What Do You Think Should Be Introduced To The Practical Driving Test?

[weenireeni]

I passed mine 3 weeks ago and am confident with motorways now - I've done lots of dual carriageway driving so fine with it! be thankful we dont live in dubai - one of their main motorways has 6 lanes in each direction!!!

 

on my test I was asked to say how I check tyre pressure, but I only know how to do it after my OH showing me. Change a wheel - clueless, and even if i knew, would i be able to do it?!

[katy1981]

I passed mine 3 weeks ago and am confident with motorways now - I've done lots of dual carriageway driving so fine with it! be thankful we dont live in dubai - one of their main motorways has 6 lanes in each direction!!!

 

on my test I was asked to say how I check tyre pressure, but I only know how to do it after my OH showing me. Change a wheel - clueless, and even if i knew, would i be able to do it?!

 

 

ohhh congrats hun!!

 

i think some people take to some things better than others tbh. im rubbish on roundabouts but my niece is perfect on them but rubbish on manoeuvres which im good at!

[L00b]

Don't break without reason might be a better way to state that. The car in front of me breaking isn't an emergency, but I'll still have to break if I want to maintain my separation.

Not necessarily, if you know how to read the road ahead of you, know of to use deceleration (...and know your car's deceleration dynamics well enough). But let's not digress, so for the sake of semantics, fine, re-state away

In the UK this is impossible as driving on the motorway on a learner license is illegal.

Can I ask what do you call a 'learner license'? Someone still in training, or someone who recently passed?

 

There's no such thing as a provisional (learner?) license in France, never has been (well, there is -after a fashion- but not quite the same system as here, by a long shot...however, motorway driving is allowed in that system, but limited to 110 km/h max, same as for recently-qualified).

 

EDIT after facts check: Recently-qualified drivers are limited to 80 km/h on A roads (limit is 90), 110 km/h on m'ways (limit is 130) for 3 years

What's the point of the speed limitation, it's impossible to enforce, and just causes additional congestion on the motorway or dual carriageway.

It is perfectly possible to enforce it - in exactly the same way as it's enforced here and everywhere else: a French cop speed-checks you, and if you do over 90 km/h and have qualified less than 12 months ago, bang goes your license (minimum of 3 months suspension and 4, 5 or 6 points depending on speed excess - recently qualified drivers can only have a max of 6 points before license is fully revoked (with obligation to resit everything: theory and practical)).

 

For recently-qualified drivers, with the system entirely geared to come down on you like the proverbial ton of bricks in case of any violation, it kinda self-motivates to stick to the applicable limitation.

 

The point of speed limitation is that, as a slower car, it forces you to pay attention to what is going on around you and to anticipate your manoeuvers. Along with giving greater time to process info. I.e. exactly what inexperienced drivers need to learn fastest, before they need to process info faster at higher speeds (which acquired experience helps to do, to no end).

[max]

I think that where possible the test should encompass driving on rural roads. I drive cross country to Huddersfield and the first 10 miles of my journey is on small lanes where it's not possible to overtake in many places. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt in assuming the crawlers are new drivers but it does annoy me a little bit when they brake for every bend even though they are already driving slower than necessary.

 

PS With my pedant's hat on we have driving licences in this country. Licence is the noun, license the verb.

 

Plus, cars have brake pedals not break pedals. I think clown cars have break levers which cause their cars to fall to pieces but I'm hoping that's not true of non-clown cars. Or should we assume that when people refer to breaking on motoring related threads they are clowns?

 

/pedant

[Cyclone]

Not necessarily, if you know how to read the road ahead of you, know of to use deceleration (...and know your car's deceleration dynamics well enough). But let's not digress, so for the sake of semantics, fine, re-state away

I know what you mean and I regularly just take my foot of the juice when the driver in front brakes. But there are still times when I have to brake as well, it's not an emergency, it's just that coasting into the back of him would be a worse scenario than having to brake.

Can I ask what do you call a 'learner license'? Someone still in training, or someone who recently passed?

Should have said provisional, word slipped my mind.

There's no legal way to teach someone who hasn't yet passed how to drive on the motorway. Of course this could be changed like any other law, but requires more change than just to the driving test.

 

There's no such thing as a provisional (learner?) license in France, never has been (well, there is -after a fashion- but not quite the same system as here, by a long shot...however, motorway driving is allowed in that system, but limited to 110 km/h max, same as for recently-qualified).

 

EDIT after facts check: Recently-qualified drivers are limited to 80 km/h on A roads (limit is 90), 110 km/h on m'ways (limit is 130) for 3 years

It is perfectly possible to enforce it - in exactly the same way as it's enforced here and everywhere else: a French cop speed-checks you, and if you do over 90 km/h and have qualified less than 12 months ago, bang goes your license (minimum of 3 months suspension and 4, 5 or 6 points depending on speed excess - recently qualified drivers can only have a max of 6 points before license is fully revoked (with obligation to resit everything: theory and practical)).

In practice how can it be enfored.

Traffic officer (of which there are now few in the UK) stood on a road with a 70 limit. Is he going to pull random cars that are doing between 60 and 70 just to check when the driver got their license. That would be a big waste of police time and annoy of lot of people who are allowed to travel at that speed.

He could check who the car is registered to, but that doesn't really help as many recently passed drivers drive their parents cars.

 

For recently-qualified drivers, with the system entirely geared to come down on you like the proverbial ton of bricks in case of any violation, it kinda self-motivates to stick to the applicable limitation.

 

The point of speed limitation is that, as a slower car, it forces you to pay attention to what is going on around you and to anticipate your manoeuvers. Along with giving greater time to process info. I.e. exactly what inexperienced drivers need to learn fastest, before they need to process info faster at higher speeds (which acquired experience helps to do, to no end).

 

I don't disagree in principle, I just don't think that it can be practically enforced. And unenforceable laws may as well not exist.

[NightFlight]

Not sure I have any good answers on how to implement/enforce the following but;

- Driving in adverse conditions - rain, night and snow/ice

- Skid handling (compulsory skid-pan training perhaps, the new ones can accurately recreate all manner of traction loss situations, expensive but I suspect vastly cheaper than the cost of multiple police crews, a fire engine, an ambulance, possibly air ambulance, shutting a section of motorway and replacing a measure of armco)

- Driving ettiquette/consideration for other drivers and traffic flow,

 

In fact, as i write this, I'm coming to the conclusion that the existing driving test should be scrapped completely and that all drivers should be educated to the IAM/ROSPA standard. Perhaps it should require a minimum of a RoSPA bronze level to be granted a full licence.

[L00b]

In practice how can it be enfored.

Traffic officer (of which there are now few in the UK) stood on a road with a 70 limit. Is he going to pull random cars that are doing between 60 and 70 just to check when the driver got their license. That would be a big waste of police time and annoy of lot of people who are allowed to travel at that speed.

In practice, speed limit enforcement in France is usually a two-locations affair: first squad speedtraps, second squad a few hundred yards down the road stops (or bike cop intercepts) the car if radio'd by the first squad. First squad can check the presence or not of relevant newly-qualified driver stickers on front and back (mandatory) as the car approaches nearer/passes.

 

Within the specific contex, of course it's not 100% foolproof (no system is). But the penalties are now sufficiently hefty (in case they do get caught: standard penalties are dramatically increased for "less-than-3-year-old" licenses) that young drivers in France toe the line, rather than give in to "youth exuberance at the wheel".

 

The 'system', as such, is not designed so much for pragmatism (what you query/advocate, Cyclone) as for dissuasion.

[SiSiSi]

Regular retests would be a good idea actually, a lot of people seem to forget how to drive after a few decades.

 

More like within a few hours of passing the test! Let's face it, how many people still drive exactly the way they were taught?

[Cyclone]

Hopefully not many. You're taught to drive like a novice who barely understands what's going on. Which is correct.

Your driving should massively improve within the first few years of driving, and most people's does. Quite a few get some very bad habits though and never loose them.

[DaFoot]

I think that where possible the test should encompass driving on rural roads. I drive cross country to Huddersfield and the first 10 miles of my journey is on small lanes where it's not possible to overtake in many places. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt in assuming the crawlers are new drivers but it does annoy me a little bit when they brake for every bend even though they are already driving slower than necessary.

Maybe they are new/nervous drivers, maybe they don't know the road as well as someone who uses it regularly so are (sensibly) going at a slower speed than they might if they knew the road well.

 

Maybe they are following the 'rule' that you imagine a brick wall round the corner, could you stop in time? If not you're too fast....

 

Maybe they are really slow, maybe you are impatient.