The standard of P-plate drivers getting worse?

This bloke on a bike was clocked doing in excess of 180k's an hour, these are the sort of idiots the police have to cope with.;)

Horror day on roads | Newcastle Herald

I'd suggest that initiating and continuing a pursuit at those speeds over a failure to stop at an RBT is negligence bordering on rank stupidity. If the rego plate details had been captured early on, call off the pursuit and meet him at his place. Even if it hadn't risk vs. the reward does not add up.

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Originally Posted by PeterM

So, are you guys agitating for the speed limit to be lifted to reflect the design parameters of the road? You do know that all major freeways in this country are designed to have traffic safely travel on them at 140km/h?

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The roads might be made for a good speed, but with bad attitudes and a lack of experience, most drivers can't handle it, let alone those on P plates.
And I say "most" because when you look closely at drivers in the city, their always abusing someone, road rage is starting to go berserk.

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Originally Posted by PeterM

One thing I have found through riding and driving a truck is that you do tend to plan ahead as a matter of course and you can predict what other road users are going to do because you are looking ahead, evaluating what they are doing and what options they have. I constantly surprise my wife with my predictions as I know what they are going to do before they do, why? Because they don't plan, they react.

The react instead of plan mentality is evident throughout society as is the teaching to pass the test, rather than learn how to do something in practice.

I will be teaching my children how to drive and will be instilling in them good habits and attitudes.

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I agree totally about reaction and planning, and have tried to do the same with ours, but I think most of it fell on deaf ears :(

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Originally Posted by PeterM

1. You cannot rely on the road rules to keep you safe. The reason for this is that people interpret the rules differently or are unaware of rule changes.

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From some of the posts I see on the Whirlpool forum, it's obvious that many people simply don't know some of the basic road rules. What surprises me is that most are those who received their licence relatively recently. I could understand oldies like myself who have held a licence for 45+ years not knowing some of the recent law changes but that's not the case.

To know all the road rules would be almost impossible, there are simply too many - there are 349 pages of them. See http://www.ntc.gov.au/filemedia/Reports/ARRFeb12.pdf

I'm not sure how the cops keep up with them.

I've watched the Highway Patrol TV show and it seems to me that the coppers are exceptionally fair in their dealings with drivers. I know some will say it's because they are on camera but I have my doubts. I'd suggest that those on camera are like that all the time. I also know the HWP has a bad name with some drivers but, as I've never had any dealings with them apart from RBT, I can't comment.

I work with one of the officers who's been on that show. She's like that all the time.

We only deal with about 10% of society on a day-to-day basis (5% perps/5% victims), so the only time we come into contact with the other 90% is when we're asking them to "give one continuous breath into the device"

Which incidentally is when I see some of the funniest things occur. People get so nervous when the blue and reds come on! :D

I think instead of just regulating learner/new drivers we should look at what has worked in other countries and implement them here.

at least one of the states in the US gives you two chances to pass your license test (they go straight to full license i think, but make this the same as the red p's) if you fail twice, another 6 months on the learners as you are obviously not ready.

A kiwi mate of mine was telling me a few years ago that they have a system that after you get your l-plates, you move to a solo license. so only you in the car at all times, no passengers. get confidence and driving skill up without anyone egging you on and no one in your car to kill if you do something stupid. (only those around you) from memory that lasted for 6 months.

There are some good ones in scandinavia (someone said something similar earlier), as their roads are often covered in ice and snow etc. they have to do a skid pad and control the car, be able to control a drift etc. and a few other good tests like that as part of getting their license. (one reason they produce so many good rally drivers?) if we could do that here, teach the learners how to control a drift, what to do when you spin out on tar and gravel in front and rear wheel drive cars (depending on what they drive). its a lot of extra effort by everyone, and a lot of people seem to think that teaching people to do those things "safely" will make them go out and do it, but they already are, wouldn't you prefer it to be done with some control?

Another good one is the attitude of drivers thinking their cars can stop instantly and corner at any speed etc, Jeremy Clarkson suggested a good one to change attitudes of drivers. Replace the airbags in cars with spikes. so even if you have a minor crash, you will die, along with your passengers. everyone would drive around at about 20km/h or just ride bikes.

cheers

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Originally Posted by PeterM

I'd suggest that initiating and continuing a pursuit at those speeds over a failure to stop at an RBT is negligence bordering on rank stupidity. If the rego plate details had been captured early on, call off the pursuit and meet him at his place. Even if it hadn't risk vs. the reward does not add up.

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And if the vehicle or plates are stolen? If the police were banned from chasing runners, there would be far more runners. Fail to stop should attract a five year driving ban for the first offence instead of a slap on the wrist.

The standard of P-plate drivers getting worse?

Probably not - having driven for nearly forty years (both city and country), I know blokes of my age when learning who behaved just like our current batch of P-platers. Having said that I see a whole lot more female P platers these days who obviously are driving their own little Japanese buzz box who are pretty bad drivers. (Group that with a certain subset of Indian and other Asian drivers).