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Post by Chips on Apr 30, 2008 10:22:10 GMT 9.5
Driving parents round bend
Having just spent two hours in a car with my 17-year-old learner-driver daughter, I am left wondering what the powers that be imagined when they sentenced mostly parents to 120 hours of forced "quality time" with their teens.
Much as I appreciate my daughter's company, I cannot conceive how 120 hours of driving at less than 80kmh is going to help eliminate dangerous driving habits. What will help is that she is inherently a sensible young adult who recognises the dangers and risks of driving, something she has learned over a lifetime, and 120 hours behind the wheel is not going to change her.
After 70 hours, she is more than competent. Having had three elder children survive the old 50-hour regime, I am confident she can pass a test. We now seem to place greater emphasis on form filling, which is ripe for rorting. Perhaps we should ask the architects of this idea to sit in a car for 120 hours. Or maybe they can explain where I should go when I am driving around because driving back and forth to the shops is not going to achieve a lot.
Rodney Stone Haberfield
Bloody hell... 120 hours?
Back in 1939 - 1945 they were strapping 18 year olds into Spifires and Hurricanes as soon as they learned to keep them in the air without crashing.
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Post by thelion on Apr 30, 2008 11:14:45 GMT 9.5
Chips for those young teens without access to a family car it costs $60+ per hour or $7200 or about 9 months of total Centrelink payments.
How are these young people to get a licence
Furthermore have you looked at the insurance premium increases on your insurance to let a learner driver behind the wheel.
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Post by thelion on Apr 30, 2008 11:15:50 GMT 9.5
By the Way young Stephen had his FIRST driving lesson this morning
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Post by Chips on May 1, 2008 8:32:38 GMT 9.5
By the Way young Stephen had his FIRST driving lesson this morning Save time and arguments mate... hand over the keys now.
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Post by Chips on May 1, 2008 14:22:15 GMT 9.5
More time in car with parents won't improve teenagers' driving
Rodney Stone (Letters, April 30) is spot on in his observations about the 120-hour requirement for learner drivers before they take their driving test. The requirement was introduced after several tragic accidents involving teenage drivers. While it was certainly well meant and may indeed be backed by research to indicate that inexperience is a factor in many crashes, I doubt the research would conclude that more than doubling the hours a learner driver sits beside mum or dad is the answer.
Surely what inexperienced drivers need before taking to the road unaccompanied is a combination of knowledge of the rules, practical skills and education in the psychology of driving. They need to know about the consequences of poor driving behaviour and perhaps some controlled experience in driving alone.
Knowledge of the road rules is provided for in the driving test. Practical skills can be learnt in 50 hours. Education about driving behaviour may be partially learnt from mum or dad, but it would be better provided in a compulsory module offering consistent and comprehensive information to all new drivers.
What learners get now is entirely reliant on the advice of the individual instructor, some of whom may not be the best drivers themselves.
In the first month of driving unaccompanied, new drivers could perhaps be confined to driving in a limited radius and without passengers.
Presumably the Government considered such options before introducing its changes to the licensing system last year, when it opted for the 120-hour requirement. This requirement is likely to be circumvented by many, simply because it will be so onerous to complete.
Meanwhile, pity the poor law-abiding, long-suffering parents (myself included) who will struggle to find time for extended driving instruction, while uncertain that the revised requirements will lead to better outcomes for new drivers and safer roads overall.
Jill Livingstone Hunters Hill
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Post by Chips on May 2, 2008 11:25:47 GMT 9.5
It's easier to fly
It now takes more than twice as many training hours to qualify to drive on P plates in NSW as it does to qualify to fly on an Australian unrestricted private pilot licence (Letters, April 30-May 1). Something wrong somewhere.
David Irons Castle Hill
I have four children. The eldest is on her full licence, the 20-year-old is on his Ps and the 17-year-old is on his Ls (the youngest has a few years to go). And, yes, it can be inconvenient having to be driven around in the rain and the dark, down highways and through narrow alleys. Then there is the stalling on hill starts and at lights, and the kangarooing before you even get out of the driveway.
But I can still remember the knock at the door, the police officer, cap in hand. And I can still hear him say, "I am sorry but your husband has been fatally injured."
There is a reason for the
120 hours. And just passing the driving test is not it.
Marion Davis-Low Mittagong
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Post by thelion on May 2, 2008 15:48:25 GMT 9.5
Strangely enough Chips the car is off the road and will stay that way for a while. In the Northern Territory every car over 3 years of age must go over the pits for an annual roadworthy and my car requires a replacement Macpherson strut bearing to pass. There is one in the cars boot but I have resisted the temptation to fix it as I shouldnt be driving anyway.
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Post by Chips on May 3, 2008 10:06:21 GMT 9.5
Driven around the bend for 120 hours
Readers have been rightly angry about this mad business of making learner drivers do 120 hours behind the wheel with a licensed driver before they can apply for their P-plates.
I am with them all the way. My saintly wife is going for her licence. She does some time with a driving instructor but most of it has to be with me. It is impossible. At a conservative 40kmh, 120 hours of driving is the equivalent of Sydney to Mount Isa and back.
And pity the wretched man with teenage triplets who emailed me this week. Obviously unable to afford driving tuition at a minimum of $60 an hour, he and his wife face 360 hours, or 15 around-the-clock days, beside the kids in the family Holden.
At the same 40kmh, that would be 14,400 kilometres. If his car does 10 litres per 100 kilometres, that's more than $2000 worth of petrol. He has no choice but to fake the logbooks that learners are supposed to keep.
This lunacy came about because the Iemma Government, as usual, cowered to a frenzied road safety scare mounted by the right-wing radio shock jocks and The Daily Telegraph. The solution is an intensive course in advanced driving, but the Government and the RTA are too thick to understand that.
smhcarlton@gmail.com
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Post by Chips on May 5, 2008 9:12:30 GMT 9.5
Telepathic tutoring Roy Reynolds (Letters, May 3-4), should by now have discovered that triplets mutually communicate all they know. Put one in the driving seat, the other two in the back, and one round of 120 hours driving will serve all. And if they are identical triplets, one licence should be enough. Basil Johnson Weston (ACT)
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Post by Cullyn Of Cerrmor on May 5, 2008 10:24:35 GMT 9.5
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Post by Chips on May 6, 2008 11:20:10 GMT 9.5
Stuck in traffic
So - 120 hours' driving to get a licence? In Sydney traffic that's four journeys: one peak-hour trip to the CBD, the Saturday morning shopping run and two quick trips to the shop for milk.
Seth Richardson Enmore
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Post by Chips on May 12, 2008 12:36:11 GMT 9.5
Road hours about saving lives
In response to Mike Carlton ("Readers driven to distraction as minister looks the other way", May 10-11), one of the best starts to adulthood we can give our children is spending as much time as possible teaching them to drive while they are on their L-plates.
Major reforms to rules for young drivers, including 120 hours of supervised driving for learners, are there to help save young lives. The more time learners spend practising on our roads, the more experience they get and the better drivers they can become.
These reforms were the outcome of the Iemma Government's Young Driver Advisory Panel in 2006, which included young drivers, police, the NRMA and the Roads and Traffic Authority.
While we can never be complacent, the NSW road toll for 2007 was the lowest since World War II. We are getting on with the job with road safety campaigns such as Little Pinkie, which has approached young driver safety from a completely new angle with amazing success.
Every death on our roads is a tragedy, but it's a credit to young drivers that the number of red P-plate deaths fell last year, with 27 fatalities compared with the tragic high of 49 fatalities in 2006.
Eric Roozendaal Minister for Roads, Sydney
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Post by Chips on May 13, 2008 14:39:19 GMT 9.5
The 120-hour rule encourages cheats Eric Roozendaal (Letters, May 12) claims the more time learners spend behind the wheel, the better drivers they become. But how many really spend 120 hours behind the wheel? Plenty of people I know faked the majority of their 50 hours, despite the "heavy penalties" attached (none was caught). Imposing 120 hours is just encouraging more learners (and frazzled parents) to fake. If the Government wants to curb the road toll, the computer-based Hazard Perception Test - which allows a red P-plater to advance to green Ps - should be replaced with an advanced driving course. That would teach skills that could save lives, unlike the HPT.
Lauren Brown Cronulla
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Post by clifftimmons on May 14, 2008 8:08:56 GMT 9.5
The 120-hour rule encourages cheats Eric Roozendaal (Letters, May 12) claims the more time learners spend behind the wheel, the better drivers they become. But how many really spend 120 hours behind the wheel? Plenty of people I know faked the majority of their 50 hours, despite the "heavy penalties" attached (none was caught). Imposing 120 hours is just encouraging more learners (and frazzled parents) to fake. If the Government wants to curb the road toll, the computer-based Hazard Perception Test - which allows a red P-plater to advance to green Ps - should be replaced with an advanced driving course. That would teach skills that could save lives, unlike the HPT. Lauren Brown Cronulla Only if you raise and tolerate cheaters.
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