Driving tests in Australia ? What do you have to know ? The car has four wheels, a brake, some gears & if you pay the instructor you'll get a license !
Seriously,
I remember in the old land that in order to get a driver's license you had to go 2 hours a week for six weeks. You had to be capable (yes women too) to change a flat tyre, jump-start the car, work out how far you'd travel in say 5 points of rain with 4 mm of thread on the tyres if you hit the brakes at 60 km/h.
Personally, having some inkling of the australian psyche, I'd like to see young people do the following to earn their licence.
Age 17, max cc car 1600, max cc motor bike 125, up it to double at 19 & open ended at 21.
Take them into artificial traffic jams at first i.e. have the driving school create their own peak hour in special driving test grounds, then take them onto very bad , slippery terrain where they learn to use the gears & accelerator properly, let them deliberately crash old cars into ditches & trees & create traffic accidents (with old cars at safe speed of course), make them back down a narrow lane etc. Then & only then take them into real traffic. In one simple sentence, teach them to drive & don't issue a license till they can drive. This present situation with parking a car & you get a license is what kills many young people & makes many killers on the road, courtesy of incompetent law reform bureaucrats.

The new log book system in Queensland is working rather well and praise is also due to driving schools for their excellent services too. Would that it were possible for all to have a minimum of 10X1.5 hour lessons by an accredited driving school.

From what I have seen, the Queensland Dept of Transport is making a lot of improvements, for example the new licences. It wouldn't surprise me at all if The Courier Mail hasn't grabbed the bull by the proverbial (and not its horns either) with its story about speeding during licence testing.

Cornflower,
If the recent past in Qld is anything to go by then you can be assured that revenue will come first & safety second. Let's just pray that the increased cost will be offset by safer behaviour on the roads. road safety is not about good or bad roads or good or bad cars, it's about a healthy mentality vs I'm alright Jack. Too many cops & not enough policemen/women is also jeopardizing road safety.

<< Allowing a learner driver to exceed the speed limit at all during a 30 minute driving test sends exactly the wrong message >>

Right on there CJ.

While there might be sense in having a bit of leeway with some things during a driving test, there should be NONE with the speed limit.

Drivers should be trained to travel a few Ks under the speed limit and to adequately monitor their speed so that they don’t inadvertently exceed the limit.

Yes it takes concentration to monitor your speed, which is concentration not being put into other aspects of driving. Some would argue that because you have to be looking at your speedo every few seconds, your awareness of other things around you and the quality of your driving suffers with the chances of mishap increasing.

I disagree entirely. If you can’t adequately monitor your speed and monitor your surroundings at the same time, then you shouldn’t be driving, and learners shouldn’t get a licence.

There can be NO excuse for the extraordinary duplicity in having sloppy driving tests while millions of dollars continues to get poured into managing road safety.

Ludwig... quite so.

As an old truckie, who spent many hours in-the-saddle, in order to keep an eye on the road, road conditions, and what 'the rig' was doing, it was simply a requirement to constantly scan everything: wings mirros, for what was going on with the load as well as behind, all instruments, road ahead, shadows of hidden 'things' behind the vehicle, shadows ahead of the vehicle ahead, CB for road conditions/scalies and police/accidents ahead and behind.

Also, it is important not to have so much noise in the cab that you cannot hear when something has a changed note, tyres, engine, chains (on load) or just 'bits' falling off.

Driving the truck, or driving a car, is not, and cannot be, a passive activity requiring just a gaze out the windscreen and listening to the radio/CD.

I've noticed that the new fashion of personalised number plates seems to have fed into the cult-of-the-individual on our roads, as the 'up yours' attitude extends further afield.

The, rather pathetic, need to be shouting "look at moi" through the car-as-beautiful-possession is fed by these tax raising devices that are helping to make our roads ever more 'unsafe'.

Apart from that, it makes it harder to report bad drivers when having to gather up all the details of the huge variety of plates we see these days... and as a cycling road user, there are quite a few of the really bad drivers that have their numbers sent in to the local cop-shop.

TBC

>> there are quite a few of the really bad drivers that have their numbers sent in to the local cop-shop. <<

Yup, I don't get mad, just even. Have provided clear description of behaviour, vehicle and registration to police when behaviour has been particularly dangerous.

When I used to ride motorcycles I was actually pursued on two occasions by car drivers trying to knock me off the road - I had done nothing to provoke them. From speaking to other bikers, I know this is common and has nothing to do with appearance - as much as I wish I looked androgynous there is no mistaking me for a Hell's Angel (not that looking like a bikie is an excuse either).

I have driven extensively through South West USA and have to report that Australian drivers compare as very belligerent and aggressive to American drivers. Something which surprised me, I expected more aggression from American motorists, but that was not the case. Although, I was never caught in grid-lock in L.A., but may be that's the exception that proves the rule.