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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 20:47 
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41033140

"Practising on rural roads should be a compulsory part of driving lessons, according to a road safety charity.

Brake is calling for a new licensing system that would include a minimum driving period and restrictions for new drivers, along with the rural training.

The organisation's director of campaigns called the mix of rural roads and novice drivers "lethal".

In 2015, 120 young drivers died on UK roads, with 80% of crashes taking place in rural locations.

"High speeds, sharp bends, narrow lanes, risky overtaking and the presence of vulnerable road users like cyclists, make rural roads the most dangerous by far," said Jason Wakeford from Brake.

Lowering of drink-drive legal limit urged
New drivers found texting to lose licence

The charity believes a "graduated" licensing system, which would also include a zero drink-drive limit for those who are newly qualified, would allow drivers to build up more skills and experience.

Mr Wakeford added: "This approach has dramatically reduced road casualties in countries including Australia and New Zealand and could save some 400 lives a year if implemented in the UK."

The charity is also calling for a review of rural speed limits, more affordable public transport and the introduction of "Voluntary

Four years ago, Alison Eames was out riding her horse, Dylan, when she was struck by a car.

The impact Dylan took broke his spine and he had to be put down.

She backs the proposals from Brake and thinks more training for drivers on rural roads would save others from the same experience.
Media captionAlison Eames was riding Dylan on a road near Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreake when the accident happened

"We meet some very savvy people that understand horses are not motorbikes and unfortunately can get frightened," she said. "Then you meet other people who drive very aggressively, [who] will overtake you with only a few inches to spare.

"We then get other people that will stay behind us for 20 minutes because they don't understand how to overtake us"

Perhaps ,just once , Brake has hit upon a good idea, but since most test centres are in urban areas, how would this work. But saying that, perhaps Brake would like to explain to learners who is going to foot the extra cost of this, when most of the test seems to concentrate on outdated ideas , held by a DOT ( or whatever fancy name it now uses) that still lives just out of the red flag era.
Overtaking ,IMHO seems to be like common sense dead and buried. ( Possibly thanks to the even more antiquated views of the Brake brigade).
Drink drive limit- it's not broke , so don't fix it. What might do some good is improve chances of detection , but ,hey, this would mean more Police out and about ).
New drivers texting to lose licence. Why not all drivers/horse and cycle riders as well ).But then only motorists have a licence to loose.
Horse riders,- I've found in my years on the road ( all 50 of them ) ,that horse riders & horses come in all flavours.Some good ,some bad and horses can vary from totally confident to spooked by anything noisy. But then, ( and I've no axe to grind about horse riders- I just treat all horses as iffy ,till they prove different . What is so wrong with staying behind a horse for a length of time ? I've always found the better riders will help you pass if you do . But again, perhaps the onus should be on horse riders to ensure that the hgorses are capable of being ridden on the road without danger.

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Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 09:45 
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If people were taught to drive using COAST principles then "special practice" on any sort of road would be unnecessary. You cannot give people experience of every situation which they might encounter on the road. However, I would have thought that driving at night on unlit rural roads might be a possible candidate for extra tuition.

There are a lot of single vehicle accidents at night on rural roads due to young people driving irresponsibly, when drunk or falling asleep due to drugs. They go off the road and hit trees etc. It's funny how all these people are "lovely lads" who never drink or take drugs - according to their relatives. No amount of awareness training will stop this.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 17:32 
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Not remotely practical for learners living in big cities, just as motorway training isn't practical for those living in Cornwall or Caithness.

It may sound well-meaning, but deep down it's just another attempt to raise the barrier to entry to driving by making training more difficult, time-consuming and expensive.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 17:49 
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Interesting. Do you see this as a deliberate policy to reduce the number of drivers? I should have thought that the cost of insurance for new and young drivers would do this quite effectively.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 18:47 
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malcolmw wrote:
Interesting. Do you see this as a deliberate policy to reduce the number of drivers? I should have thought that the cost of insurance for new and young drivers would do this quite effectively.

No, I wouldn't say they're being deliberately disingenuous, but the whole BRAKE mindset is that driving is fundamentally a highly dangerous activity and needs much stricter regulation. If that results in erecting higher barriers to entry, which it inevitably would, then so be it.

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 01:51 
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Peter, I'd tend to agree, BUT like Claire, I hail from up north, with lots of narrow roads. I passed my test in a city with it's own problems, but the same principles apply. I'm perhaps lucky ,in that my driving mentor was my uncle, who was very experienced in driving on this sort of road, and passed on his skills to me. But, perhaps it's time to get away from the production line driving school and get learning back into the real world. My son is at present ,learning. He's sat in the passenger seat, whilst I've talked him through several scenarios, and asked him to comment. BUT, learners are ( IMHO) failed by the system, being tied to outdated /outmoded methods of driving. AND after being assessed as passed fit to obtain a licence, more in need of further training than been allowed on the roads.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 14:20 
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I don't really get the "living in a city, no rural roads" bit. How far do you have to really drive from a city centre before you find a bit of rural road. Lessons are an hour long on average, surely devoting a whole lesson (or extending it to 2hrs) would enable a learner to at least experience some of the dangers of rural driving. Every silly plonker under 35 around here seems to think that every road is safe so long as you are travelling 1MPH below the speed limit, no matter what the road is like and the majority of those under 35s seem to end up in a hedge or wrapped round a tree (even on dead straight motorways and dual carriageways).

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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