Perhaps the most sensible suggestion yet...

T

Turtle

Ex. Club Member
Going back to an old favourite topic... ive just read an article by Jeremy Clarkson on topgear.com.

http://www.topgear.com/content/features/stories/2006/11/stories/13/1.html

Page 3, he suggests we raise the age at which you can take the test to 19... therefore removing the really dangerous years of driving - between 17 and 19.

Being in that age group myself (and studying with most people a year or so younger than me...), I can honestly see a difference in the maturity of people around me, and im sure that must reflect in their driving.

He speaks a lot of sense in that article, and I think I agree with what he says there too. Just wondered what you thought.
 
some people never grow up unfortunatly, and the test is alot harder than it used to be but still we get idiots on the road.

unfortuantly its a result of upbringing and peer pressure that makes people drive like plums i think i.e. mates egging you on to race etc.

some parents get there kids ridiculous over powered cars when they start driving. clarkson makes some good points but i think when young drivers start there should be a cap on the engine size they can have, much as there is with motor bikes, which allows them to gradually get up to bigger cars. having had to do this anyway when i did get a fast car i had already got most of the boy racer out of me and i appreciated having a nicer car now. if i had had an mr2 for my first car no doubt i would be dead now lol
 
i don't care cos i've already past my test lol,

but yea it makes sence, i was such a edited back then (still am lol) so raising the age is a good idea...

but also it is good to be able to ride a motorbike at 16 cos that taught me a lot of road sense before i got a car... both me and my bro had bikes before we started driving and we both passed first time and got 100% on the theory :D
 
Capping engine size is best bet, insurance do it to an extent by making insurance expensive, they should stop parents letting kids drive the parents BMW or Merc too.

My brothers mate has just got a 2L Clio Sport, now I've driven one and know I would become an arrogant driver, this lad is a cool headed lad but how long will it last with a car full of mates on the motorway egging him on to floor it!
 
I don't think age is the major contributing factor in the equation.

Maturaty does vary from person to person, I know ppl that are younger than me but just as mature, but older people that are immature as a school kid.
 
Turtle said:
Going back to an old favourite topic... ive just read an article by Jeremy Clarkson on topgear.com.

http://www.topgear.com/content/features/stories/2006/11/stories/13/1.html

Page 3, he suggests we raise the age at which you can take the test to 19... therefore removing the really dangerous years of driving - between 17 and 19.

Being in that age group myself (and studying with most people a year or so younger than me...), I can honestly see a difference in the maturity of people around me, and im sure that must reflect in their driving.

He speaks a lot of sense in that article, and I think I agree with what he says there too. Just wondered what you thought.
Click to expand...

load of crap, 17-19 are most dangerous atm, if we raised the test to 19+ then 19-21 will be most dangerous!
 
rlees85 said:
load of crap, 17-19 are most dangerous atm, if we raised the test to 19+ then 19-21 will be most dangerous!
Click to expand...

i think being sensible on the road is down to how long you've spent on the road and you know how dangerous it is. so it probably would move the danger area up unless you can give young drivers experiance before they go out on the road... more mopeds :D

there was going to be a law where for your first year you couldn't have mates in the car,

that means that 1 you don't have people "egging" you on. 2 when you crash and burn only you die lol. 3 stops all your mates nagging you for a lift, which stops you going out late at night to pick em up :D

but i know the best bit obout driving when i first started out was me and my mates getting lost in my car... it was sooo much fun :D:D:D
 
I've started riding my bike alot more, riding to work and whatever, i'm worse riding my bike than i am driving my car.
 
I agree with JC, makes total sense.

load of crap, 17-19 are most dangerous atm, if we raised the test to 19+ then 19-21 will be most dangerous!
Click to expand...

You have totally missed the point. JC is saying that the maturity of anyone below 19 (especially blokes) is such that they are a risk to them selfs, before they even get in a car. You have mostly grown out of this by the time your 19+ so naturally you would be more responsible a person when it comes to driving. To be quite honest I agree. If I think back of all the people I know when they started driving it rings so true. Then mix that in with the age of 18 when they then are allowed (legally) to drink in pubs, but have already experienced the convenience of driving you create another problem. If you introduce those two the other way round, I guarantee you that you would end up with smaller injuries and statistics.

Being sensible on the road is all about your attitude towards it. If your sensible then it doesn't matter how much "egging" on you get as you'll ignore it. Those who don't should not be driving, as they are unable to control their emotions, which many 17-19 year olds can't anyway!
 
NeX said:
lol i'm deadly on a bike :) but only to myself... which is the point ;)
Click to expand...

haha.

I'm damn glad I have good brakes on my bike, i'd have probably have crashed near to 4 maybe 5 times this week. I'm also very quick (having road tyres), many drivers either dont see me or misjudge my speed. The amount of times i've nearly been ripped off because someone's pulled out infront of me (infact when I was riding to college every day I had several accidents). Tearing through some lights on green one time - 2 cars cut me off turning (cutting across me), as it was downhill I was going full pelt probably going 25/30, ended up actually going over the bonnet of this van, cleared the van by about 20 foot. Needless to say I was in alot of pain that day, and my £360 bike was binned - frame was bent in 3 places.
 
ive hit a bmw 5 series with my DH bike, whilst in full body armour... i was in leeds after a day of riding and went down a long hill towards york road and hit the front right hand wheel of the Beemer...... i wnet flying landing on my ass........got up.......and pulled my bike out of the car........and swore at the driver for pulling out on me..

the idiot tried driving off and couldnt as it had bent his wheel up inside the arch..... my bike was virtualy unharmed.... even the front wheel was still straight..lol

just shows the strenght of a modern DH bike (although looking at the car...and the age....my bike is worth easily twice what his car was..lol)
 
nah you couldnt limit to engine size, it would have to be power/torque limiting. Because if you capped people to 1.0ls/1.3s etc they could get like a starlet turbo or something. Plus they would have to make it illegal for you to mod the engine of your car.
 
people concerntrate on 17-19 yr olds all the time but what about all of the 19yr olds and upwards with skylines and other high powered cars etc driving like a #### happens at any age not just 17-19 year olds

what about all these people going over 100mph on a motorway when the speed limit is 70?

sorry but saying its only 17-19 year olds that act like ####s on the roads is bs
 
Well the fact is that even if they have bought a skyline or go 100 on the motorway, above 19 they have matured and learned from past experiance...
 
Ian said:
nah you couldnt limit to engine size, it would have to be power/torque limiting. Because if you capped people to 1.0ls/1.3s etc they could get like a starlet turbo or something. Plus they would have to make it illegal for you to mod the engine of your car.
Click to expand...

As with motor bikes a capping of power would be a better idea if it was tied in with a power to weight ratio. This would cause cars to have the required top speed and acceleration properties. I don't think its fair to limit just the younger driver either, although 17-19 year olds are statistically more likely to have a bump than other classes of road users, a peron in any age bracket can have an accident due to inexperience, after all a 19 year old with 2 years experience is surely going to be better on the road than a 35 year old thats just passed his test with no prior road experience. It would be fairer to cap the power to weight ratio for all aged drivers until they have been on the road with a full license for 2 years. But hey thats just my opinion.
 
i think we should let up on this whole subject as america seems to be doing fine with 14 yr olds in v8's and bmw z4 etcs
 
Fordy said:
i think we should let up on this whole subject as america seems to be doing fine with 14 yr olds in v8's and bmw z4 etcs
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say they are doing great. They have around double the number of road fatalities we have in the UK (I'm talking per head compared to the UK, as obviously more people will die there because its a far larger country) and from my experience, many teenagers killed in accidents there aren't even wearing seatbelts. The states are probably 20 years behind the UK when it comes to road safety.

I'm not trying to advokate the use of stupid things like speed cameras like we have in the UK, but I certainly wouldn't want to see us go down the American route when it comes to this. The police even have difficulty interpreting the laws there. I mean, what happens for example, if a driver from the state of Gerogia who is allowed to drive at 15 travels by car to another state where the driving age is higher? I understand that young drivers in America are restricted to driving in their own state, but how the hell can that be enforced? Its a total mess.

Having said that, I don't think driving should be restricted by age. Its about experience instead. If your a "new driver" (in the 2 year probationary period after passing your test), then the law already recognises you as an inexperienced driver anyway.

An inexperienced 17 year old lad on the roads is just as dangerous as an inexperienced 65 year old woman in my opinion. If you try to use the argument that some 17 year olds aren't mature enough to drive, what about all the ones that are? As someone has said on here before, pizza delivery services would cease to exist! :)

Clarkson makes some good points, especially about his Dad. I mean, young lads in cars always have and always will do stupid things. But saying that because of that then all 17 year olds shouldn't drive a car is rather ignorant.
 
I agree with Clarkson and Ed on this.

Though if you could have a provisional at the age of 17 but couldn't do the test till 19, you have 2 years of road experience then and have matured by 19
 

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