Glad I'm not 17 anymore

[warren t claim]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/driving-age-could-be-raised-to-18-in-uk--with-a-curfew-and-strict-rules-for-recentlyqualified-drivers-8873739.html

 

Is there a better way to stop the under 25s killing themselves and others on the roads today?

[Junkman]

We could send them to some fucking war and have them machinegunned there. That would stop them killing themselves and others on the roads today.

[warren t claim]

Or we could ban them from driving modified cars? Most of the fatal accidents that feature on TV involve a wankerised Corsa, Saxo, Civic type of car.

[Junkman]

Yeah, and everything featured on telly is the truth and nothing but the truth.

[overrun]

We could send them to some fucking war and have them machinegunned there. That would stop them killing themselves and others on the roads today.

"Sleeves down you worthless maggot!"

[overrun]

Or we could ban them from driving modified cars? Most of the fatal accidents that feature on TV involve a wankerised Corsa, Saxo, Civic type of car.

I saw a serious accident on Traffic Cops where an EG Civic on white Rota wheels was T-boned by a boggo modern cos the modern driver was on the phone.

 

Makes a change!

[cort16]

Feed them bromide to reduce their sex drive. I bet most of the accidents is someone showing off to a bird trying to get their nat king cole.

 

I think making them train for a year to drive is only good for the driving schools. I think it's really unfair on them if you can reach the standard to pass the test you should be allowed to drive. It means a 17 year old is probably going to have to fork out thousands to get through their test. I just don;t think that's fair.

The staged license is a good idea. For the first year or so you're basically on probation. No driving after 10 at night and before 6 in the morning, lower speed limits etc.

[rml2345]

Why don't they force everyone to resit their test every 5 years? Wouldn't that make driving schools and the government and absolute fortune? Improve safety on the roads and reduce accidents?

[Junkman]

The only thing that would improve safety on the roads and reduce accidents is if people, regardless of age, would use their useless brains when they drive, and actually drive. And with drive, I mean driving - the fuck - ON.

The real issue here is, that the majority of people (of all ages) have completely lost the idea, what the car was initially invented for (first and foremost those total retards working in the car industry did that (one of the reasons why I switched career* 20 years ago)).

 

The idea of getting into a motorcar and actually DRIVE the fucking piece of shit from A to B got buried under ten tons of infotainment centre, mobile fucking phones, Twitter, Facebook, Radio Godknowswhomfor (despite there actually is Manchester Blues Radio, believe it or not), 217 DfuckingVD changer, i-Bullshit, Blue-and-fuck-knows-what-other-colours-tooth, 23 side airbags, ABS, ESR, going-for-a-shit-assistant, HUD, satisfactionguaranteed, parkingbloodyassistant, sensortronic, OMGMPG, OMGWEWILLFUCKINGDIEOFCO2HORSESHIT and I don't even want to know what else. The roads in Britain (and pretty much all other countries I know ) haven't changed in the past 30 years though, apart from being left to deteriorate (your tax ££££ very evidently not at work here, but that's a different subject), to 1991 Albanian standards.

 

The bottom line is, if people would just get into their cars, shut the fuck up, hold on, and DRIVE that thing using their BRAIN, like it was intended by God and Fred Duesenberg in the first place, and TEACH that mindset to their mortally obese offsprings, a lot less kittens would die.

[Barry Cade]

^ I like that.  10/10.

[SambaS]

Yes well said Junkman

[jmsguzzi]

As if the price of insurance alone wasn't keeping us off the roads. I recently got quoted 4 grand on a 1.0 Metro. At the end of the day i'm more likely to kill myself on a motorbike which is why i'm just about to buy one.

[stuboy]

list of off limits streets, any passanger with crimnial record and anyone under 18 too

 

 

whats next?

[Cavcraft]

Some irony in 'shut the fuck up'?

 

To be honest the whole thing is a load of bollocks, just another idea to make new rules for the sake of it, and probably some stupid fucking 'training course' in a seemingly never ending quest to give out certificates for things.

Take a look around and if anyone can honestly tell me young drivers are the worst out there then you're living ina totally different place to me. The worst driving I see seems to come from 30-60 year olds, mostly the kind of dickheads who haven't got a minute to live. 

[Split_Pin]

As Cav said and round my way, the people who drive like utter counts are 30 to 60 year olds in some mid range executive motor that's far too powerful for them to handle.

 

They have absolutely no regard for the road conditions, speed limits and most of all other road users, mainly through complete arrogance and ignorance.

 

I'd happily send them all to fuck.

 

I think young folk get a bad time of it, mostly from the aforementioned cuntybaws-ed twats.

[Station]

I think this is a good idea. The other day I was in a car park hearing some little 'innit' speaking twerp going on about his turbocharged 3.0 Saxo, before he was proved wrong by some white robot who had put his car details through the DVLA as a third party.

 

I think the worst drivers are rep-mobile middle managements types driving BMW's/A4's/Passats on the M6. Some of the manoeuvres they make are 50/50 if they are going to make it or plough into some other driver. Absolute c*nts.

[dollywobbler]

I really can't believe people are arguing against the stats. Young drivers, especially young blokes ARE dangerous. Am I the only one here who's going to admit to really being a bit shit as a 17-year old driver? Scares me to think of some of the antics I got up to - and yes, most of those antics were late at night.

 

I don't think waiting a year would have made me any better though. It isn't a lack of training that makes you dangerous, just being a bit of a twat and thinking you know it all, which is what being a teenager is largely about. A disabled school chum was able to drive at 16! Now he really did have some adventures. I'm amazed none of us were killed to be honest.

 

The biggest problem is that in learning to drive, you learn nothing about what happens when things go wrong. No skid training, no mention of what sort of driving may provoke a skid. I worked with a young girl once who was furious about her 'shit' Ford Ka, because she'd gone into a bend too quickly, oversteered quite a lot and crashed. I was 19 when I experienced lift-off oversteer for the first time. It was unexpected and bloody terrifying. Managed to catch it somehow, but only because I'd trained myself in my Ford Fiesta using a snow-covered car park. Learnt a lot about understeer and oversteer doing that and would no doubt have been reported to the Police if anyone had seen me. Still wasn't enough to stop me binning a Subaru Impreza when I was 21...

[Station]

I honestly learnt car control from Gran Turismo.

[Captain Slow]

Speaking as "an yoof" (I'm 22) many people my age cannot drive. I'm well aware of this and I understand why MY insurance takes a hit because statistically I'm one of them - my age counts against me.

 

Three reasons why people my age are a bit hopeless. 1: As Ian says, young people know it all and nothing is their fault. When things go tits up it's because they haven't thought ahead and planned effectively for the circumstances.

 

But the second point is teaching standards. I agree Pass Plus should be compulsory as post-test education - motorway, night, countryside and inclement weather training are never unwise. I also think everyone should have a lesson on a skidpan. Whilst higher teaching standards only affect those who want to learn, it may discourage those who won't take it seriously. This doesn't just apply to younger people but with age comes experience - a fair substitute if taken on board.

 

Three's controversial. I know that it is only really relevant for the here and now. And it's not exclusive to the young. But I think there's a sense of "The car will get me out of it - and if not the safety kit means I won't die." Which only encourages the idiocy! I know I cannot advocate binning the safety kit off, but we need to change that mindset somehow before we're going to see any changes in driving standards.

[Mr Livered]

Dollywobbler, I'll admit to having been shit at driving when I was 17. Now that I'm more than twice that age and an immeasurably better driver, I shudder to recall myself driving faster and taking more risks than I would dare to do now, despite the fact that I didn't have the skills to get myself out of trouble if I had gone into a skid or something. A few months ago I found myself back in my old suxth form stamping ground, driving along a twisty country road at about 50 or 60, and I was shocked to remember doing over 100 on that same stretch in my mum's Corolla a few months after passing the test. I honestly believe that people need to be protected from people like me.

 

It's pure luck that I didn't kill myself. I had a Mk 2 Fiesta Popular Plus, boasting 957cc of pure POWA yielding I think about 40 horses. But I went to an expensive school, and a couple of the kids were bought some pretty quick cars by their doting parents. By the time my year left school, one kid had killed himself (overtaking on the brow of a hill in a Renner 5 turbo I think it was, met a W124 Merc head on) and another had killed a pedestrian (dog walker at dusk on the side of the road). Either of those could easily have been me.

[hairnet]

Driving test should be updated heavily and pre 17 and post test training involved

 

Unbelieveable theres never been motorway training

 

Should be stepped test like bike

[Richard]

I think all drivers should do several years learning road sense on a bicycle, then spend a year riding a 50cc bike and a few months on a 125. They should then put in some hours in the family car at the same time as learning the necessary skills and rules from an instructor. Once they have passed their test they should drive a cheap car that they have paid for themselves, this car should have limited handling and braking properties so that the new driver can learn a bit about the laws of physics. Any mistakes must be paid for out of the driver's own pocket.

 

Actually that's a ridiculous idea. Nobody should be in control of any road vehicle until their first driving lesson. No driver should ever have experience of being a vulnerable road user, and laws should be introduced to discourage ownership of a learner legal motorcycle. Prior experience should be gained on a games console so that youngsters can learn how to drive really fast without getting hurt. All practice should be carried out with a qualified instructor and should concentrate on what you need to know for the test. Once the test is passed a new car, fully equipped with airbags, pre-tensioners, thick pillars, ESP and ABS should be bought on tick. Any mistakes should be paid for by insurance, parents or more tick.

 

There, I fixed it.

[Des]

When I was a lad, insurance was expensive, not the ball stabbing extortion we now have, the big expense was the car itself. I was paranoid about crashing, crashing was unacceptable, I managed not to but maybe learning tre ropes on a bike helped there. I did notice the spoilt bastards who had mammy and daddy provided a car in order to keep them off two wheels would behave like absolute twats and stacking the free car was inevitable. I wonder if the high insurance cost means most young drivers now on the road are thusly subsidised.

[michael t]

Im 18 and I simply cant afford it, the car would actually be the cheapest part of the equation, tax, petrol and insurance are the real financial killers, Im not surprised that insurance premiums are sky high for teenage drivers, a friend of mine recently lost a mate in a crash in London, the lad feel asleep at the wheel and ploughed into the back of a lorry and then into a tree, here's a link to the story  http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/donegal-teenager-dies-two-weeks-after-london-crash-1.1535062

[Jim Bell]

I was young for ages and I have never had an accident.

 

My dad is old and he crashes into things and knocks people off scooters regularly.

 

Where are your stats now?

[Junkman]

Speaking as "an yoof" (I'm 22) many people my age cannot drive.

 

Speaking as a giffer, there are very few people of all ages that can drive and I am not one of them either. People who can drive usually are called Ari Vatanen or sum such.

But the whole mess out there isn't about who can drive or not, it's about who can drive from A to B without killing someone.

And this isn't done with OMGDRVNGSKLZ, but with using one's BRAIN.

If you need to apply OMGDRVNGSKLZ on any journey, you have already maneuvered yourself into a situation you shouldn't be in in the first place and which you could have avoided had you used your fucking brain for driving and not for all this other mongsense dumped upon the modern* motorist.

I think realising that you suck at the wheel is the first step towards survival.

[flat4alfa]

I was a superfast mong driver until I got to about 21.  Nobody really stopped me and I probably would have laughed off any fogie who told me not to.  I shudder when I think back.

 

It's in the culture, and the skin; so for this reason I would like to vote Junkman in at the next election.

[alf892]

Like many I was a twat at 17 and realise it now that I have got (much) older. Last of the late brakers and all that. How lucky I was not to end up spatterd across the grille of something.

 

In fact I probably went from totally clueless twat who knew it really straight on to the more dangerous variation of fairly clueless twat who thinks he is not. Many never leave this stage.............I like to think that I have but no doubt there will be those that disagree.

 

When my daughters turned 17 I was very keen to drill some sense into them. The elder wanted to do one of those intensive courses where they go away for a week and come home with a licence. Can't think of anything more dangerous.

 

In the end I spent ages out with both of them just driving......countryside and town, busy and quiet. The idea was simply to get some experience and the more twats we saw the better.

 

It really scares me that they share the road with reps, texters, chatters and general tosspots but I fervently hope the experience gained (pre test) will help them avoid serious bother.

 

Anyway...back to the point. If the test does not turn out reasonably prepared people to a basic standard that is where the change should be. Adding stuff afterwards is pointless and expensive. Perhaps even a log that requires a certain amount of driving time before qualification like pilots?

[Richard]

As long as they have acquired the necessary skills anybody can drive the way the test requires. The problem isn't ability, it's attitude.

 

On my motorbike test I was taken out of town and pretty much forgot I was on a test- that's where the act might have slipped. I don't know how it would work in practice but a better driving test would be half a day where you drive on a variety of roads, in and out of town.

[HillmanImp]

I dont think it will make any difference but as the extra learning makes new drivers start using their indicators and they learn how to stay in the correct lane on motorways/suicide lanes/roundabouts its all good with me.