Same old shit

Once again when looking at the problem of dangerous drivers the same old solutions are touted.

Making the driving test harder will not fix the problem of younger drivers having more fatal accidents. The problem is what happens after you pass your test. You should be required to periodically take a retest. I would suggest every 12 months for the first 5 years and then every 10 years thereafter. Getting a license is hard but keeping it is easy... says the person who looses it if he gets another 3 points before June.

And while I'm on the subject:

Get rid of speedbumps (or at the very least produce a legal standard for them - I don't mind the raised road sections as you can drive over them without damaging your shock absorbers - £700 MOT this year, £500 due to speedbump damage).

They cause (often unavoidable) damage to your car, they create extra noise and vehicles pollute more because they have to gear down to get over them. Worse still they have a negative impact on response times for emergency services. Therefore the benefit they can bring to the locals is offset by the risk they create.

If you can't go over them at the road's speed limit then the limit is the problem, not the driver.

Whatsmore why should the sensible majority be punished for the irresponsible minority?

Why can't there be a phone line / website where you can submit the registration of someone you've seen driving dangerously (and a description of the act or better still some mobile phone video) and then when a driver gets enough 'hits' the police tail them in an unmarked car. If they catch them doing something reckless they can nick the driver and crush their car (Typically a Vauxhall Corsa or Peugeot 306 with a penis-envy exhaust).

Better still, charge people to smash up the cars with large mallets - I'd love to do that. Especially if the car in question belonged to some tosser that nearly crashed in to me because they were too busy texting their mate to worry about driving on the motorway.

I also think we should get rid of fixed speed cameras (not just because I was stupid enough to get caught by one). More and more drivers ram their feet on the brakes when they see the dashed lines, more often than not they're below the speed limit at the time but do so out of habit. Drivers like myself who are now 'once bitten, twice shy' divert their attention away from the road and onto the speedometer instead. There is no evidence to support their effectiveness so get rid of them.

Finally, drastically reduce the amount of time that someone can drive around on a foreign license. Instead of a year it should be more like a month. If the person in question has made arrangements for a U.K. test (or lessons building up to one) then they can have a temporary license until then.

Exemptions should be made for licenses aquired in countries that have similar or superior standards to our own but there are too many countries that have little or nothing in the way of assessment and yet people can drive in this country with Mickey Mouse licenses. The Pole down the road from me drives a Polish licensed BMW 5 series like a complete nutcase and it's only a matter of time before he kills someone doing it.