In the woman’s first driving test, in July 2023, the assessor noted she breached the road rules multiple times including by continuously driving in a bike lane, failing to give way, braking to a near stop in a 70km/h zone and obstructing other vehicles and driving at 38km/h in a 60 km/h zone.
The decision noted the assessor had intervened when the woman started to turn in front of approaching vehicles without sufficient time or distance, and when she failed to give way as she moved off from a kerb.
She still thought she was hard done by and appealed?
The only reason driver competence isn’t reassessed with road tests every few years is because the overwhelming majority of drivers are afraid they would fail, so they loudly fight any attempt to rein this in.
Holy fuck, some guy watched me drive for 20 minutes TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO and that’s considered sufficient for me to drive until I’m 80. Regardless of driving record, collision repairs, and any number of things that scream “look into this guy”, the government thinks everything is fine.
I think the standards to be allowed to pilot a 1-2 ton fucking missile should be much higher than they are.
i think a lack of good public transportation might also be a problem here. if the only viable way to get around is with a car, then stakes of failing a driving test are much higher.
in my opinion, after establishing a very solid public transportation infrastructure, the next step should be to making it harder to get and maintain a driving license. force people to retake the test every 2 years, or every time they get any kind of traffic violation. and make the test harder to pass. the goal would be to make it annoying enough that most people would realize they don’t really need a car. and if people really do need a car, then they’d be much more incentivized to drive responsibly.
No need to wait. One drives the other, no pun intended.
If you‘re 97 it’s ok that you aren’t as good in unterstanding your surroundings anymore. Also its alright that your reactions are slow and your vision being restricted. Seriously all of that is fine…
You just need to unterstand that at some point you can’t drive yourself anymore.
She’s 97 and made 10 times too many errors the first time, and over 6 times too many errors the second time. This is exactly why we need ongoing driver education and qualification
As a terrible driver, I agree. We need ongoing driver’s ed
Not to mention that the rules change all the time, and only a tiny proportion of drivers stays up to date.
I didn’t know the rules change
I feel the need to add something here. We need public transport for the elderly. My toddler almost got killed by an elderly woman trying her new e-bike for the first time today. She said she’s learning to ride because it’s the only way she can get around. Those fuckers are dangerous too, like a motorcycle on bike / walking paths. She acted all a victim after almost running over a 3 year old, I nearly just took to bike from her.
