luckyjimmy said:
Bingalau: I'm in favour of testing not just older folks but every driver, perhaps every ten years or so. Testing is not the right word for what I have in mind - 'refresher course' is more accurate. A half day refresher course with a practical emphasis would help everyone.
For older folks, perhaps a routine medical check up would be more useful, rather than an actual driving test (obviously other health related issues would be picked up in this case). Incidentally, by law we have our cars checked for their operational fitness, why don't we have routine health checks for ourselves as we get older (with the UK population average age increasing, surely some bean counter will have done the sums)?
Would it work? Some of the most dangerous drivers are the ones who slow
down at speed cameras, then speed up to dangerous speeds afterwards.
They'd do the same for the test i.e. behave during the test, revert
afterwards.
And some people, quite a lot, might fail, then you'd
have people losing their jobs, and would that go down well? It sounds a
good idea, but I'm not convinced it would work in practice. Maybe if
someone has an accident which was their fault, they should go on a
compulsory course to at least try and teach them to drop bad habits e.g.
tail gating, inappropriate speed, or whatever.