Hey. It’s started again.
Remember all that stuff about “making the driving test harder” a few years ago? It was media mis-information and hyping surrounding an ongoing consultation and various reports that had been issued.
This article suggests that history is repeating itself.
MPs are once again calling on the on the Government to modernise the driving test to make it more rigorous so that it properly prepares drivers for real world motoring …
The call comes from the cross party transport select committee as part of a report on the rising cost of motor insurance, especially for younger and newly qualified drivers…
…[ideas] include a minimum one-year learning period for drivers where newly-qualified drivers aged under 20 would be limited to carrying no more than one passenger aged under 20 during the first six months of driving…
…a two-tier licensing system in which novice drivers would hold a restricted licence for two years, at the end of which time there would be a further test…
…changing the driving test, to make it more difficult and more suitable for the skills new drivers need once they pass the test. It could also incorporate a section where candidates navigate their own route during the test…
Other ideas include pre-driving tests for 14 to 16 year olds, so that they are aware of the sort of pressures they will be under and the sort of skills they are going to need before they start taking their driving tests plus looking at ways of training learner drivers in motorway driving and other aspects of “independent driving”. The department also suggest replacing the “unsuccessful” Pass Plus advanced driving course for novice drivers with other means of enabling such drivers to show insurers that they are safe.
The most significant part is this bit, though:
However many of these suggestions were under consideration when the Labour Government produced a report on novice drivers in 2007.
Yes. And any ideas for change were opposed by this Mickey Mouse government we have now.
Just remember that any changes are years – possibly decades – away. This government will be long gone by the time anything significant gets through.