What motoring laws would you change?

[cestrian]

I don't agree with all the laws which apply to 'road safety', and after reading about the what various professionals and bodies think about Intelligent Speed Adaption, I thing some laws need to be reviewed.

Personally, I would want speed limits to be only a 'recommended maximum speed'. For instance, if a road near a school has a 30mph limit, those roads could be subject to a 25mph recommended limit at certain times of the day. Those flashing yellow lights really do tell me there could be children about and I slow down a little and pay serious attention to parked cars and what may pop out from behind them. I'd hate to knock someones kid over.
And travelling at 90mph (or even faster) on a relatively empty section of motorway should be fine. It makes common sense that if the road is busy and everyone is travelling at 75, then so should you, in the name of safety.

So what laws would you change, and why?

[Dave McCool]

Probably an odd suggestion from a self-confessed boy racer, but I'd introduce a similar system for gaining a car license as is used for bikes, with young drivers having to work their way up to being able to drive quicker machinery.

I had a fairly quick car (in hot hatch terms) when I first passed as a tender wee lad of 17, and in hindsight, I shouldn't have been allowed near it, I had nothing even approaching the skills to handle it, and I was more fortunate than anything else to survive the first year of driving with only one minor incident.

Also, I agree with the motorway business, 70 mph in the middle of the night, with no-one about, is nonsense.
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[killa]

Handheld cameras should be got rid of for being as accurate as a one handed chimp.

Edit: - a few more....

Adopt a more European approach to idiots who try and drive looking out of a letter box size scraping on their windscreen by stopping them and giving out an instantly.....banned

People driving with a mobile phone....banned.

People with children not belted in, shifting around and peering through the centre of the two front seats......banned

Drivers/riders with no insurance/tax, even valid licence...banned and also tough jail sentances

Pink Nissan Micra drivers.....Excecution
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[john2]

Id like to compare the figures of a "normal" days accidents to those of say a day where suddenly there are no speed limits, wonder if there would be less accidents.

[Ste]

Make more byways for offroad driving/riding.
Open access for lots of sites around the country, places used by the army and other such places for offroading.
Ban little old ladies from driving, you know the ones that can barley see over the steering wheel and their eye sight doesn't see much past the front bumper anyway, bus passes for the lot of them.
Motorway speed limits changed, have the inside lane with a 70 limit all the time whilst the other lanes don't have limits other than at busy times.
Remove all roadside headges and fences, when there's heavy traffic 4x4's would be required to make their own cross country route across fields/woods and whatever else was in the way. Within a week all school run mums would be stuck in various fields and ditches.
Filtering would be postiviely encouraged.

Oh, I'd also make it very illegal to be Killa, luckily that law would only affect one person.

[dew]

Just a day back, I saw a lady driving a S class Merc with two dogs (not small ones) on her lap . On a roundabout she nearly drove into me ( I was in car in other lane) . When we stopped at traffic light, I had shocked expression , and the teenage girl (sitting behind) was not ready to accept that there is any problem having 2 BIG dogs in driver seat alongwith the driver..
I hesitated but then called 999 just to report. Never seen anything this bizzare. INSTANT BAN IMO.
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[palmer]

i agree with the restrictions on cars when your young, like bikes.

but saying that, i like my 115mph,80bhp, 1.4 8v


other than that, i find the rules of the road to be fine. ive never had a problem with them yet.

oh wait yes there is. people should be made to sit re-tests at the age of 50. and from then on every 5 years. so many old people driving round, worse than most of the 17 year old chav-racers too...

saw what looked to be an 80 year old woman driving a scooby the other day

[bazza]

[Dave McCool]

[cestrian]

I totally agree with the suggestion of young irresponsible drivers being limited to much smaller, lower powered cars, and for at least two years.
I too remember being young and full of testosterone, ready to take on the world in his Nova. That was after thinking I could win the TT races on my GP125 (what a nob'ed).

Anyway, what about completely free road tax for any vehicle which has little or no impact on the condition of the roads and produces very little polution, like Smart cars, other very small cars and some motorcyles?

[Itchy]

Allow under taking and thus filtering

Remove the when a cyclist hits you = you at fault rule

Variable speed limits , so that roads at night with zero traffic on them say motorways = 110 , when it is rainy foggy 50

less bus lanes , bloody things take up 1/2 the road and only decrease bus times by 3 seconds!

more shellac grip corners everywhere

general alreay existant rules to be enforced a bit more.
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[jackw72]

i personally would like to see the whole driving test alot tougher or have to be taken every 2 years as we all know some of the driving presented before us can not be described.

Perhaps if obtaining a car license in the first place were a little harder and you had to keep those skills. Much could be resolved.

also seperate roads for bikers =] haha

[TheShaggyDA]

Cyclists/Horses require third party insurance.
Mopeds for 14 year olds, no licence required.
Autocycles exempt from helmet laws
125s at 16, require licence.
No road tax (put it on fuel) instead have to display an insurance disc.
Bikes exempt from toll charges.
Bikes can use bus lanes.
Bikes allowed to park parallel to the curb on yellow lines where the road is wide enough to support it.
On the spot fines for mobile boomboxes.
On the spot fines for people who use their horn as doorbells.
No speed limit on motorways.

For starters.
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

"Race" black visors become street legal in appropriate conditions.
A Capacity limit of 400cc fourstroke instead of the current 33bhp(where that law applies)
banned for using a mobile phone behind the wheel.

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[Sephiroth]

[BFG]

[0ddball]

Harder test. If you don't pass in 3 attempts you must wait a set time before trying again. If you don't pass in 10 attempts you are clearly not cut out for driving/riding and are not allowed to try again. Reassesment every 5 years.

Increased motorway speed when conditions allow. 90mph seems fair up to midnight then 120mph from midnight to 5am.

No horses on the road, ever.

Bicycle riders need to take a roadcraft test and obide by a strictly no lycra policy.

[Dan 4RR]

Horse riders have to pay a new Horse tax when useing them on roads.
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[THCi]

Well the idea of tiered power levels for new car drivers appeals. As well as removing speed limits from motorways, as well as motorway-a-like dual carrages (like the Black Country route by me).

Insta-Fines for not removing all ice from windows.

Insta-Fines for people using a phone behind the wheel, and better enforcement of this law.

Lowering the age of DAS to 20 would be nice as well.
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[Sephiroth]

20? It's hardly worth it for just one year. 21 seems the correct age as most people associate that with being an 'adult' (think of America and it's drinking laws).

I believe they are bringing in the different 'levels' for the licenses and engine capacity next year, although I could be wrong. I find it a bit silly having licenses for different engine capacities, it should be power outputs.

[jackw72]

uhh are you kidding?

i dont know how old you are but to me being 17 and 21 being 4 years away its a long time just thinking about it!

obv il be doing my a2 tho so

[RS1Banger]

i'd raise the driving/riding age to 25

then you wouldn't need most of the other laws

[JonB]

There are three laws I would change and they both relate to our ageing motorway system.

1. Take the American approach of being able to undertake. Let's face it after nearly 50 years since the M1 was open, people still do not know how to behave with good lane discipline. It would be a lot easier if people could just go wherever they liked. Sit in the middle lane if you like, but I will go past you on either side. This would probably stop blocking situations in the outside lane. However would probably increase amount of accidents.

2. I would increase the Motorway speed limit to 85MPH. Almost in line with our European neighbours, although 80 would be fine. Brakes have improved somewhat since the 1970's. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about car drivers in general.

3. Either the HGV's get their speed restrictions lifted or they are banned from the Middle lane. I feel I do not have to explain this, i'm sure there are many people who are annoyed with the blocking of the outside lane because a lorry is going 0.1343MPH faster than the lorry on the inside lane.
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[cestrian]

Some really good ideas here.

One of my pet hates is drivers/riders who just pull out in front of you, onto a busy road, forcing you to slam on the brakes. I see this as a major cause of accidents and I would like to see un-marked police cars fitted with cameras to catch these people out. There is absolutely NO excuse for this type of driving and it DOES cause accidents.

Mobile phone use whilst driving is another pet hate. If the government really want to make money from motorists, they should use cameras to photograph offenders from the side of the road and fine them £90 each time. No need for points ans that eventually takes valuable people off the roads.

There is an argument that its not easy to take photographs of people through car windows, and therefor not easy to make the cases 'stick'. A polarizer makes all the diference.

[McGee]