Tam the bam

Just heard this on the radio news, saying that all people should learn to drive with a qualified instructor and that the the Gov want to make parents teaching their kids to drive illegal. There must be tax reasons surely?

Sonic'

Put it this way, on private land they cant stop you

I got taught on Morrisons Car Park before having official lessons

Tam the bam

True, I learned to drive a dumper truck when I was 12 on a local farm

However, I used to work with my Dad when I was learning to drive, he used to slap the L plates on the van and I drove 90% of the time, we were all over the country on all sorts of roads, which gave me valuable experience and confidence before going for my test. I did also have lessons with an instructor too, but they were all in the same part of town, where I got to know the roads very well so my test didn't have any new roads that I'd never driven on before..

NotoriousREV

I have no intention of teaching my son to drive when he's older. I don't have the patience and neither does he I'd gladly pay for someone else to have the hassle (or even better, make him pay someone else for the hassle)

PeteBrant

I should imagine it's more to do with improving the quality of driving in young people

boxst

I guess it depends. My Father taught me to drive and then I had a couple of lessons and took the test and passed first time. That was a long time ago of course, and I still can't parallel park very well

Steve

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

I taught my brother and my sister to drive at the loving age of 23 - 25. Both are excellent drivers !!

I think it depends on the people really, I wont take any **** at all from either of them and they knew it (whilst driving ) so my word was final. I also complimented them more than putting them down, so they felt good even when they had a bad lession.

It was good fun, we had a laugh.

markr1963

While I don't agree with any legisation that would prevent parents (or any other competent person) teaching their kids I would say that, in my case anyway, parental tuition was a double edged sword. Sure, I gained on road experience but also their bad habits to the extent that during the lesson prior to my test the instructor actually told me to get out of the driver's seat and watch him drive! It worked, I passed first time

What is more worrying is that as soon as I passed my test I could supervise another learner (has this changed in the last 20 odd years, I wonder?). So, there was me and the learner driver g/f on some road with one car in front. Coming towards us were 2 motorcycles. They were side by side and very close to the extent that they touched then veered into the path of the car in front of us. One of the riders hit the car with his head around bumper height - he died. The riders of the other bike were catapulted into a ditch - they survived. On the plus side the g/f did her best ever emergency stop.

In WA we have another problem that seems to be ignored by those who can do something about it. There is currently nothing to stop a 'fresh of the boat' driver buying a 5 or 6 litre V8, not so expensive in real terms. Worse is that they can normally only afford something around 10 yrs old so no smarts like ABS etc. So, first hint of rain and they are off the road; power poles or trees seem to be the usual target.

They do have power restriction rules for newly qualified motorcyclists, however. So, why not cars?

richs2891

I can see that if a parent teaches a child to drive then there is a potentional for them to pick up the teachers bad habits. Same can be said for the instructors habits ! One way would be to force learners to have a minimum numbers of hours tutition before they can even apply for a test - hopefully making them better drivers in more real life situations. Not quite B roads where there is no traffic etc.
Markr1963 we have the same problem in the UK that you decribe, Simple but there is nothing stopping (aprt from insurance - not sure if you have the same number of un insured idiots driving as we do !) a 17 year old who had just passed their test driving a very quick car such as Porsche / Lambo etc.
Time to limit new drivers to lower powered vechiles perhaps ?

Richard

Snazy

Sadly Morrisons car park with the gates open is still covered by the road traffic act these days. I think lol

I can see the logic but at the end of the day it should not matter who teaches you, its the people that test and pass you that matter.

cster

If you want to see the benefits of parents teaching their children to drive, try Adelaide (Aus) where this is the norm.
Driving standards there must be experienced to be believed.
I do believe that they have legislation to encourage proper driving instruction, by allowing your driving instructor to pass you for your license - this seems to be a good idea.
I may be wrong on that one though.

cster

Can't say I think legislation is warranted though - maybe subsidise driving instruction - god knows they will recoup the money quick enough through road/petrol tax

warrenm2

what problem is this latest ban trying to solve exactly?

Snazy

Its trying to solve the problem that apparently some families can still afford to get their kids driving lessons and are not paying VAT for driving lessons.
£20 lesson = £3.50 VAT per lesson. (£20 being way short of the average lesson)
20 lessons with an instructor is £70 vat.

Multiplied by the number of people learning each year.....

All said and done, I have no idea if you pay VAT on lessons with franchises. I guess you do.

So hopefully by the time every family that can still afford these lessons, has done it, EVERYONE will be broke, just as planned....

PeteBrant

Parent passing bad driving habits onto kids.

Not a wholely bad move - Judging by the 90% of the driving population that don't know what a box junction is for or lane discipline.

Snazy

But thats the bit I dont understand.

Surely if they pick up bad habits, the test should notice this and they should fail.

I know the test is very basic, so maybe THATS what needs rethinking, and not the actual tuition.

Shark Man

I think the problem is poor driving standards. But I don't think that is the root cause, lack of physical road enforcement is the problem (actual real policing) and periodic retesting of current drivers, allowing bad habits to manifest (especially with concern to all those boarderline passes).

And there are some appauling instructors out there at the moment which is not helping, so banning parents will do squat.

There is one who drives past our house 30 times a day (will check with neighbours, they are keeping tabs pending formal complaints) who lives round the corner (talk about crapping on your own doorstep), who has very little control over her car or her students. Even after verbal confrontations....she is defiant and refuses to spread her lesson out over a larger area to annoy some other poeple instead of just us all the time.

Anyhoo, since when did the highway code say to stop at every roundabout and junction regardless of traffic? Seems that at every clear empty junction and every clear empty roundabout I'm held up by people who approach, stop....then look. Seems they fail to realise it is better to merge whilst still moving (if safe to do so) than to try and pull into traffic from standstill (5mph to 30mph time is alot quicker and greaner ( ) than 0mph to 30mph - presuming one has the correct gear engaged. 90% of the rush-hour half mile tailback at an island located at the end of my estate is purely caused by drivers stopping as opposed to giving way and merging (hampered by drivers not signalling correctly or using the correct lanes).

Bad driving causes congestion, so maybe they should pay a congestion tax; and maybe a green tax too, seeing they contribute to increased CO2 production

A taxation system based on penalty points would be an interesting proposition - especially if more "real" police enforcemnt was carried out and points are given to poor drivers who can't use correct lanes, give way junctions, signal or use the correct lights for the conditions (had to get the foglight brigade in there somehow ) etc.

vindaloo

Exactly, and it's your choice to do it that way.

I really don't see a problem with the current setup. I'd prefer the people who thought this one up to go and have another brainstorming session to figure out how to keep the long term uninsured, un-taxed and not MOT'd off the road.

J.

unclebuck

Good to see the listening government that is changing its ways wants to ban something else.

Listen and change my ar*e...

The Zohan

Exactly, you have hit the nail on the head.

This govt thinks legislation/taxation is the answer to everything. Example alcohol related problems,, kids drinking on the streets.

Putting up prices iss the fix - NO, its an attitude problem not a taxation will fix problem. The kids do it because they can, in a lot of cases the parents do not care, their parents let them. They know they can do it because they have not had boundraries set or enforced so do as they like.

The problem seems to be not looking into the root cause of the problems for whatever reason.

The answer is proper parenting, Police with some teeth/bite, teachers who can enforece discipline and be backed up and parents given assistence and help and then punished (if there are still not of use) if their kids are misbehaving.

But no, the NL fix all - punish everybody, all the responisble drinkers by putting the price up and raising more tax to squander on stupidity.

Brown - this is partly why you got your pants pulled down and your ar$e spanked last week mate!

Leslie

My very good mate taught me how to drive. He used to go driving with his dad or his big brother when he was about 12. He used to wear one of those pairs of joke glasses with a false moustache attached and a trilby hat while sitting on a cushion!

He was always a very good driver and no mean competitor on the race tracks too.

Les

jjones

more lessons = more tax for the government to waste

dunx

iTrader: (3)

I agree with the statement that if you pass you are deemed to be competant... doesn't matter who teaches you !

I agree with periodic re-testing tho'. I recently took an additional test and passed, yeah for me....

But 50 years is a good start, then 60, then every 5 years ?

We've all seen the classic old duffer doing 35 mph in a sixty....

DunxC

Leslie

So where is the law to say that he is forced to drive up to the speed limit.

Don't forget that you too will be an old duffer one day!

Les