New Rules for Learner Drivers

stevoman

well folks. just wondering what people think of the news laws they plan on passing in the dail this evening. basically it makes it even harder for prvisional license drivers to drive on the roads. im fine with road safety and all the rest, but i think this is just getting F**king ridiculous. for starters there is an 8 month waiting list to wait for a driving test.

i have help my provisional for the last few year. i have taken my driving test in portlaoise 4 times now and failed it everytime, with each result getting worse and worse each time and with no consistensy's in the mistakes they say im making. i do a mininum of 3 driving lessons before each test at thrity euro a pop plus the 40 it costs to take the test. im playing exactly by their rules, but what am i supposed to do. i have never had any penalty points and never drive dangerously and my insurance is still sky high.

they are coming up with all these laws to make it harder for provisional licennse holders to drive on the road, yet the more it seems to me that you try to get the license the harder it gets.

basically all im saying is that the whole system is a load of ****e and they are trying to combat young drivers on the road and the people who are genuinaly trying to get on drive safely are paying for it.

cyclopath2001

It's announced on RTE that, under a new road safety strategy, starting Tuesday, ALL provisional license holders (does not matter if 1st, 2nd etc) will have to be accompanied by a fully-qualified driver of 2 years experience.

Possible outsomes:

1: Less traffic on Tuesday.
2: More people sharing cars.
3: People will hide their L-plates?

There's more apparently, anyone got a link to the new strategy?

Mr E

Check Motors, After Hours and Learning To Drive forums... there are lots of discussions going on already...

Nuttzz

try somewhere else for your test for a start, you failed the test, what more can be said, we need some sort of standard, these laws are great but they arent going to be enforced like any other ones, the coppers are too busy to be stopping every learner on their own they see, they'd never get anything done

stevoman

yes i have failed the test... four times. and to be honest it makes no sense for me to do the driving test somewhere else when i work in the same building as the test centre.
just a note im am going to have to be tested by a superviser for the next one... and everytime i take the test the tester always asks is this my first time. its a joke

Ray777

Regardless of whether or not the Gardai have the resources (or could be arsed) to enforce this new legislation, the government are targetting the wrong problem. Rather than introducing new legislation, it would perhaps be more sensible to enforce existing laws, regarding speeding, which is the major cause of road fatalities. Instead of strategically placing speed cameras at profitable locations, they should be present on every single road in the country, however expensive that would be.

I don't think ensuring that every driver on the road has been succesfully tested by a professional pedant on their ability to reverse around a corner, will do anything to cut road deaths.

stevoman

lets also face the facts. most roads death occur on regional and national roads. what are the goverment pumping their money into... motorways. why? to combat roads deaths or to build a cushty infustructure to make more money for the goverment. road tax continues to rise... where does the money go? the exchequre, not the motor road fund. with all these clowns in the dail does not one realise that maybe they should be putting their money into regional roads first to cut road deaths. the exact same goes for speeding. the sit on the motorways and wait to catch people, what about all those crazy regional and national roads that are death traps, you barely ever see a garda car on these stopping for speeding. the prblom starts in the dail, not on the roads

Chris_533976

This is the case anyway, save for a loophole about the 3rd provisional or something like that.

Will it be enforced??? Well thats another question entirely.

sovtek

stevoman wrote: »

lets also face the facts. most roads death occur on regional and national roads. what are the goverment pumping their money into... motorways. why? to combat roads deaths or to build a cushty infustructure to make more money for the goverment. road tax continues to rise... where does the money go? the exchequre, not the motor road fund. with all these clowns in the dail does not one realise that maybe they should be putting their money into regional roads first to cut road deaths. the exact same goes for speeding. the sit on the motorways and wait to catch people, what about all those crazy regional and national roads that are death traps, you barely ever see a garda car on these stopping for speeding. the prblom starts in the dail, not on the roads

I was just about to post something to this effect. It's a typical reaction for the government. Show they are doing something by introducing more punitive measures rather than fix the real problem. Its the infrastructure stupid!
And please any rebuttals refrain from that tired old excuse to the effect that they haven't had the money be patient.

green rover

the loop hole where you could drive unaccompanied while on your second provisional has been closed. 4 days notice is hardly ideal, a bit more advanced notice would have been better.

apparently the gardai will enforce the new rules :rolleyes:

stevoman

aint that the truth!

Stark

green rover wrote: »

apparently the gardai will enforce the new rules :rolleyes:

It'll probably be like with other new laws that they introduced, where the Gardaí do a big crackdown for a few weeks to put the fear into people, then nothing is heard of it again.

cyclopath2001

green rover wrote: »

the loop hole where you could drive unaccompanied while on your second provisional has been closed. 4 days notice is hardly ideal, a bit more advanced notice would have been better. apparently the gardai will enforce the new rules :rolleyes:

Making the rule mandatory for all provisional license holders will make it easier for the Gardai to know who to stop.

It's a bit rich of people complaining about 'short notice' when it's always been illegal for most provisional holders to drive unaccompanied.

oscarBravo

Moved from Politics.

JohnMc1

The irony of the thing is that Provisional drivers are actually much better drivers [ie. more careful] than fully licensed ones. Taking Provisional drivers off the road will hardly make a difference in cutting the road fatalities.

They also need to take Eastern European and other cars that weren't made for Irish road systems off the road. Beyond the obvious of them not being taxed and being re registered they bring them in with with insurance from their countries that are useless here. Also the Eastern Europeans should be made to go through the whole process to get a license [The theory, the Provisional license,the lessons, Road Test,etc] to have an Irish drivers license. Just being from an EU country is not good enough.

As a Provisional driver I wouldn't care about the new rules if the buses and trains were worthwhile taking. The schedule is antiquated and the fess are a joke [€27 to stand on the train because the Dept of Transport couldn't be bothered to increase service? What a rip-off.]

corktina

i think its a bit harsh bringing it in so quickly, but it has been flagged up for a long time.....

Hobbes

I'd love to know where all the money went that was given as a bonus to instructors to lower the waiting times. AFAIK nothings changed in regards to waiting times.

stevoman

JohnMc1 wrote: »

They also need to take Eastern European and other cars that weren't made for Irish road systems off the road. Beyond the obvious of them not being taxed and being re registered they bring them in with with insurance from their countries that are useless here. Also the Eastern Europeans should be made to go through the whole process to get a license [The theory, the Provisional license,the lessons, Road Test,etc] to have an Irish drivers license. Just being from an EU country is not good enough.

QUOTE]
another point on that. drivers side headlight on all cars are desinged to point towards the ditch as to not blind oncoming drivers. of course beacuse they drive on the opposite side of the road, when they are on our roads here their headlights point blanley into the faces of our cars (right hand drives) and blind oncoming motorists.

corktina

and presumalby a lot of them were uninsured if they were driving illegally....

murphaph

JohnMc1 wrote: »

Also the Eastern Europeans should be made to go through the whole process to get a license [The theory, the Provisional license,the lessons, Road Test,etc] to have an Irish drivers license. Just being from an EU country is not good enough.

They probably have a more proessional driver education and testing system in your average eastern european country than here. It CAN'T be any worse anyway.

stevoman

JohnMc1 wrote: »

As a Provisional driver I wouldn't care about the new rules if the buses and trains were worthwhile taking. The schedule is antiquated and the fess are a joke [€27 to stand on the train because the Dept of Transport couldn't be bothered to increase service? What a rip-off.]

and on this point, with all the money the pumped into the trains and service hikes, was it beyond any of them fools to lay down an extra track on the dublin to cork?limrick/galway line as so when one of their trains breaks down (which happens every two weeks or so) the train could move back to a station and set up on another track and not keep commuters sitting on the train without an apolagy for sometimes over an hour.

the more i think of the way things are run in this country, the more less proud i am to call myself an irishman

Stark

Ray777 wrote: »

Regardless of whether or not the Gardai have the resources (or could be arsed) to enforce this new legislation, the government are targetting the wrong problem. Rather than introducing new legislation, it would perhaps be more sensible to enforce existing laws, regarding speeding, which is the major cause of road fatalities. Instead of strategically placing speed cameras at profitable locations, they should be present on every single road in the country, however expensive that would be.

I don't think ensuring that every driver on the road has been succesfully tested by a professional pedant on their ability to reverse around a corner, will do anything to cut road deaths.

Breaking the posted speed limit only accounts for a small proportion of accidents, it is far from being the major cause. I would say driver error is your major cause of road accidents. Making sure everyone on the road has been assessed to some basic standard (however crap that might actually be), is one way of reducing the number of accidents.

stevoman wrote:

what are the goverment pumping their money into... motorways. why? to combat roads deaths or to build a cushty infustructure to make more money for the goverment.

Eh no, motorways are significantly safer than the roads they replace. The more motorways you build, the more traffic you take off single carriageway roads, where most fatal accidents occur. Building a motorway is one of the best things you can do to cut down on serious accidents.

Wishbone Ash

Hobbes wrote: »

I'd love to know where all the money went that was given as a bonus to instructors to lower the waiting times. AFAIK nothings changed in regards to waiting times.

Waiting times have reduced significantly in the past year.

Nuttzz

stevoman wrote: »

yes i have failed the test... four times. and to be honest it makes no sense for me to do the driving test somewhere else when i work in the same building as the test centre.
just a note im am going to have to be tested by a superviser for the next one... and everytime i take the test the tester always asks is this my first time. its a joke

a change of scene for you, portlaoise has a pass rate of 45% tullamore (not a million miles away) has a pass rate of 52% you could be one of the 7%...just a thought

Zaph

Bringing this in so quickly with no warning is a bit unfair IMO. The rules are already there that bar a driver on their first provisional from driving alone, and they should be enforced. But to be fair to those on their second provisional who have been legally allowed to drive on their own (which has always been wrong IMO, but that's another issue), there should be a 6 month grace period to allow them time to get a test organised and hopefully pass. If you fail to pass your test within that period you lose the privilege of driving alone.

Stark

Nuttzz wrote:

a change of scene for you, portlaoise has a pass rate of 45% tullamore (not a million miles away) has a pass rate of 52% you could be one of the 7%...just a thought

I think it's more likely that he's too caught up thinking he's God's gift to driving, that he's never taken a good hard look at why he's failing.

That and he's probably cut a tester off the odd morning on the way to work

stevoman

Stark wrote: »

Eh no, motorways are significantly safer than the roads they replace. The more motorways you build, the more traffic you take off single carriageway roads, where most fatal accidents occur. Building a motorway is one of the best things you can do to cut down on serious accidents.

but the road death statistics dont support that

Stark

Yes they do.

stevoman

zaph wrote: »

But to be fair to those on their second provisional who have been legally allowed to drive on their own (which has always been wrong IMO, but that's another issue), there should be a 6 month grace period to allow them time to get a test organised and hopefully pass. If you fail to pass your test within that period you lose the privilege of driving alone.

what about people like myself that are going onto their 4th licenses whilst playing to the tune of the goverment by taking tests and spending big money on lessons?

stevoman

Stark wrote: »

Yes they do.

where?

rameire

the first poster must think, hes the best driver ever, maybe your just rubbish at driving or need more comprehensive training, and not just 3 lessons before each of your test.
driving should be a privilage, not a right,
the sooner everyone has a good standard of driving the better for all drivers, pedestrians , cyclists and passengers..
less muppets who are on their 20th license who cant drive, the better.

spareman

stevoman wrote: »

what about people like myself that are going onto their 4th licenses whilst playing to the tune of the goverment by taking tests and spending big money on lessons?

Newsflash Stevoman, You are not qualified to drive a car, Would you go see a Doctor who failed his exams 4 times but still reckons he knows it all?
My advice, forget what you think you know, start over get lessons and listen to what is said to you. I hope you pass soon.

This is going to be interesting weather its enforced or not,
I presume if I crash into a provisional licence holder it will not be my fault as he/she should not be on the road?

jhegarty

spareman wrote: »

I presume if I crash into a provisional licence holder it will not be my fault as he/she should not be on the road?

doesn't work like that.... its issue between them and guards ... you are still at fault for the accident....

Ray777

Stark wrote: »

Breaking the posted speed limit only accounts for a small proportion of accidents, it is far from being the major cause. I would say driver error is your major cause of road accidents. Making sure everyone on the road has been assessed to some basic standard (however crap that might actually be), is one way of reducing the number of accidents.

I wouldn't necessarily say that speeding is the actual cause of many accidents either, but it certainly has an effect on the ultimate result of a driver-error-related accident. And on the majority of roads (particularly the most dangerous roads), speeding just is not policed at all, ever.

Ensuring that everybody on the roads can competently turn about and reverse around a corner may well reduce the number of scuffed bumpers, but it won't really stop people from losing control of their car and wrapping it around a tree on an 'N' or 'R' road.

stevoman

spareman wrote: »

Newsflash Stevoman, You are not qualified to drive a car, Would you go see a Doctor who failed his exams 4 times but still reckons he knows it all?
My advice, forget what you think you know, start over get lessons and listen to what is said to you. I hope you pass soon.

QUOTE]

LISTEN I HAVE DONE ALL THAT I WAS EXPECTED TO DO TO SIT THE TEST. IN FACT THE LAST TIME I SAT IT AND THE TESTER ASKED ME WAS IT MY FIRST TIME AND SAID IT WAS MY FOUTH I RECEIVED AN APOLOAGY, HE TOLD ME MY DRIVING WASNT REALLY THAT BAD AND A NOTE PUT ON MY FILE? ITS RIDICULOUS.

AND TO RAMEIRE, PLEASE STATE WHERE I SAID I WAS THE BEST DRIVER IN THE WORLD

THE POINT I AM TRYING TO MAKE IS THAT IS IS NOT A GOOD SYSTEM SO PLEASE REFRAIN FROM TRYING TO MAKE LITTLE DIGS FROM BEHIND YOUR COMPUER SCREEN. LITTLE COWARDS DO THAT.

rameire

apologies you are not the best driver in the world as you never said that, probably the other end of the scale, there must be a reason why you are failing, have you ever complained and tried to get a retest.

Tails142

stevoman wrote: »

spareman wrote: »

Newsflash Stevoman, You are not qualified to drive a car, Would you go see a Doctor who failed his exams 4 times but still reckons he knows it all?
My advice, forget what you think you know, start over get lessons and listen to what is said to you. I hope you pass soon.

QUOTE]

LISTEN I HAVE DONE ALL THAT I WAS EXPECTED TO DO TO SIT THE TEST. IN FACT THE LAST TIME I SAT IT AND THE TESTER ASKED ME WAS IT MY FIRST TIME AND SAID IT WAS MY FOUTH I RECEIVED AN APOLOAGY, HE TOLD ME MY DRIVING WASNT REALLY THAT BAD AND A NOTE PUT ON MY FILE? ITS RIDICULOUS.

AND TO RAMEIRE, PLEASE STATE WHERE I SAID I WAS THE BEST DRIVER IN THE WORLD

THE POINT I AM TRYING TO MAKE IS THAT IS IS NOT A GOOD SYSTEM SO PLEASE REFRAIN FROM TRYING TO MAKE LITTLE DIGS FROM BEHIND YOUR COMPUER SCREEN. LITTLE COWARDS DO THAT.

Stevoman, Stevoman, Stevoman...

Typing in all caps isn't going to get you anywhere;

The fact that you've failed your test four times I think speaks volumes about your driving ability. You need to face the facts, you probably suck at driving and are a danger on the roads.

Now I dont know why you failed, you can make plenty of mistakes in your test and still pass, I know I did. But clearly, the professional whose job it is to assess your driving feels you shouldnt be allowed to drive on your own.

It wasnt his fault that in the past that means you could still keep driving; its only now that the legislation has been corrected so that once he assesses that you shouldnt be on the road unaccopanied, you wont be.

Good luck with the test

stevoman

no im not at the other end of the scale at all i am the first to admit that. i have complained and i have all test results from 1st to fouth. my lost out by one mark on my first, two on my second, 4 on my third and 6 on my last. the mistakes on the sheet are not consistant. i have not made a complaint as i have been given an apolagy by the tester who said he has put a note on file.

it just makes you think how fair are the tests.

stevoman

Tails142 wrote: »

stevoman wrote: »

Stevoman, Stevoman, Stevoman...

Typing in all caps isn't going to get you anywhere;

The fact that you've failed your test four times I think speaks volumes about your driving ability. You need to face the facts, you probably suck at driving and are a danger on the roads.

please, please, please
you dont know me or anything about me. im not here for people like you to make asuptions about me or the way i drive,.

the point im making is its not a good system and the test itself does not merit the probloms we are having with road safety

Wishbone Ash

stevoman wrote: »

i have taken my driving test in portlaoise 4 times now and failed it everytime, with each result getting worse and worse each time and with no consistensy's in the mistakes they say im making. i do a mininum of 3 driving lessons before each test at thrity euro a pop plus the 40 it costs to take the test. im playing exactly by their rules, but what am i supposed to do. i have never had any penalty points and never drive dangerously and my insurance is still sky high

Fair play to you for admitting that you have failed the test four times - not an easy thing to do on boards.ie

But look at it this way. Suppose an employer requires a driver. Do you think he is going to employ a person on a provisional licence - very unlikely. I drive buses and trucks. I don't know of any employer who employs drivers of large vehicles who would employ a provisional driver. Would you be concerned travelling on a bus if you knew the driver had a provisional licence only? Yet a truck or bus driver, who hasn't passed a test has to accept that they won't be employable, in that sector, until they do. (I accept that the waiting times for large vehicles are much shorter).

You say that you never drive dangerously but that is your interpretation. Your driving test results may give a different story. I'm not having a go at you but perhaps you don't have the required competency to drive a car yet. Good luck with your next test though.

stevoman

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

You say that you never drive dangerously but that is your interpretation. Your driving test results may give a different story. I'm not having a go at you but perhaps you don't have the required competency to drive a car yet. Good luck with your next test though.

thanks for the civilised post. its nice to see people on the forum who are genuinally willing say something without being so blunt and apt about it

Placebo

what an absolute load of bollox, MAYBE DECREASE the freeking waiting list to 3 WEEKS max, wtf are people supposed to do waiting for months ! absolutley ridiculous, look at the big picture !!!!!!!!!!! BIG PICTURE !!!!!!!!! :(

jeffk

stevoman wrote: »

spareman wrote: »

Newsflash Stevoman, You are not qualified to drive a car, Would you go see a Doctor who failed his exams 4 times but still reckons he knows it all?
My advice, forget what you think you know, start over get lessons and listen to what is said to you. I hope you pass soon.

QUOTE]

LISTEN I HAVE DONE ALL THAT I WAS EXPECTED TO DO TO SIT THE TEST. IN FACT THE LAST TIME I SAT IT AND THE TESTER ASKED ME WAS IT MY FIRST TIME AND SAID IT WAS MY FOUTH I RECEIVED AN APOLOAGY, HE TOLD ME MY DRIVING WASNT REALLY THAT BAD AND A NOTE PUT ON MY FILE? ITS RIDICULOUS.

AND TO RAMEIRE, PLEASE STATE WHERE I SAID I WAS THE BEST DRIVER IN THE WORLD

THE POINT I AM TRYING TO MAKE IS THAT IS IS NOT A GOOD SYSTEM SO PLEASE REFRAIN FROM TRYING TO MAKE LITTLE DIGS FROM BEHIND YOUR COMPUER SCREEN. LITTLE COWARDS DO THAT.

I done my test three times and got the same pri.k in finglas twice,once the day after Liverpool won the champion's league.He thought it was great fun to crack a joke when he asked me something and would say if you can still remember.Like your team wins the cl and because your happy and wear their jersey your frowned upon and made a laugh of during your test!

The last time i done it i was told i was using the wrong gears,my driving instructor told me which ones to use.I was doing it in raheny and down to 30mph(its a 99 car) in most parts because theres cars on each side and you can only fit one car through,i was failed because i went to slow!
Then she was shocked when i told her it was my 3rd fail and told to ask for a supervisor to do your next test!

In my three plus years Ive never crashed(tip wood)last November i had an African in a 199 something car smash into me coming out of a car park and basically she couldn't wait to leave to collect her kid.She was to busy looking down and just flew straight out.
Ive had cops on phones cut across me at roundabouts,people in general jump me on roundabouts when I'm in the right.
People nearly smash into me as i reverse out of a car space in the center as they lash into the car park!
Need i go on and mention taxis/white vans/jeeps/bug cars/reps?

So why have i the one that started of paying nearly four thousand insurance now got to leave a car Ive saved since i was 18 for?

Gaybo talks about young male drivers,i think he means the ones pisse. driving home up some backarse country road and smacking peoples front walls.
In Dublin i know i wouldn't and i know a lot more wouldn't drive recklessly,because insurance is already a rip of and a lot of us save to buy and tweak/do up our cars.So why would we want to wreck them and drive dangerously?

The Ole famous line sums it up
Taring people with the one brush!!!!!

Wishbone Ash

Placebo wrote: »

what an absolute load of bollox, MAYBE DECREASE the freeking waiting list to 3 WEEKS max, wtf are people supposed to do waiting for months ! absolutley ridiculous, look at the big picture !!!!!!!!!!! BIG PICTURE !!!!!!!!! :(

Here's a big picture for you Placebo.

300,000 provisional licence holders have not applied for a driving test

donspeekinglesh

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

It's a bit rich of people complaining about 'short notice' when it's always been illegal for most provisional holders to drive unaccompanied.

At the moment I'm perfectly entitled to drive when accompanied by my wife, but as of Tuesday that'll change as she doesn't have her licence two years. I think I'm perfectly entitled to complain about the short notice.

Placebo

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Here's a big picture for you Placebo.
300,000 provisional licence holders have not applied for a driving test

300,000 PROVISIONAL LICENSE HOLDERS FOUND OUT IT TOOK 43 WEEKS FOR THE TEST TO GO THROUGH
http://www.drivingtest.ie/frameset.html

heyjude

stevoman wrote: »

i have never had any penalty points and never drive dangerously and my insurance is still sky high.

they are coming up with all these laws to make it harder for provisional licennse holders to drive on the road, yet the more it seems to me that you try to get the license the harder it gets.

Nobody every drives dangerously or will admit to doing so, the absence of penalty points can sometimes to due to driving patterns rather than safe driving(i.e if you mainly drive on rural roads then the likelihood of getting penalty points is reduced whereas if you drive on the motorways/dual carriageways nears our major cities then you have garda speed checks/fixed speed cameras that account for a large proportion of penalty points).

As for making it harder for provisional drivers to get on the road, maybe they are, but for society as a whole, is that a bad thing. No learner driver should ever have been allowed to drive unaccompanied on the roads here, they don't allow it in any other country, so the fact that it was tolerated in the past doesn't mean that it should be accepted in the future. It may seem unfair to the 400,000 provisional licence holders(may thousands of whom are on their 4th, 5th and 6th provisional licences), but there are 4m people living here that need protection from unqualified inexperienced drivers when they use the roads. So a case of the rights of the many taking precedence over the rights of the few.

Every time any government tries to do something about road safety we always hear some group bleating about how their rights are being trampled and how their lives are being destroyed. Wait till you see the reaction when it comes time to reduce the drink driving limit from 80 to 50!

Even the current ludicrous situation is widely abused, you allow learner drivers to drive unaccompanied on their second licence and what happens, they drive unaccompanied on their first licence too. It has to stop.

Anyway it won't be enforced, as the gardai said last year that enforcement of the law on learner drivers being accompanied was no longer a garda matter, (meaning that the level of offending was so high) that it was now a matter for the government. Hell, 6% + of all cars on our roads are uninsured and even with insurance discs on windscreens, that rate has remained virtually unchanged since the discs were introduced, so if they can't enforce a disc on the windscreen, how likely is it that they will enforce something that requires them to stop and question a driver. There may be a few specimen cases to grab the headlines and show it is working, but only time will tell if they do any more than that, they'll probably just enforce it when they are already charging you with other things as well.

jeffk

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Here's a big picture for you Placebo.

300,000 provisional licence holders have not applied for a driving test

€40 odd for the test,€80 ish for a two hour lesson with a driving instructor who in my case just say ah youll pass and if your feeling extra special €100 + for a mock pre test(with airport).
So over €200 spent and you still fail,oh and throw in the petrol doing ALL of the above so do you blame people?
Might as well book the test and try and bribe the instructor might be cheaper!

Stark

Ray777 wrote:

I wouldn't necessarily say that speeding is the actual cause of many accidents either, but it certainly has an effect on the ultimate result of a driver-error-related accident. And on the majority of roads (particularly the most dangerous roads), speeding just is not policed at all, ever.

Speed itself is a major factor in accidents, yes. Obviously the slower you go, the less serious the accident. However, I wouldn't say that breaking the speed limit is a major cause. Many country roads have default speed limits of 80km/hr, some 100km/hr. Sticking up a speed camera isn't going to stop someone from tearing down a one-car wide stretch at 80kph and writing off whoever's coming from the other direction. A speed camera wouldn't prevented the accidents we saw on the M7 during the heavy fog that time. In those cases, the driver needs to be educated/experienced in knowing appropriate speeds for the conditions. That's why having a minimum standard of driver is more effective than a network of speed cameras imo.

Btw, in the case of the country roads and other roads with inappropriate limits, I welcome this proposed audit on speed limits that they're promising.

jeffk wrote: »

€40 odd for the test,€80 ish for a two hour lesson with a driving instructor who in my case just say ah youll pass and if your feeling extra special €100 + for a mock pre test(with airport).
So over €200 spent and you still fail,oh and throw in the petrol doing ALL of the above so do you blame people?
Might as well book the test and try and bribe the instructor might be cheaper!

It sucks that there are many cowboy instructors out there, but regardless of whether it's your fault or not, you can't just expect the Government to let you onto the roads if you haven't been educated the right way. Do the due diligence and find out as much as you can about your instructor before you hand over your hard earned cash. The Learning to Drive forum here on boards is a good place to get recommendations. Believe me, find yourself a good instructor and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about when it comes to the test. Get a bad one, and you'll come out of it wondering what on earth went wrong.

Wishbone Ash

Placebo wrote: »

300,000 PROVISIONAL LICENSE HOLDERS FOUND OUT IT TOOK 43 WEEKS FOR THE TEST TO GO THROUGH
http://www.drivingtest.ie/frameset.html

The average waiting time (of those waiting the longest in each centre) is 22 weeks. Many people would have a much shorter wait. Not applying because of a delay is hardly going to speed it up!

(43 weeks in Raheny - Raheny isn't the centre of the universe. The percentage of those 300,000 who may apply to Raheny is probably less that 2%. What's the next excuse?)

heyjude

JohnMc1 wrote: »

The irony of the thing is that Provisional drivers are actually much better drivers [ie. more careful] than fully licensed ones. Taking Provisional drivers off the road will hardly make a difference in cutting the road fatalities.

But taking provisional drivers off the road late at night certainly would, as a disturbing proportion of fatal car accidents involving very young drivers seem to happen very late at night, when they collide with trees, walls, ditches etc.

I don't know if its proposed but provisional licence holders shouldn't be allowed to drive between the hours of 10pm - 6am and in some countries, drivers that have recently passed their test aren't allowed to drive during these hours for a year or two after their test.