So, with all the L drivers off the road ...

[Owen]

... what's the verdict? I flew into work, what normally takes me 20 minutes took 5 today, and there were a lot less cars on the road. I do understand that it's an incredible stupid decision to allow people to drive unaccompanied on their own one day, and not the next, but it's been on the cards for ages.

[Bawnee]

We were all there once but it'll be interesting to see if road deaths will be reduced as a result! Only time will tell! My heart goes out to the Learner Drivers all the same Of course i am not saying Learners are completely responsible for road deaths.. We all contribute in one way or another, regardless how much we don't admit it! Who can put their hand and say they're perfect drivers.. not I!

[irlmin]

Its another 'revenue gathering' exercise for the Gardai to collect from the poor motorist to pay the crippling public service pay and pensions bill , and of course an 'Irish solution ' to an Irish problem caused by years of restrictive practice and poor productivity by a government testing regime . it was not until the service was part privatised that testing began to catch up with demand , its now down to approx 5 weeks , the problem goes much deeper though and the only solution is begin driver training in school and of course bring our roads up to international standards then and only then will we see a major change , on the other hand if you take our death rates now compared to 20 years ago and factor in the increase in traffic we have had a major reduction in real terms of injuries and deaths , its all down to training and the traffic Corps focusing on real dangerous driving ie the 'ape' driving up the motorway or 3 lane dual carriageway in the outside lane at 50kph and refusing to move over its now an 'epidemic' here , if they did that in any other country they would last 10 seconds and they would be off the road !!!!
G

[Sparkie]

Whats this now? As of July 1st you're suppose to be driving with a full licenced person

[Owen]

Exactly sparkie, except now they're enforcing it with a 1000 Euro ban, and if you're caught, your test is delayed by up to a year.

[Derfinn]

I'd like to know what the stats were.
How many provisional drivers were involved in fatal accidents.
Usually press releases are all full of stats, but there were very little in this one.

It has been on the cards for ages alright, but it really is lously, we have chronic public transport, that only serves about 60% of the population.

[1lightningd]

... what's the verdict? I flew into work, what normally takes me 20 minutes took 5 today,.

School Holidays Owen :wink:

[swampette]

I still think they need to pull all the stops out to reduce the waiting times for the tests - I have friends who have still been waiting nearly a year, which is a complete disgrace.
While I'm in favour of increasing safety on the roads, they're tackling it the wrong way...if the waiting time for the test wasn't so long, there wouldn't be so many L drivers on the road in the first place. It's anything from 2 to 6 weeks in most European countries - long way off from 10 to 12 months as it is here.
Having said that, I do think there should be a compulsary amount of training hours undertaken before they're allowed on the road. I do think it's crazy that people can literally just get into a car and drive without having had any lessons.

[Owen]

I know about the hols Alvie, but the few days before were manic to get to work too, so it's not just the hols affecting the road traffic.

[ONED]

TBH - I don't see the problem!
I think its a good thing the L Drivers should be accompanied - it's been like that for years here!
I mean like novices driving round indefinitely with no incentive to actually 'learn' how to drive!? :?
I agree though that waiting lists of 'Months' is a feckin disgrace :x
we've got overtime up here permanently to clear the lists
Has the gov never heard of targets??? :roll:

[Derfinn]

Funny you should mention targets Barry!
On the Vincent Browne show on Monday night, when they were disucssing this topic, he said that each test centre can only have a pass rate of 66%. No matter what the standard is......

[leyland]

The heavy traffic is also reduced due to the fall in jobs in the building industry. Anyone notice the lack of yellow jackets and people stopping at the garages for the breckfast rolls early in the mornings. Also you must have noticed less 4 wheel drives and vans. On the L Drivers ,only time will tell, more than likely it will be forgotten about in a week or two.
Leyland

[Baker]

Where has Breakfast Roll Man gone?

It has to be said that Breakfast Roll Man got rich through the housing market. (David McWilliams)

As long as house prices were rising, Breakfast Roll Man, even if he was married with kids, would tolerate traffic, expensive childcare and over-crowded schools. He would tolerate immigrants bidding down wages on-site. In fact, because he may in fact have been a subcontractor, he was quite happy for the immigrants to be elbowing out Irish labourers.

Breakfast Roll Man does not do ideology. He does pragmatism! Now we have an economic slow down or dare I even mention the “R” word… Breakfast Roll Man is the first to disappear

See you at the Olympic village Mr Breakfast Roll Man

Oh yea, to keep it on the topic… The poor learner drivers….

[Bawnee]

Some very interesting and valid points!! Sarah yours especially, I do believe some basic training into how to do the basics like use roundabouts etc.. would be a great help to motorists.. when my parents learned to drive, they just drove along at leisure in a Countryman.. Now you navigate through all sorts of hazard etc.. Its not easy for anyone I believe!! P.S I hear Enniscorthy's the place to do the test, they've passed loads!!

[madbrummie]

I have to admit i couldn't believe it when Sarah told me you could drive around before passing the test. Sounds downright dangerous to me and this can only be a good thing for road safety. The standard of the test in this country is so poor it hardly prepares people for the roads and maybe thats where the old system you had was better in that you learnt to deal with everyday hazards.

I have been advocating a two tier system for a while now where you pass the 'L' test and then have 2 years to pass a more advanced test to continue to drive on the roads. Would certainly improve the standards, it would take a generation but would be well worth it IMO.