As a road cyclist, I find the standard of driving (at least in london) to be pretty poor. People develop bad habits and start driving like shit the moment they pass their test and no longer have an instructor sitting in the seat next to them marking them down for shitty driving. This doesnt reflect all drivers though
Im a firm believer that if you want to keep your driving license that you should retake your test every few years.... Even then people could still drive like shit though. but hopefully the retest would stop them from picking up bad habits.
If having retests is not an option then we really need the police to step up their game and start handing out more points and fines for bad driving and we all know thats not going to happen any time soon given the current state of the police force.
The problem is if they did implement a regular re-test is that people would have developed their own driving style after passing their test.
Kinda like how we was taught how to do something in school but you then eventually discover there is actually a better way of doing it in your own way and it's a lot easier to understand for yourself.
Not everyone likes the 10-2 steering position and doing the push-pull(dish wash) technique when turning the wheel either. Not doing any of these as a learner would be a instant fail so they can't exactly be lenient on experience drivers not wanting to do it. The 10-2 & push-pull is very old fashion and is not effective at all, granted some people do like driving 10-2 but the push-pull is way too old fashion and its not entirely safe&effective to do when going around really tight corners at all.
Checking your mirrors constantly& regularly to make it obvious to the examiner is just a box-ticking exercise when its not entirely necessary to constantly check it. Of course regular intervals is fine as I do check mine regularly to make sure a muppet is not driving up my arse or making sure i'm checking if there is a motorcyclist etc going filter pass me and I leave enough room to do so if its safe.
Now going by my statement, I would most definitely fail instantly because my driving technique isn't the "test" standard and not because of not driving "safely".
The test standard needs a major update, getting rid of some reverse manoeuvres and adding in a "follow" sat nav thing isn't exactly improving new drivers to today standard at all.
What really needs to happen is we as human beings need a slap in the face of reality check, a car is a piece of metal like a missile which can go bang in a split milliseconds from a mistake.
People need to remember safety comes first over priority of whatever we are doing (looking at the morons using their phones while driving) and be mindful we are human beings and not everyone attention span or reflexes are the same.
Then you have idiots driving the completely wrong way like on a roundabout? or going in a one way zone that is not your correct way? Well..no saving you there.
I've often wondered whether or not I should get one installed in my car.. It's rather surprising people fail to see a yellow car with lights on .....
