Fine in theory, but critics pointed out that in practice the serial offenders he was thinking of may well be the type whose only bank card was one they’d nicked off someone else.
I think we’re in similar territory with today’s announcement by government that it wants to fine bad drivers on the spot
It sounds suspiciously like the kind of policy dreamed up by spin doctors rather than civil servants. And there are at least two reasons why it might not work.
For starters, there are far fewer dedicated traffic police than there used to be, and the boys and girls in uniform are most likely to spot half-witted or loutish driving when they’re already on their way to something more serious.
Second, serial bad drivers are, I’m afraid, the kind who may well be known to the police already, drive uninsured cars and rarely pay fines. Those guilty of occasional lapses would be better advised rather than fined.
I don’t know about you, but it also seems like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted: if we’re concerned about overall driving standards, why don’t we make the test harder?
While you certainly have to jump through more hoops to gain a driving licence today I don’t think it is materially more difficult to ditch the L-plates now than it was when I frightened the examiner into submission.
Yet by any measure, it should be. Why? Here’s a couple of interesting facts for you.
In 2002, the number of road deaths in the US rose significantly. The reason? It was the year after 9/11, and fear of being blown up in an aircraft made more people travel on the roads.
Second, it’s a statistical fact that the most dangerous part of flying is the drive to the airport.
When you consider what people are being asked to do when they drive a car and the physical capabilities of the machine they are in control of, the level of skill required to pass the test remains astonishingly basic.
I didn’t really get a handle on speed sense, mechanical sympathy, car control and – most of all – hazard awareness, until I did a an Institute of Advanced Motorists test and a track driving course at the behest of an editor who had agreed I could be motoring correspondent. I count myself as no better than average, and I make mistakes every day.
None of the observational and psychological skills I picked up from those courses form any part of the standard test, and there is no incentive for people to do anything other than the basics. Only insurance costs stop people passing the test in a Fiesta and hopping straight into a cheap, old performance car. Which is like swapping a bike for a missile.
The truth is that governments have always been reluctant to put up barriers to people driving. If they did, we might have a less mobile workforce and fewer car sales.
But tolerating a basic test which delivers basic driving standards in order to keep Britain on the move leaves us with a price to pay: the money it takes to fund emergency services and A&E departments, and the spiralling price of insurance premiums and car repairs.
Will spot fines really change that?
No comments:
Post a Comment