anymore - though I'm not so sure) etc etc...

Currently at £1500 for my first car, not driving the 3 years since passing. But that time brings it down... Madness.

I also think that you should have to be able to change a wheel for your test too. Too many idiots out there that just call the AA because of a flat tyre.

 

Then I am an idiot :-)

Then I am an idiot :-)

WRONG!!!!

 

The idiots are the ones who PAY the AA to include this service then do it themselves

Fewer young people applying for their driving licence

 

Fail to see the problem with that. The roads are overcrowded now. 

But our society of people who think they have some entitlement to do whatever they 

want seem to be getting their way yet again. Quantity rather than quality is obviously what matters here.

I'd hate to see the numbers increased with barely able drivers but that does seems to be the aim. 

I suppose it doesn't matter with ever increasing numbers on our roads who got their licences overseas

standards are at an all time low anyway so why not eh? 

It's gone full circle now, once upon a time in the UK all you had to do was turn up and a licence was yours

pretty much. Then they made it harder and harder (although IMO never hard enough and not comprehensive

enough either for that matter) and now it's getting easier and easier. My flabber is gasted. 

I eagerly await the increased fatality figures, after a few dozen carloads of 17 years olds are deaded before their

time maybe the powers that be will see the error of their ways but it will take lives to be lost before they will even consider 

that they might have made a huge mistake with this. Besides, insurers are what stops young people from starting driving.

That's where the shake up needs to be if anywhere. So what if the test is easier, the insurance won't be any cheaper

in fact I'd not be surprised if it went up even higher as the new batch of drivers are an even greater risk on account of not being

properly trained. Might be time to sell the bike. 

^ spot on there. And the cynic in me says that the approach that is taken is also working for the Government and their Environmental policies.  Less people driving, less CO2, more on public transport which should be a win win. And before anyone comments, I also realise that the Goverment will lose out in tax revenue on fuel, VED etc etc