Test candidates will have to navigate to a particular location using only verbal instructions from the examiner or by following road signs.Because that's apparently a big concern.
The Driving Standards Agency says the new section will promote ‘independent thinking’ and mimic a situation where a driver gets lost.
Well, not round my way, it isn't! It seems most of the drivers need lessons in lane discipline and the use of those blinky lights to indicate direction.
Oh, and not driving while using a mobile phone, or eating with both hands (yes, seen this) or turning completely round in your seat to argue with your kids in the back seat while still driving (yes, seen that too - turned my hair white!)..
But the agency's own research suggests the changes will cause the pass rate to fall from 42 to 18 per cent - less than one in five.Which will do bugger all to prevent all those people on the roads who probably don't have a driving license in the first place. Or have a foreign one.
The DSA - which celebrated the 75th anniversary of the driving test this week - made the test harder after a review last year.That'll be an automatic stop on the number of future male drivers then... ;P
It says the new test will expose learners to real-life situations like getting lost and having to flag down passers-by to ask for directions.
Hugh Bladon of the Association of British Drivers said: ‘The whole driving system is absurd.And the useless and criminal ones will go right on doing what they do, unmolested.
‘These new measures are missing the point of stopping reckless drivers on the road.
‘These confusing new tasks could just make it more costly and take more time for learner drivers to pass their test.’
Whatever happened to 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'?
14 comments:
turning completely round in your seat to argue with your kids in the back seat while still driving (yes, seen that too - turned my hair white!)..
Seen it (note grey hairs) never done it.
I find it much easier to warn them once to pipe down and/or quit squabbling. If they fail to comply, pull over, order them out of the car and threaten to leave them there if they don't give it a rest. Dec 2004, hard shoulder of the M27 during rush hour, never had a problem since.
Anyone that argues with their children whilst driving should lose their license......in fact, anyone that argues with their children should lose their children.
I'm not an advocate of 'children should be seen and not heard', more an advocate of 'you are a child, I am and adult, do as you are fucking told, end of'.
Mummyx
Female drivers will be tested on their ability to apply makeup whilst driving.
Male drivers will have to perform a Ronson-standard electric-shave whilst not exceeding 30 seconds between two sets of traffic lights.
There is a very persistent meme amongst the righteous that driving a car is 'difficult', perhaps because they find it so. In reality for most reasonably able people, it is trivially simple. It surfaces as part of the initiatives that claim that something will 'interrupt the flow of concentration' of the driver, or 'distract the driver', and thus something must be done, or banned, or restricted, or whatever.
This drivel seems to me to be very much in that vein, a focus group or the standard 'research' has shown this to be a failing in the sample studied, so it must be addressed and rectified in the 'process'.
Nother box to tick, and smug satisfaction in the heaving breasts of the righteous.
@J Pub, I prefer the eat burger and chips with milkshake/coke while talking on mobile phone, adjusting radio and arguing with passengers?
"But the agency's own research suggests the changes will cause the pass rate to fall from 42 to 18 per cent - less than one in five"
Julia .. Its a revenue raising exercise - It costs a whopping £130 to take your test - this will near-triple their income - just the same mentality - how can gov't screw more money out of us
Andy hits that ol' nail smack on:
"It's a revenue-raising exercise. It costs a whopping £130 to take your test...."
And now the bastards want more.
That'll be an automatic stop on the number of future male drivers then... ;P
Tsk!
Lane discipline, as you point out, is something I've had problems with. Two situations in particular rile me up no end:
1) Motorways. The right hand lane is *not* the fast lane; it's an overtaking lane. If I'm breaking the speed limit (oops!,) I do not expect to need to undertake in the middle lane because it's empty because the twat in front isn't in it.
2) Roundabouts. I'm on the inside lane because I'm taking the 3rd/4th/5th exit. I do not expect to have to break suddenly because the twat who joined on the 2nd/3rd/4th exit is in the outside lane and is stopping me from leaving at the speed I'm currently going at because they aren't taking my exit.
Gah! Did I write breaking there? Only noticed it when it came back through on email.
I was not alluding to any sense of having a snack. Promise!
The Driving Standards Agency has been about raising revenues to fund its fancy offices and plush wallpaper ever since it was privatised, using the %of failures as the mechanism to do so.
The first thing they did was to slash the number of testing stations with the result that learner drivers flood in to my city (which has the last local one) to familiarise themselves with the roads.
Having said that, it does seem reasonable to ask a testee to drive from A-B rather than simply 'turn left' 'turn right' and 'halt' as at present.
The thing that they should really be concentrating on is utterly failing and BANNING for LIFE those idiots who cannot get it into their thick heads that "YOU WILL enter a yellow box junction when turning right..."
"I find it much easier to warn them once to pipe down and/or quit squabbling. If they fail to comply, pull over, order them out of the car and threaten to leave them there if they don't give it a rest. Dec 2004, hard shoulder of the M27 during rush hour, never had a problem since."
Heh!
"Female drivers will be tested on their ability to apply makeup whilst driving."
Some women seem capable of putting makeup on ANYWHERE.
A jolting Tube train early in the morning doesn't seem the best place to put a brush on a stick close to your eyes to me...
"There is a very persistent meme amongst the righteous that driving a car is 'difficult', perhaps because they find it so. In reality for most reasonably able people, it is trivially simple."
Until you have to parallel-park. Or maybe that's just me...
"Its a revenue raising exercise - It costs a whopping £130 to take your test - this will near-triple their income..."
Good point! I didn'rt realise it cost so much.
"Lane discipline, as you point out, is something I've had problems with."
Indeed. If they HAVE to add something to the test, why not make it motorway experience?
I'd like to see nighttime driving added too, but that's obviously impractical.
No excuse for the roundabout stuff though, since everyone must have to do that on their test...
"The thing that they should really be concentrating on is utterly failing and BANNING for LIFE those idiots who cannot get it into their thick heads that "YOU WILL enter a yellow box junction when turning right...""
I've seen a LOT more yellow box junctions springing up in my area.
Makes no difference, mind. The same idiots who will hlue themselves to the bumper of the car ahead in queueing traffic, blocking roads and pedestrian crossings, are equally ignorant of them....
Chuckles said:
"There is a very persistent meme amongst the righteous that driving a car is 'difficult', perhaps because they find it so."
That's a very good point, and hadn't clicked before, but it does ring true.
Driving, like any skill, becomes unconscious after a while. Most of the "liberal elite" live in cities and ride bikes or take public transport, only very rarely getting behind the wheel - perhaps not often enough to retain that unconscious-competence?
I'm probably in the same condition myself now - I've driven only an hour since 2008 - but I drove enough before that to be familiar with my car's controls and able to do other things without losing concentration.
JuliaM said:
"Until you have to parallel-park. Or maybe that's just me..."
I think that might just be you, sorry. Having not driven in five years, I flew to the US, picked up a (big!) car from the rental place, drove to the hotel on memorised directions and parked cleanly on the first attempt. (Couldn't afford any delay in getting to the bar!)
I don't want a police service, I want a police FORCE to deal with criminals and not intimidate normal members of the public who are photographing landmarks.
"I think that might just be you, sorry. Having not driven in five years, I flew to the US, picked up a (big!) car from the rental place, drove to the hotel on memorised directions and parked cleanly on the first attempt. (Couldn't afford any delay in getting to the bar!)"
:D
It was the single manoeuvre I dreaded getting on my driving test, and luckily for me, I got the other two and passed first time. Never attempted it since...
"I don't want a police service, I want a police FORCE..."
Ditto.
It was the single manoeuvre I dreaded getting on my driving test, and luckily for me, I got the other two and passed first time. Never attempted it since...
Which I guess is a testament to how useless and arbitrary a challenge parallel-parking is - you just don't need it. Car parks are everywhere.
And then it's taught badly, and badly enforced. Infering the nearside/rear wheel's position from looking over your shoulder isn't a tenth as good as just pointing the passenger-side wing mirror in and down so you can actually see the wheel; from the angle coming in, the first thing that will hit the kerb is the tyre tread so what's the big deal about that if you're going slowly?
All it's really testing is fine spatial awareness and intuition, which (from seeing people waiting for commuter trains) I'd guess 90+% lack.
Having parallel parking on the test is like expecting someone to pull off a trick-shot in snooker.
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