I started my on-road experience riding motorbikes; which I remain grateful for:

1. Having survived; I rode motorbikes from age 18 through to 24.

2. The experience that riding a motorbike taught - reliance on skill, a feel for road surface and avoidance rather than just relying on brakes as most car drivers do.

3. Another difference is that motorcyclists, for the first 12 months cannot ride anything more powerful than a paltry 250cc.

I shudder when I see a callow youth behind the wheel of a supercharged anything. Restrictions on the type of vehicle an inexperienced driver can access would be a great start. Motorcyclists have to deal with the restrictions, so why not car-drivers?

Personally, everyone should start out on a 125cc motorcycle - I think we'd see a lot more respect for others on the roads. I know I'm only dreaming, but I am grateful for the effort my parents put in teaching me to drive on the back roads, followed by a course with a professional instructor and my own start on motorbikes.

I'm still alive and basically in one piece today as a result and many young people haven't made it to contented middle age.

Ludwig.
I remember reading in some obscure literature about a divice that when fitted to a car it could cut the power of that car by remote.
I wondered at the time if there could be some way to have them built in to all cars in a way that they couldn't be tampered with then all the police would need in a pursuit and illegal races is to push the button...no more go go. Even all modified cars had to have this device installed and could be instpected. Mandating P platers to have the device on all cars they drive etc. After loosing all but 2 point all drivers at their expense have to have speed governors untill the new points.

Recent brain research has determined that the human brain isn't fully mature untill between approx 24-26. The decision making part of the brain (frontal cortex?).
I also note that the prefered age for military enlistment is before 26. I wonder why hmmmm?
Statistics show that most single mum pregnancy occur b4 23yo.(nunney perhaps)
Like the man said "youth is wasted on the young"
It would seem that Evolution is still behind in its work load.
PS the nunery bith was a joke.

EVO; “Not even you could be that silly.”

Huh?

“In general, you know what is right and wrong, so this is a bull.... question!”

What question are you referring to?

“Are you looking for a angle, just to relieve your frustrations?”

Well you are right about the frustration bit. I’ve got a huge amount of frustration with the whole road safety issue and have had for many years. It seems to me that we could SO EASILY vastly improve it….but that not even the most basic things get done. I’ll elaborate on that in subsequent posts.


“OH! congratulations on your three years! Well done.”

Cheers

I liked the idea of regulating the car industry to manufacture cars that don't go over a certain speed - afterall you can't go over 110km on the open road anyway. The new road safety modified car on the program was pretty amazing even slowing down to 40 in a school zone.

Perhaps the only problem with that is that kids may be able to modify the car anyway to make it more hoony as appears to be the trend for some teenagers. Another problem may be that sometimes speed is needed to avoid an accident although there may be no figures on how often this might happen. Not often I would think.

It is a big problem. I don't believe education is 100% effective but it may deter some, but there will always be that bravado and peer pressure to push the boundaries a bit more.

Ludwig,

I accept your general point that the focus proposed is absurdly narrow.

I note my concerns of remote tampering with driving by someone or something that has no specific insight into the driving circumstances. For example, I would expect a young driver to be the most likely to misjudge an overtaking manouvre. Something like that would be death sentence if they realized their error and tried to survive with a burst of acceleration but instead got the power cut.

I further note the comment that the youth suicide rate is 3 times the road death rate. I wonder how many youth deaths, particularly among young males, attributed to speeding and inexperience are really a depressed youth planting his foot firmly on the accelerator and deliberately lining up a tree. It certainly fits my image of a young male suicide strategy in areas where they can't get a gun. I suspect that the suicide rate is actually higher and the deaths genuinely attributable to youth speeding are lower than currently believed.

Pelican,

Regulating a cars speed would be a good thing, but the problem with that is that a car might not be able to reach an adequate speed when going up a hill or when towing. I would like to be able to program a desired maximum speed (not cruise control) that would work under all driving conditions. I'm not aware of any car where the accelerator is electronic, (they still operate by a cable or linkage). These days aircraft use fly by wire technology, and one day we may see that in cars which will give drivers more control over their speed.