Should everyone have to resit their driving test every five years?

[gavroche]

Exactly! So your suggested "assessment" doesn't really do anything - whereas a test with the potential for your license not to be renewed does.

Except that the dvla don't have enough examiners to carry out those extra tests. It would be a logistic nightmare.

 

[srw]

So every time logistics might be an issue then we shouldn't change the rules? That a frankly ludicrous position to take.

So is the position that we should change the rules without demonstrating that the change is a proportionate and effective response to a particular problem. As I'm sure you'd agree.

 

[Dirk]

I think the needs of the "vulnerable many" outweigh the needs of the "protected few". I am of course entirely unsurprised that you seem to think the opposite.

OK, let's have mandatory retesting every 5 years, with an automatic ban for anyone failing, as no doubt you and others would support.
Apart from making little difference to driver behaviour, in my opinion, where do you think it would get us?
Do you think the motoring lobby would take this lying down?
For, as sure as night follows day, there will be plenty of parties around who would be aggressively pressing for parity.
I wouldn't rule out an aggressive campaign for mandatory licensing, compulsory helmets, compulsory insurance, testing and retesting for cyclists.
Some of it could stick.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

[bigjim]

No, not a test, an assessment. I have done a few of these when I was a driving instructor, mainly with older people when their children were concerned. Also with people going back to driving after a few years without. I just gave them a report on their driving and weaknesses to work on.

Not much confidence in pupils trained by the instructors around here. I have almost been taken out a couple of times by instructors. On the phone, not looking, speeding etc. Passing too close with the learner driving and there is one that regularly has the pupil stop and block the cycle lane, this involves crossing a solid white line to park while he has a chat.

 

[Dirk]

So every time logistics might be an issue then we shouldn't change the rules? That a frankly ludicrous position to take.

Little point in having unenforceable rules.

 

[Andrew_P]

Every 3-5 years for general drivers, I am fairly sure this would reduce the number of drivers on the road just by people who couldn't be bothered for the amount they drive.

Mini Cabs licence holders should have to take an extended re-test to include how to drive safely whilst concentrating on the 10" Tablet right in their eye line with Google Navigation on...!

A side note from my point of view we should have a complete ban on anything being allowed to be attached to the windscreen

 

[slowmotion]

About 740,000 people take their driving test each year. The average waiting time is supposed to be ten weeks. There are about 45 million drivers in the UK. How exactly are they going to be tested every five years?

 

[Andrew_P]

About 740,000 people take their driving test each year. The average waiting time is supposed to be ten weeks. There are about 45 million drivers in the UK. How exactly are they going to be tested every five years?

Employ people double bonus get people in to employment. Win-Win.

Not sure how it would work in all honesty but something has to be done on two fronts firstly the quality of driving and secondly the number of vehicles on the road. After that maybe look at short trips, then time bans in around schools.

I think the future is that Car Tax moves in to a usage system insurance companies can monitor drivers style of driving with consent now so it can be done. - Keep type of vehicle flat rate. - heavy charges for short trips - heavy charges for peak time short trips.

 

[User482]

OK, let's have mandatory retesting every 5 years, with an automatic ban for anyone failing, as no doubt you and others would support.
Apart from making little difference to driver behaviour, in my opinion, where do you think it would get us?
Do you think the motoring lobby would take this lying down?
For, as sure as night follows day, there will be plenty of parties around who would be aggressively pressing for parity.
I wouldn't rule out an aggressive campaign for mandatory licensing, compulsory helmets, compulsory insurance, testing and retesting for cyclists.
Some of it could stick.

Be careful what you wish for.

My, aren't you full of assumptions today!

 

[lazybloke]

Nor can I. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. As a matter of principle, interventions should be a proportion and effective response to a particular problem. I don't think that across seven pages anyone's even tried to argue that mandatory retests are either proportionate or effective.

The driving test (at 17) assesses a number of things which are not static.

The include:
a) knowledge of road signage and the highway code (hence indirectly, knowledge of relevant legislation)
b) eyesight
c) the general competence of the driver

Those things must peak somewhere between 17-30 and then decline gradually. Partly due to the aging process of the driver.
It would therefore be proportionate and effective to reassess driver ability periodically. I'd say every 15-20 years.

I have no fear of retesting.

 

[Jody]

To think people can buy a bike and cycle on the highways with no formal training, no licence, no insurance or be identifiable with number plates.

 

[raleighnut]

[QUOTE 4973808, member: 43827"]How would we treat immigrants who passed the driving test in their own country or those visiting the UK on holiday/business? Make them sit a test on entry, or give them five years grace and retest every five years after their immigration date?[/QUOTE]
Test before they drive in UK, if you saw the driving standards of some foreign drivers here in Leicester.

 

[Jody]

Kinetic energy = 1/2 × mass × speed2

Charlie Alliston?

 

[Jody]

1800 per year?

Cyclists still kill and injure. You know the point I was trying to make!

 

[Dirk]

The death of 17 people was considered grounds enough to outlaw handguns and impose severe restrictions on ownership and use of other firearms.

That would explain the 42% increase in London gun crime last year.....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-39578500