The way to improve driving standards in this country

16/05/2008

Some time has passed since we last heard about extra driving tests for those of us over a certain age. Whilst I am not entirely against this, it is ageist and does not deal with the larger problem of bad driving - let alone dangerous and criminal driving which has had, and continues to have a deleterious impact upon driving standards.
 
Then there is the growing and serious problem of congestion - we have too many drivers and too many vehicles. To deal with this, I suggest the following:  first, remove all those drivers and their vehicles who are uninsured and have no tax or MOT, and enforce it with the DVLA informing the police of all new instances, including SORN declarations. Secondly all drivers who are unlicenced and who break the ban should receive a permanent ban.
 
Having substantially reduced, if not eliminated, all the above only then should we turn our attention to the general driving standards for the rest of us -  including those over 70. I will chose just a few of the many infractions of driving rules: failure to indicate, those whose driving never improves, and the attention deficit driver (mobile phones, fiddling with radios, talking to a passenger, eating and drinking, smoking, looking for anything inside or outside the car etc.)
 
So what to do? Could there be some incentive to improve driving standards - say, using road tax? Every infringement could lead to an increase in the tax for that person, with the upper limit so expensive that not one driver would wish to pay it. The extra loading could be relative to the type of infringement and its seriousness - and in addition to any existing penalty points and loss of licence.

 

And to offset that, every driver could voluntarily submit to a test that would be geared to the age and experience of each person, and the quality of the pass would bring a reduction in road tax. This is just the bones of a suggestion, and it would need to be refined before being put forward for consideration, but it might work. I would be interested in the views of other readers on the subject.
 
Peter Bray