Sir, – Part of the dangerous roads issue is that we still do not have a serious driving test.
Both North and South of the Border, we are deemed competent to drive all cars in all conditions by virtue of doing some stage-managed, low-speed manoeuvres in a low-powered hatchback. The driving test is more about suburban driving etiquette than actual driving. Among other inexcusable omissions: motorway driving is neither taught nor tested;night driving is neither taught nor tested; safe cornering techniques are neither taught nor tested; and winter and low-grip driving is neither taught nor tested.
In the past, a stronger culture of general car enthusiasm meant that new drivers took pride in trying to drive competently and to continue developing their skills. That culture no longer applies.
The facile nature of the driving test is deliberate. If driving was made accessible only to the attentive, governments would suffer a major tax revenue hit. The only way to ensure a high driver tax return is to allow half-trained drivers onto public roads. And the simplest way to monitor half-trained drivers is to ensure that everyone drives at low speeds. It’s easier, and more profitable, to manage roads negatively via ever-decreasing speed limits than to manage them positively by getting serious about driving standards. – Yours, etc,
How can I find out about an owners’ management company before I buy an apartment?
Michael Murphy: Kerry need to find a better way of managing David Clifford
If the Democrats are to have any chance now, they will have to be brave
‘Six-million puzzles pieces’: The Jerusalem centre working to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust
SEÁN MacCANN,
Trillick,
Co Tyrone.
Sir, – The key issues are clear to most people – deterioration of enforcement capability by virtue of the fact that the number of active traffic corps gardaí is now only 650 (compared with 1,100 some years ago), young male drivers whose actions are responsible for a large proportion of road traffic accidents and associated fatalities, and the need to significantly improve education around the skills and responsibilities when driving (for example, the curriculum pertaining to the driving test hasn’t been reviewed for 30 years).
Proposals by Government to reduce speed limits by 20km/h on most roads throughout the country seems to me to be little more than a populist, political solution rather than one that would genuinely have teeth in terms of reducing the road carnage which has been on the increase. Unless there is serious progress made through the use of constructive and properly resourced strategies to deal with the key issues referred to above, these speed limit reduction proposals will have little impact other than result in much increased numbers of unpenalised speeding infringements, frustration for those who slow down in compliance on roads which are comfortably capable of facilitating higher speed and a significant reduction in the efficiency of the road network and, by implication, the operational economy of the country.
I would suggest that if the issues of enforcement, the actions of a proportion of young male drivers and education around the skills and responsibilities associated with driving are constructively dealt with, there will be no need for the large-scale speed limit reductions now proposed. A periodic speed limit review, which is now due anyway, and which would be more inclined towards adjustment where genuine problems exist, would be more appropriate. – Yours, etc,
TOM TIERNAN,
Ennis,
Co Clare.