Driving Tests - are they harder now?

darich

wallbash wrote: »

To those who think the test is easier now , could you honestly say you would pass?

After driving now for over forty years , some years driving over 30,000 miles
I confidently say .................. I would fail.

That doesn't mean the test is harder....just different.
Bad habits can fail you......
sitting on footbrake for too long instead of applying handbrake.....
not knowing how to check oil............
not able to change a wheel.......

doesn't make you a bad driver but you'd still fail the test

wallbash

I don't think changing a wheel is part of the test , my daughters just pick up the phone and muggins goes and changes it!

Gloomendoom

jimmo wrote: »

Maybe its time for you to take your son out in your car.
I know times change but when my son was 17 I had a Vauxhall Carlton, a big car in those days and putting him on my insurance as a learner cost peanuts.
It would have been out of the question for him to be a named driver after he had passed his test.
I didn’t try to teach him anything, that was his instructor’s job. We didn’t go on test routes. I just got him to drive for miles and miles to nearby towns, on dual carriageways etc.
That did wonders for his confidence and worked for him.

This what my dad did for me. When we went to visit relatives in Berkshire or the west country (we lived in Lancashire) I would drive. All kinds of roads (except motorways) and all kinds of different conditions. It did wonders for my confidence and general driving competence.

I passed first time.

Lum

I don't think the increasing number of idiots on the road is due to the test getting earlier. I think it's due to changed policing priorities.

When I was young and newly passed there were a couple of times where I got pulled over by a police car and given a much deserved bollocking for various things. I was never given a fine or any other sort of punishment, but was told what I should actually be doing. Some of it I even took onboard, grateful that I wasn't going to get points on my licence.

These days it's just a ticket in the post a week later. The offender doesn't learn from this they just learn to resent the authority that handed them out.

When is the last time anyone saw a car get pulled over and bollocked for anything other than speeding. Hell when was the last time you even saw a traffic cop on the road, instead they've been replaced by speed cameras and Highways Agency wombles with no power to address driving standards (and apparently no-one around to address their own driving standards given the way some of them drive).

This, combined with increasing numbers of vehicles on the roads, is why standards are slipping.

darich

Lum

You may well have a piont.
Like you, I was pulled in yesteryear for things like spotlights or even a full car - thankfully never any points or fines.
Nowadays it's pulled over for speeding and little else.

DCFC79

darich wrote: »

If it's harder, then how come there seem to be more bad drivers on the road?
One thing that bugs the life out of me, and it's obviously taught to some people despite being wrong, is indicating right on a roundabout if you're not leaving at the next exit. In effect people indicate right in the left lane then drive straight on.

i think thats down to the driver and not the instructor infact thats just idiotic

darich

^^ couldn't agree more but see it regularly - even in a learner vehicle with someone in passenger seat, presumably instructing

Pinkphoenix

jimmo wrote: »

Maybe its time for you to take your son out in your car.
I know times change but when my son was 17 I had a Vauxhall Carlton, a big car in those days and putting him on my insurance as a learner cost peanuts.
It would have been out of the question for him to be a named driver after he had passed his test.
I didn’t try to teach him anything, that was his instructor’s job. We didn’t go on test routes. I just got him to drive for miles and miles to nearby towns, on dual carriageways etc.
That did wonders for his confidence and worked for him.

My parents did exactly the same for me after I failed my 4th test! They made me drive everywhere for them, while they just sat in passenger seat. Did loads for my confidence and I did pass on 5th go a few years back.

sassy_one

Sadly, the cost of driving lessons is fairly high, meaning a fail could lead to spending even more money trying to pass, with no guarantees.

Lum, I got a speeding ticket for doing 37 MPH in a 30 MPH zone a few years back, £60 fine and 3 points, no offer of a course, was sent via the post 2 months after the offence.
I thought it was very petty, specially when I often see drivers take red lights and speeding on single lane roads, and what I was on was a dual lane road.

I didn't worry about the points, the first points I have ever had, it was the simple fact I wasn't offered some kind of course when other offenders who have repeated speeding do get it offered to them.

I remember years ago that you would rarely see anyone with a brake light or indicator bulb out, now a days I see it on a daily basis, even some drivers driving with one head light.

However, Policing has changed and there are not enough Police to pick every driver with a bulb gone out, so it's the lesser of the two evils

jd82

There is a lot more traffic now and there is test is longer so it is quite a bit harder. Evidence is that the pass rates are much lower now.