Posted on Wednesday 19 March 2008
It seems that these days your driving skills tend to follow a parabolic curve - for those of you who aren’t mathematically inclined it means you have next-to-zero skills when you’re in your teens, gradually get better during mid-life and then the skills fade away as you approach the twilight years.
Proposals for curfews or full bans on certain drivers have traditionally been met with angst but now Japan is trialling a new scheme to rid the road of drivers over the age of 65, Reuters reports. Local police with the aid of several businesses in Tokyo are providing discounts and other such benefits to people over the age of 65 who hand in their driving licenses.
The benefits range from increased interest rates at the bank to discounted meals in hotels, and the scheme is fully endorsed by the Tokyo police who are asking old-aged drivers to hand in their licenses if they feel they are no longer driving as well as they used to. It’s worth mentioning that last year in Japan more than 100,000 car accidents were caused by people aged over 65.
The UK, meanwhile, is looking at the other end of the spectrum. A House of Commons transport committee report has recommended the government raise the driving age from 17 to 18, force learner drivers to practice for a full year before getting the licenses, and ban young drivers from carrying other young people late at night. Statistics have shown that young drivers are involved in one third of fatal accidents but only make up one eighth of the driving population, causing concern among lawmakers who view lack of experience and overconfidence as major contributing factors.
nothing new here.
I like the canadian system. learners permit at 16, allows you to drive only during daylight hours, not on freeways, and only with at least one adult who has had their full license for 5 years. then you graduate to an intermediate license where you can drive at night and on your own, but cannot have ANY alcohol in your blood. at your full license you can register 0.05 or 0.08 or what ever it is.
Something does need to be done, but I think additional training needs to be part of it.
I guess there’s just no money to really teach people how to drive a car.
well, the incentive is there. After taking drivers ed, my insurance rates for the first 6 months of driving were so cheap that the drivers classes payed for themselves. plus in canada, you can get your full license faster if you take the drivers education. so like i said, the incentive is there.
the problem is some people are so ignorant about their driving in the first place, you couldn’t expect them to think they need training. plus young drivers will drive just as bad as their parents, if its all they know.
I don’t know how it’s with your sistem, but our sux. Here they ‘’learn'’ you how to drive when you are 18. The problem is you only learn to drive by the traffic rules and you get absolutly no knowledge on car performance whatsoever.
And then, when something happens, people don’t know how to react because they don’t know what their car is capable of. Hard braking while avoiding obsticle, wet surface handling, hard accelerating etc. Sooner or later majority of people will get in some kind of trouble and will need that skills. Why not showing them how it’s properly done?
When I was given my license, I couldn’t actually drive very well… I remember the first time I took the car out by myself, driving all of 3 miles to school. I was terrified the whole way there… not to mention completely unsure which gear I was supposed to be in! To make it better, I couldn’t actually park the car, I just kind of repeatedly tried to get it somewhere sort of resembling ‘in the space’. Scary thought that they actually let people like that out on the road!
raptor; its drivers ed, not racing school. most programs wont teach you these things, but Young Drivers is a pretty good program. They had me engaging ABS on tarmac and gravel, perform hard acceleration and highway passing, onramp and off ramp strategies, and even turning off the car while driving to simulate power failure (so you learn that you have only a small amount of break and steering power in reserve before you’re on completely manual steering and braking).
but no one is going to put you on a skid pad and make you do a slalom or the “moose test”. PS… if you’re ever test driving a car, find a nice back road, and kindly ask the salesperson if they mind if you perform a 50 mph moose test.
When my little girl gets older, I’m sure they’ll have all sorts of technology we can’t even think of right now.
But, I will still train her, have her trained, to learn how to really control a car at it’s limits.
It’s like a calculator, it’s still a good idea to know how to do it yourself…
Now if we can only get a ban on women the road will be a truely pleasant place to be!