52% support Highway Code retest every 10 years

[Alex321]

My act of evil criminality was before speed awareness courses.
I was only too happy with the police's "THEY SAY" of 86mph, the reality may have been a little more...
A fine and 3 points was my bargain of the decade

I had one in 1999, when I was a freelance developer, working on a Y2K project in Solihull. Travelling up on teh Monday, home on the Friday, so I'm bombing along the pretty well empty M50 on a sunny August morning, when this car behind me suddenly starts flashing blue lights between their headlights

Puled over, and was told "According to our VASCAR, you were averaging 95 for about a mile. Normally, that goes to court, and you are looking at 6 points at least, maybe more, but since it is a nice day, with good visibility, an empty road and nothing else wrong with your driving, we'll give you a fixed penalty ticket if you accept it".

Me: "Yes thank you, and I'll keep it much slower from here".

3 points and £60 in those days. I've never driven that fast since.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I had one in 1999, when I was a freelance developer, working on a Y2K project in Solihull. Travelling up on teh Monday, home on the Friday, so I'm bombing along the pretty well empty M50 on a sunny August morning, when this car behind me suddenly starts flashing blue lights between their headlights

Puled over, and was told "According to our VASCAR, you were averaging 95 for about a mile. Normally, that goes to court, and you are looking at 6 points at least, maybe more, but since it is a nice day, with good visibility, an empty road and nothing else wrong with your driving, we'll give you a fixed penalty ticket if you accept it".

Me: "Yes thank you, and I'll keep it much slower from here".

3 points and £60 in those days. I've never driven that fast since.

So you and me saved the world from Y2K then?

 

[Drago]

So you and me saved the world from Y2K then?

Damn you to hell man! I was well set - id a good ly stash of food, water, cash, weapons, fuel, everything needed to become king when society collapsed and you ruined it for me!

 

[Bristolian]

We used to run experience days for various demographics, new driverw, the retired, etc. Being a small farde there werent enough of us class 1 pilots to do it ourselves so RoSPA and IAM would send some down as observers.

From what I've seen I wouldn't want any IAM, aside from the peerless Mr Bristolian, anywhere near such a thing.

Trying to wrack my brains for the IAM jockey doing a demonstration drive on our manor who ran into the rear of a slow moving hedge trimming tractor on a local B road - over a crest, left wasn't best that time! Would have been the late 90s.

You are too kind

 

[Bristolian]

These flippin' theory tests drove me mad when I was training to be an ADI. For those that don't know, the Part 1 multi-guess test consists of 100 questions in four sections and to pass you need an overall score of more than 85% and no less than 20/25 in each section. There is also a hazard perception test with 14 video clips, scored out of 75 with 57 being the pass mark. My trainer was a hard task-master who considered anything less than 100% in both parts was a failure - I hated him but he was a damned good trainer

 

[Drago]

These flippin' theory tests drove me mad when I was training to be an ADI. For those that don't know, the Part 1 multi-guess test consists of 100 questions in four sections and to pass you need an overall score of more than 85% and no less than 20/25 in each section. There is also a hazard perception test with 14 video clips, scored out of 75 with 57 being the pass mark. My trainer was a hard task-master who considered anything less than 100% in both parts was a failure - I hated him but he was a damned good trainer

At least he wasn't like my dad, who'd smash a steel rule over the back of my knuckles every time I did something not to his satisfaction during driving lessons. Thankfully I passed first go!

 

[Webbo2]

I had 2 driving instructors whilst I was learning. The first when she found out I was a mental health nurse spent the lesson sounding out her daughters issues. The second who’s partner was a mental health nurse just elbowed me in the ribs every time I made a mistake.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Ithere is an army of qualified (by DVSA) advanced driving observers - both RoSPA and IAMRoadsmart - out there willing to undertake this task ... and we're cheaper than an ADI.

Believe me, if any form of retesting became compulsory the "Army of advanced driving observers" would be nowhere near enough and you could (And would) charge what the market would bear. The current cost of a driving lesson is around £40 per hour I believe, were I still in the business and retesting became mandatory I'd be looking at somewhere round a hundred quid or more. Market forces are terrific - if you are on the right end of them. Try getting a plumber in if you don't believe me.

 

[Drago]

I'd come outmof retirement to help out for £70k for a two day week.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Technology could bring some solutions
A lot of people, probably renew car tax, driving licences etc online. It would be fairly simple, technology wise, to include a random set of test questions that people have to navigate through, before hitting the final confirm button.

agree. We have to do this in the NHS; child protection, fire safety, emergency procedures etc. you have to get 85% to pass IIRC. wouldn't be hard to do that apart from of course the capacity and cost involved in maintaining the website.

 

[Dogtrousers]

agree. We have to do this in the NHS; child protection, fire safety, emergency procedures etc. you have to get 85% to pass IIRC. wouldn't be hard to do that apart from of course the capacity and cost involved in maintaining the website.

Where it gets tricky is preventing impersonation/ other forms of defeating the point of it.

 

[oxoman]

Where it gets tricky is preventing impersonation/ other forms of defeating the point of it.

Sadly that goes on enough already.
I agree with refreshers but it should be compulsory for all drivers everytime they renew their licence along with compulsory eye tests. Once you hit 65 eye tests every 5yrs.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Where it gets tricky is preventing impersonation/ other forms of defeating the point of it.

I hadn't thought about that. Maybe it's pointless then

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Where it gets tricky is preventing impersonation/ other forms of defeating the point of it.

Technology could bring some solutions
A lot of people, probably renew car tax, driving licences etc online. It would be fairly simple, technology wise, to include a random set of test questions that people have to navigate through, before hitting the final confirm button.

Google would take care of that.

 

[Dadam]

Where it gets tricky is preventing impersonation/ other forms of defeating the point of it.

Easy enough if the system is set up properly. Gov.uk One Login for identity proof. To stop test fraud you'd get the user to reauthenticate at the start of the each test via a P9 level identity check with face scan like for the NHS App.

You could go all the way to remote test proctoring where you have to have webcam on throughout the test to make sure you're not cheating. Lots of online exams do this. I've sat certifications exams like this myself.

You'd have one person monitoring a whole bunch of people. I guess some providers use AI to flag if there's someone else in the picture or the test subject is talking to somebody off camera, or looking at notes or another screen. Then if it pings, a human looks more closely at that person's feed. There are testing companies with PCs in little individual kiosks in a room where you can go to sit these tests, if you don't have a device or a private space at home to do it.

I work for a digital consultancy. We could build the whole shebang and would be more than happy to bid for it!