Three days at a Tafe to do advanced defensive driving. Make it so they have to do it in order to get their 'opens'. How long do they have from their first application to receiving their opens?. Years, I believe. Save ten bucks a week to do it (or whatever).

Everything costs, we all deal with it.

rehctub,
What state are you in? We're in NSW and the requirement here is 120 hours of supervised driving, a minimum of 20 hours being night driving. I've heard of this extra credit for driving school lessons but I don't think this applies in NSW.

My 16 year old is learning at the moment and has completed between 85-90 hours and still has about 5 months to go before he is eligible to sit his Ps. I think the new system is great because I can see what a better driver he is at this stage than the stage my older children were at when they got their Ps under the old 50 hour system. He's driving busy peak-hour highway traffic, negotiating the Harbour Bridge and freeway and country driving...stuff my older kids did not necessarily do before getting Ps (although they did advanced / defensive training free through our insurer after they got their licences)

So I think the motive is as simple as wanting safer drivers on the roads and reducing the carnage in the under 25 age group. However, I do realise that many families may not be in the situation we are to be able to provide so much supervised driving... what with work, petrol and running costs, etc.

I suppose its all very well to say "axe this plan", but what do you put in its place?

One suggestion could be to restore the acceptability of a non-specified period of instruction, the requirement being to simply pass the driving test as was previously the case, but to introduce an additional classification of P plate (let's say a yellow P) for those who have chosen this path to becoming a licensed driver.

The 'yellow P' licences could have 'specified routes only' conditions attached to them. The idea being that a proportion of potential traffic hazards, both for the inexperienced driver and the rest of the driving public, are reduced or eliminated if route rehearsal is required. A reduced number of logged hours under instruction could be accepted provided the applicant for a 'yellow P' license passed the practical driving test, preferably on the rehearsed route, if that is practicable.

The problem of young new applicants without quite so ready access to a vehicle and the present extensive instructional supervision time getting to and from work could be overcome without endangering other road users as much as might be done by giving them a license to drive just anywhere.

Removal of any differential value placed upon time under a 'qualified instructor', as opposed to a 'non-qualified' instructor, would eliminate any suggestion of the scheme's real purpose being anything other than aimed at better road safety in general.

Of course any P plate license is only as good as the policing that can be applied. I should imagine that with the ability of police to check registration details 'on the fly' that it should be possible to get an indication as to whether a 'yellow P' licensed driver might be expected to be associated with a particular vehicle. Indeed, it could well be part of the requirement for such license that only nominated vehicles could be driven.

Under such circumstances, failure to display the plates correctly, or any other breach of the conditions of the license, would be much more liable to detection. As it should be.

Could it be that its all part of a quiet plan to stop the number of cars on our roads from increasing. One day its going to be grid lock one traffic light to the next if the number of cars is not reduced.

That's alright with me Gibo. I would like to see less P platers on the road. Young people these days earn higher wages, can afford cars that we couldn't afford and can afford the petrol we couldn't afford.
When I was 17, driving meant getting permission to use the family car, and saving your pocket money to pay for the petrol. Otherwise driving was done on trips with my parents to give them a break from driving. I would have driven less than 1000 km in my first year as a P Plater. These days the roads are full of P Platers.

Steel Mann.
In my day I was just asked a few questions by a friendly police sergeant then went for a drive with him, did a three point u turn, and got my licence. It was all chummy chit-chat. Speed wasnt a real problem then for most of us. We never knew drugs... not like in 2008.

Id like to see a concrete wall dividing cars from pushies, motorcyles and scooters on all main roads in the city. You can see why the world is dying just by looking at the vast sea of cars and trucks on our roads and how the governments manage the situation.
They dont manage because they wont touch the ordinary mans right to drive a car....so bit by bit the world dies from the pollution. Its the car thats going to kill the world.