100h driver training

[Tom Scott]

Thats basicaly the system in France. Young people can start learning at 16, but cannot have a licence to drive on their own till they are 18.

At 16 (or whenever) a young driver has to have a minimum of 20 hours lessons with a driving school. Once the school thinks they are safe, they then have 2 years driving with their parents, and must log a minimum of 3000 Km in that time. Then when they are 18 they go back to the drving school who test them again (check they have not picked up any bad habiits) and give them a licence.

I beleve there is also a direct access system for new drivers over 18, but all drivers must observe a lower speed limit for their first year after they pass.

Have you seen how the French drive?
Lets please not take anything from their system

[chrestomanci]

Have you seen how the French drive?
Lets please not take anything from their system

Yes I have seen how the French drive. They have about double the road death rate compared to the UK, and a much higher rate of drink driving. I certainly don't think we should try to be like the French in every aspect of driving law and practice, but I think their 'accompanied driving' scheme is a good one.

Unlike some of the other suggestions floating about, this one gets young drivers a decent amount of experience without huge cost or lots of tests, and provided the parents are reasonably cooperative and responsible, the driving experience should include a reasonable amount of driving at night, in town, bad weather and on dual carriageways. An English version of the scheme might even ask people to record the type of road and the conditions, and expect a minimum number of hours in various types of adverse conditions.

For an example of bad French driving practice consider this one. As in most places, politicians can pardon criminals if they want to, however in France it is normal for newly elected politicians to issue blanket pardons for ‘minor’ offences, so during election campaigns there is usually a substantial increase in speeding and red light jumping, and road accidents because of it.

[fredered]

Yes I have seen how the French drive. They have about double the road death rate compared to the UK, and a much higher rate of drink driving. I certainly don't think we should try to be like the French in every aspect of driving law and practice, but I think their 'accompanied driving' scheme is a good one.

One big problem with the scheme is when parents are not as co-operative or just can't afford to put children on their insurance. I think it probably works better in France as the cost of insurance in Europe seems lower. I am about to start to learn to drive and our family car is a VW Sharan, understandably the insurance quotes to add me to the insurance were huge [cheapest were £1000 extra]. This is compared to a family friend in Germany who has just added his son of the same age and driving experience as me [i.e. none] to his insurance on a slightly newer VW Sharan with the same engine for €35.60 so the scheme would be more practical for him.

You could easily point to saying it's not a very good idea to be learning in such a large car but this leads to another limitation of the scheme; if your parent's car is unsuitable for learning to drive in then this scheme is limited. Although there is the "instant access" scheme at 18 I would worry that there would be a difference in skills between drivers who had gained their licenses by two routes.

The idea of having a lower speed limit in the first year and skip pan type stuff sounds like it would be of more use. I would have a concern though that chavs may just take a seesion in the skid pan as meaning they were now more qualified to drive like idiots as they had been trained in how to deal with it if it went wrong.

Sorry for the wall of text and if it seems to aggressive in tone this is not intended, I have a habit of doing this when writing this kind of post.