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

[User]

 

[Levo-Lon]

Everyone should have to resit their driving test every five years. If you don't pass you lose your license. I don't care if you're a 'professional driver' and you'll lose your job. I don't care if you live in the country with no buses. I don't care for whatever excuse you come up with. Driving is a privilege - not a right.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[roadrash]

Everyone should have to resit their driving test every five years. If you don't pass you lose your license. I don't care if you're a 'professional driver' and you'll lose your job. I don't care if you live in the country with no buses. I don't care for whatever excuse you come up with. Driving is a privilege - not a right.

^^^^^^post of the day, right there^^^^^^

 

[Dirk]

Everyone should have to resit their driving test every five years. If you don't pass you lose your license. I don't care if you're a 'professional driver' and you'll lose your job. I don't care if you live in the country with no buses. I don't care for whatever excuse you come up with. Driving is a privilege - not a right.

Why everyone?
Why 5 years?
Why not 4, or 6, or .......?
Plucking an arbitrary figure out of the air makes no sense.
I agree with retesting, but it should be targetted.

 

[Dirk]

Five years post getting a license is the peak period for bad habits.

Why not everyone? Why should any particular group be exempted from the requirement to retest?

Driving is a privilege - not a right.

Evidence on the 'peak bad habits'?
Why should law abiding drivers, with no record of accidents or convictions, be targetted for a retest?

 

[Dirk]

Because lots of "law abiding drivers, with no record of accidents or convictions" drive poorly and have bad habits. It's sheer luck and a lack of policing that means they have no record of accidents or convictions.

Still no reason for a blanket approach to retesting.

 

[Profpointy]

Why shouldn't there be retesting then? Why shouldn't we ensure on an ongoing basis that those driving 1+ tonnes of metal on roads are able to do so safely and competently?

Given huge numbers of drivers transgress in some way, often seriously, I'd clamp down on them rather than people apparently driving OK.

 

[Levo-Lon]

A basic driving test every 5 years would show up poor eyesight and weed out those who just dont care.

By basic I mean an hour with a instructor to assess the driving ability and a general knowledge of the highway code.
Everyone has minor bad habits and that's not the issue.
It's the reckless and damn right selfish drivers that need weeding out.

 

[Dirk]

Why shouldn't there be retesting then? Why shouldn't we ensure on an ongoing basis that those driving 1+ tonnes of metal on roads are able to do so safely and competently?

I am not anti retesting.
In my opinion, retesting should be targetted and evidence based.

 

[Profpointy]

Nobody is suggesting not clamping down on drivers who transgress. Why do you think it's either/or?

It's not either or, but anything is a matter of priority.

If may use a topical comparison, we have a single tragic death caused by crap cycling leading to calls for an overhaul of cycling safety, whilst the thousand kiiled by vehicles are seemingly being handled ok.

Blanket re-testing for everyone seems a strange way of allocating finite effort.

 

[Dirk]

It's the reckless and damn right selfish drivers that need weeding out.

Do you really think that retesting would alter their behaviour post test?

 

[Profpointy]

RoSPA's Advanced Driver testing only lasts three years, they don't assume that once you've shown you are capable of driving at an advanced level you will continue to do so forever. After three years, if you want to keep the qualification you have to do the whole test again.

after all Advanced drivers might forget they must only use indicators as a last resort and might change down into the right gear. ....

sorry, couldn't resist

 

[Profpointy]

That's a distraction, and doesn't bear any resemblance to my experience of it, but never mind.

I was being mischevious, but you must admit internet proponents of advanced driving do seem obsessed about not indicating. Well OT now.

 

[Profpointy]

Well done for the thread derail guys

to be fair you started it :-)

Nevertheless you are right

 

[Profpointy]

[QUOTE 4973383, member: 259"]There was a motoring correspondent for the Torygraph who was absolutely obsessed with not indicating unless totally necessary, and he regularly had slanging matches with readers who disagreed with his column. He was sacked in the end, don't know if it was for that, though![/QUOTE]

OT now - actually I really liked his articles. I assumed he was sacked for not being petrol headed enough and his safety message wasn't pandering enough to the readership's predjudices; responsibility on the driver etc