Do we need driving licences?

Nuttzz

We all know the test is a joke, so what does it really prove?

You have to have car insurance and be taxed so what the point in the current system.

If you can afford to drive then you can drive IMO. We have dangerous twats on the roads anyway. Lets be honest who drives the why the drove during their test?

Emboss

my nanny!!!

FEED TEH WHEEL!

Villain

Originally posted by Emboss
my nanny!!!

FEED TEH WHEEL!

Well I think the test is a joke to certain extent, but I think the main problem is the way the law is set-up in relation to provisional licences.

I told a story about 2 people a while back:

Ok 2 little story's.

Female friend applys for Provisional Driving licence when shes turns 17 for the sole purpose of having a form of ID. Her provisional licence ends and she gets her second Provisonal Licence, at this point she has never drove a car. She then decide to get lessons from her da and get added as a name driver, she has no experience on the road but she can drive unacompanied.

Male friend gets his first provisional licence and gets 10 Driving lessons from a driving school. He gets added as a name driver but can't drive without a full licence driver with him!

Conclusion: System is ****ed up

ai ing

At least to pass the test you must have at least some knowledge of the rules of the road and be able to drive competently for half an hour. I know its bad out there at the moment but imagine what it would be like if nobody knew the rules of the road.

Villain

Originally posted by ai ing
At least to pass the test you must have at least some knowledge of the rules of the road and be able to drive competently for half an hour. I know its bad out there at the moment but imagine what it would be like if nobody knew the rules of the road.

There is quite a few out there, remember it's only in the last fews that that the test for provisional licence came in, I knew quite a few people driving on provisonals that have never done any test, not even a theory test!

DukeDredd

I remember doing my test - spent 15 mins of it in a traffic jam! Was asked 3 simple questions before we set out and then drove around town for half an hour. Never asked to park, drive at night, change a wheel, do safety checks on the car, check oil water level, check tyre pressure - the list is endless. It's crazy we are allowed to drive these machines around public roads without knowing how to use them properly. Can you imagine starting work somewhere in the morning that involved using machinery that could endanger co-workers lives and your boss letting you loose on it without training or undergoing a health and safety course? Sounds like madness but that is exactly what is happening with our driving licence system.

leeroybrown

My favourite funny thing about the driving test is that a person can pass it without ever having breaked even slightly harder than normal in their life let alone attempted an emergency stop.

Aside from that, the driving test requires a driver to demonstrate good basic driving competence for a half hour. By this I mean:

Reasonable car control
Correct use of gears and no coasting
Observation and use of mirrors
Correct signaling
Correct left and right turning
Reverse in control
Safely turn a car around
Safe hill start
Safely pulling away
...

It takes most drivers a fair bit of practice to do all these fully right for 30 minutes and once you do them right you'll be a lot safer on the road. (It's amazing how many drivers can't do all these reasonably well)

Merrion

Are you saying an emergency stop is not part of the driving test?

What is on the test then?

leeroybrown

Yeah - No emergency stop. I was astounded when my instructor told me that there wasn't. Correct use of heavy breaking saved my ass on one ocasion when I was a learner (luckily I knew how stop a car quickly).

My test was a long loop taken in both directions. Reverse around corner, turnaround (3+ point turn), hill start (skipped for my test as I drove a diesel and couldn't have rolled it back unless I tried). 30, 40 and derestricted speed limits. Multiple passes through roundabouts on all exits. Town traffic. Right and Left turns (awkward/tight ones generally chosen). Passing obstacles, parked cars, etc.

Doctor J

Irish1 got it right, there are people who have never driven a car before who can legally drive unaccompanied on public roads. I mean, you can't legally go on a motorway until after you've passed your test? What idiocy is behind that?

IMO Driving should be taught in school from the age of about 15 up. Then at 17 you can get a provisional to drive in the company of a fully licenced driver. Then a test to get a second provisional licence which must be done 2 years to the day of getting the first licence. Then an advanced test 2 years later, only then do you get a full licence. No messing about with scheduling tests or waiting. You know your two test dates when you get your first provisional. Tough, but I'd rather safe drivers on the road.

Devito

leeroybroen- a good driver wont get into this situation in the first place! and therfor wont need the emargency breack.

a good way to practice is to try and not useing the breack at all until the last moment(say before a traffic light) this way you are forced to calculate your speed and reduced your speed well in advance, which in turn put you out of need of emargency stop. i dont say you can allways drive like that, i certenly dont, but it is a good way of thinking and practicing.

good luck!

Imposter

Originally posted by Devito
leeroybroen- a good driver wont get into this situation in the first place! and therfor wont need the emargency breack.

a good way to practice is to try and not useing the breack at all until the last moment(say before a traffic light) this way you are forced to calculate your speed and reduced your speed well in advance, which in turn put you out of need of emargency stop. i dont say you can allways drive like that, i certenly dont, but it is a good way of thinking and practicing.

good luck!

An emergency stop should be used for an emergency. Traffic lights should not be an emergency as they should be visible from a good distance away. Things like people or animals coming onto the road or vehicles pulling out in the wrong could possibly require an emergency stop.

seamus

Originally posted by Devito
leeroybroen- a good driver wont get into this situation in the first place! and therfor wont need the emargency breack.

That's probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Anyone who believes that careful driving guarantees they'll never have an emergency situation should never be on the road.

DukeDredd

Well Devito i think you are a classic example of what this thread is all about. The others have already mentioned the ridiculous staement of never having to brake in an emergency if you are a good driver. But practising emergency stops in the irresponsible way you have suggested is downright stupid. Can you imagine the accident you would cause if you were driving along in a flow of traffic through a grren light and you decided to "emergency" brake before the light? If you do this then you are one of the reasons that emergency braking is necessary. (And you have contradicted yourself in the things you say).

leeroybrown

Originally posted by Devito
leeroybroen- a good driver wont get into this situation in the first place! and therfor wont need the emargency breack.

Rubbish. A good driver is less likely to have to perform an emergency breaking but they'll still need to do it at some stage. In my case a tractor pulled out of a blind exit (there was a high wall beside it) while I was doing just over 50mph on a reasonable road.

Villain

What do you class as doing an emergency stop??

Just wondering is there some procedure I'm not aware of??

leeroybrown

Simply put an emergency stop is bringing a moving car to a complete stop in a controlled fashion over the shortest distance possible.

Afaik the procedure on the UK test is that the tester brings the driver to a safe stretch of road, asks them to do 30mph, then gives a hand signal indicating to stop.

Villain

ahh right,

I've done that at more than 30.

Is using the handbrake allowed?

leeroybrown

Is this a rhetorical question?

seamus

Originally posted by irish1
ahh right,

I've done that at more than 30.

Is using the handbrake allowed?

God No. Far too easy to lose control if you put the handbrake on. TBH, I'm not sure what the procedure is, possibly just making sure that you're aware of how hard you can push your brakes before you skid.

Villain

Well it's just once when I started driving about 5 years ago I came around a bend on skidded on ice. I hit the breaks but didn't get any response so I locked the steering wheel and pulled the handbrake and teh stopped, luckily for me on teh right side of teh road as a car came around the bend seconds later.!!

Andrew Duffy

What made you think using the handbrake will help you stop quicker? If you have ABS, using the handbrake and the footbrake together will cause your back wheels to lock, giving you a nice (and dangerous) movie-style screech and smoke. If you use the handbrake without using the footbrake, you will almost certainly lose control of the car, unless you really know what you are doing (and I'm not suggesting that I do, btw).
Next time you find yourself in a skid, lift off the brakes and steer in the direction of the skid to regain control, then fake ABS by pumping the brakes as you go back to stopping in a straight line. You can usually avoid the skid in the first place by lifting off the brakes at the first hint of losing control. Of course, you will always avoid the skid by driving at a safe speed for the conditions (of the road, your car's tyres, your mental state, etc.).

Villain

I was driving an old corsa at the time, no abs I was only after starting to drive, so trying to avoid the skidd was a new thing.

I'm pretty handy with a handbrak do, now I'm not a boy racer, but used to rally around a circuit in an open field, and also used to be part of wrc rally team, used to have great fun siting in on the tests.

Frank Meagher (RIP) was a genius with the handbrake.

Mocking Burd

Afaik the procedure on the UK test is that the tester brings the driver to a safe stretch of road, asks them to do 30mph, then gives a hand signal indicating to stop. [/B][/QUOTE]

That is correct. In my case my tester banged his clipboard on the dash when he wanted me to stop. He told me what he was going to do in advance but he still managed to startle me ( which was ideal for testing the procedure ).
I ended up doing it properly without even thinking about it.

mudflapgirl

What scares me is the amount of drivers on the road with full licenses who know less about driving than some provisional drivers. And I'm not saying prov drivers know it all, just a few know more than others. These 'fully' licensed drivers can be more dangerous sometimes than the prov driver who's only on the road a few weeks.
The testing system is a joke in this country. The US have a good idea. Having classes in school from 15 on and having it as part of the syllabus to have a drving instructor take them out on the road in groups from time to time, hence learning how to drive with passengers and in traffic situations before going on to do a theory test, and then the practical 'on the road' test.
Some serious rethinking needs to be done when it comes to Ireland's system.