Should Drivers Be Required to Undergo a Biennial test

[onetrack]

I can recall hiring a Vauxhall in the U.K. in 1988 and finding the great Pommy motorways. I was giving the Vauxhall a bit of the pedal-to-the-metal treatment on the M4 motorway from London to Reading (70mph limit), late at night - sitting on about 100mph - when a Police car pulled up alongside me, and I was startled to see a Pommy copper mouthing the words, "SLOW DOWN!", at me through the closed passenger side window! I slowed down, and they roared off!

[red750]

I was fined $430 and 3 points for being 0.6 seconds in the red arrow on a right turn at 9.30 pm.Taking my sick wife to hospital. I appealed. Dimissed. "We have to discourage this type of thing."

[facthunter]

That's not good Red A fine kike that is a real kick in the guts for some people and nothing at all  to someone wealthy. Nev

[red750]

In a report on tonight's news, there are 148 drivers in Victoria who are 100 or older. No testing required.

[onetrack]

Surely these greatly aged people have doctors monitoring their health and driving abilities? In W.A., that's how it works, as soon as doctor is convinced the person they're treating is no longer safe behind the wheel, they advise the licencing authority and their drivers licence is suspended until they take a driving test. Usually, the onset of dementia is enough to have the persons licence suspended.

 

What is unfair here though, is, that the testing has been "outsourced" to private industry, and the test costs $600. And you have to pay up front, and no guarantee you will get your licence approved.

 

Maybe those 148 drivers have found the secret to living to 100, and still keeping their driving licences is - don't go near a a doctor!!  

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by onetrack

[Marty_d]

Just because they still have a licence, doesn't mean they're using it.

[red750]

The TV news crew went with a 100 year old lady who drives to do her shopping every week.

 

A bit like W.A., in Vic a person can continue to drive until a doctor or family member decides their licence should be suspended or cancelled. 

[rgmwa]

2 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Just because they still have a licence, doesn't mean they're using it.

My mother only learned to drive in her early forties. Got her licence but never had a lot of confidence and only drove a few times. She died at 94 with a current licence and flawless driving record.

[facthunter]

Doctors  and dobbers and any bad driving will attract attention. Plenty just hand their licence in. Is there some REAL problem here? It's just a sign of making news, and revving people up. Not reporting it.. and informing  about real issues...  Nev

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Doctors  and dobbers and any bad driving will attract attention. Plenty just hand their licence in. Is there some REAL problem here? It's just a sign of making news, and revving people up. Not reporting it.. and informing  about real issues...  Nev

We don't live in a rational world Nev.

EG: When my mother was 86 she had a luckily minor incident where her car almost overturned when it mounted a large concrete block in a local carpark. She already had cataract surgery done in one eye but refused to get the other eye done. Her GP had deemed her fit to drive but she really wasn't. After a lot of argument I took her keys away.

 

Now my MIL is 84 and her GP says she is ok to drive shortish distances "so long as she promises not to drive at school start and finish times".

Trust me, it is a accident waiting to happen - I have seen her forget how to find first gear once, complains to us that she almost falls asleep at the wheel, and now I hear she drives 150k to visit her daughter.

 

Many many won't hand their licence in.

 

[nomadpete]

A five yearly or even a ten yearly test would sort the problem.

 

At least it would update all drivers to whatever regs changed recently. They change the road laws without notifying anybody.

[spacesailor]

YET

Some of us will never keep their licence , no matter how good a driver they are .

Just no bloody good at bureaucracy. 

.spacesailor

[Jerry_Atrick]

5 hours ago, nomadpete said:

They change the road laws without notifying anybody.

Yet, ignorance of the law is no excuse? I guess it is our responsibiltiy to comb the government regulation and departmental websites to ensure we are abreast of the law - like we are all lawyers (or law enforcement)...

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

How about a test with a driving simulator? This would if done properly, reduce the test to a simple score.

[spacesailor]

That would be Great !.

But

The Bureaucrats would Not like that at all.

spacesailor

[spacesailor]

That would be Great 

Not having to memorise  four a4 pages of abbreviations,  aviation law ,

" how many litres left in avgas drum when dipt at 33 cm " .

One track mind , doesn' t like doing thing on two or more equations.  LoL

spacesailor

Edited May 12, 2023 by spacesailor
A little more !

[nomadpete]

"Should drivers be required to undergo a biennial test?"

 

Maybe not. But road safety officials should.

 

 

[kgwilson]

On 26/09/2022 at 1:32 PM, red750 said:

And if you are in a dead end street? Near me, there are four (almost) parallel streets which are No Through Roads, and not short, either. Garbage, recycling and other trucks have to reverse the full length of the street, no room to turn. Cars can pull into someone's driveway entrance and complete their three point turn.

 

 

 

Who was the idiot who designed that suburb?

[onetrack]

It's not just new suburbs. I recently drove into the CDB in the evening to drop SWMBO and a friend off so they could watch the ballet.

But we had to slow right down, thanks to a traffic jam caused by a rubbish truck blockading the street. The driver was out of the truck, walking down alleyways, collecting bins from way down the alleyways, and dragging them back to the truck to be lifted in - because the truck couldn't get down those 1800's alleyways - and development had proceeded unabashed in those alleyways, on a level that no planner of the 1800's could have ever envisaged.

[Old Koreelah]

13 hours ago, onetrack said:

…The driver was out of the truck, walking down alleyways, collecting bins from way down the alleyways, and dragging them back to the truck to be lifted in - because the truck couldn't get down those 1800's alleyways - and development had proceeded unabashed in those alleyways, on a level that no planner of the 1800's could have ever envisaged.

Until the Whitlam government financed sewerage reforms, dunny carts were a regular sight down many a back lane all over Oz.

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

Until the Whitlam government financed sewerage reforms, dunny carts were a regular sight down many a back lane all over Oz.

And none of those back lanes were dead ends because town planners did some planning.

[facthunter]

When Freeways or  rail lines go through a lot of that gets affected..  Nev

[nomadpete]

1 minute ago, facthunter said:

When Freeways or  rail lines go through a lot of that gets affected..  Nev

Such events as freeways and rail corridors are rare. I rather suspect that a major reason for the new narrow dead end suburbs is called 'traffic calming' - supposedly making streets safer for our children.

 

[facthunter]

Reduce the number of intersections also and slow and limit traffic. .  Nev

[Old Koreelah]

We should just be grateful that we have escaped the urban disasters that have allowed wholesale redesigns of our streets, as happened in London, Paris, Berlin…