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EV DRIVING AT 16

3K views 30 replies 11 participants last post by  Thermostat9 
#1 ·
My lad is now 17 and waiting for his prov licence to come through. I have been telling him for the last couple of years just how easy ev are to drive but now he wants to do his instruction and test in yesterdays technology, a manual ice.
Anyway, one of the things in applying for his licence that we hadn’t realised (not even contemplated) was he could have had a licence just before his 16th to drive a motorbike.
So seeing as ev are so easy to drive and the ease with which monitoring could be with them (someone will shoot that down) why not allow 16 year-olds to drive (solo) in ev before taking their test at 17 or thereafter?
 
#3 ·
Or even a Twizy 45. Classed as a Moped on the continent. I don't know of any over here though, appears to be a few selling in France.
They can not be upgraded to a standard Twizy, but some tweaking is possible as with a normal Twizy.
 
#4 ·
At the lowest pragmatic level, If an inexperienced Moped rider makes a mistake it is normally only the rider who is killed or injured. If an inexperienced car driver makes a mistake, the results can affect many more people. On one day in the early 1980's I went to three very serious 'accidents' in which young man had put themselves into very dangerous positions through both lack of experience and youthful bravado. One lost a leg , the other two spent months in Hospital for internal injuries.
Much of the fall in fatal and serious injury road incidents has come from restrictions placed on younger drivers , learner motorcyclists and especially moped riders. There is serious consideration by some in authority that the age to drive a car should rise , and that there should be restrictions on passengers carried, etc. I think 16 year olds driving an EV car is a none starter.
 
#5 ·
At the lowest pragmatic level, If an inexperienced Moped rider makes a mistake it is normally only the rider who is killed or injured. If an inexperienced car driver makes a mistake, the results can affect many more people. On one day in the early 1980's I went to three very serious 'accidents' in which young man had put themselves into very dangerous positions through both lack of experience and youthful bravado. One lost a leg , the other two spent months in Hospital for internal injuries.
Much of the fall in fatal and serious injury road incidents has come from restrictions placed on younger drivers , learner motorcyclists and especially moped riders. There is serious consideration by some in authority that the age to drive a car should rise , and that there should be restrictions on passengers carried, etc. I think 16 year olds driving an EV car is a none starter.
Would a restricted Twizzy not be better than a moped?
 
#7 ·
I don't agree, after all it's a car no matter how easy they are to drive, though tbh I think the whole new driver thing should be more closely monitored regardless of age and a cc limit imposed that's increased with yearly experience....
I ask you the same question as I asked @BarryP.

Is it safer to let a 16 year old out on a moped or a restricted Twizzy?
 
#14 ·
The likely hood of an incident would probably be about the same, the danger would come from the greater mass of the Twizzy as it struck innocent passersby, etc.

That said, The difference between when I learnt to ride a moped, 1964, and now is a 5 fold + increase in traffic. It used to be said that you were not a real motorcyclist until you had crashed at least once, it was normal for young motorcyclists to be injured, (two of my school mates died) , and motorcycles were the 'peoples transport'.
Things have moved on somewhat, it no longer acceptable to allow people to endanger themselves, let alone others. Car design has come a long way, and has in itself led to a considerable reduction in deaths and injury. There is more likely hood of moves to phase out mopeds and small motorcycles than any chance of allowing younger car drivers.
There are multi-wheeled varieties of mopeds on the market, but they are quite simply 'not cool'. Changing Licensing Regs to allow anything else would require a sea change in Euro wide Safety policies.

My personal thought is that every car driver should be compelled to cycle for at least one year before applying for a learner Moped licence, and then after a further year allow them to progress to cars, and road awareness should be part of a GCSE course required before grant of that licence.
 
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#8 ·
There is no way I would encourage anyone I love to get on any motorised two wheeled death trap. My wife used to be a nurse and they genuinely belive that transplants would become a real problem without motor cyclists.

I do agree that most bike accidents are cause by car drivers not seeing motor cyclist and therefor bikers probably make safer drivers. I am teaching my youngest at the moment and it took weeks to get her to undestand the concept of looking for the "invisible" biker
 
#9 ·
It's not EVs that are easy to drive, but simply autos in general.

An auto licence is practically too limiting here in UK in the wider scheme of things. Getting much easier now to find autos to rent, loan, or as pool cars at work, but you need the 'manual' part really to be properly flexible.

I think everyone should be instructed in an auto car to start with. It allows the driver to concentrate on road/traffic/danger awareness without any big effort on the physical controls. 16 year olds have simply no road awareness at all to start with, it is a wonder any survive their 'moped' stage at all! But they can be taught, and can be taught safely, and in my opinion being taught earlier makes them better drivers.

Driving should be a lesson in school. In the US it is, and they get provisional licences at 16. Making driving a school lesson demystifies driving and makes it very mundane. This is a good thing. Turning cars from social-status-symbol to the status of a domestic appliance is all good.
 
#10 ·
I've always said if drivers had to have a year on a moped to get thier car licence the roads would be full of much better drivers.

Most bike accidents are caused by idiots in cars not looking where they are going and inappropriate speed (the bike)

I'm a biker and I'm a better car driver for it.
 
#21 ·
Here in NI,Newly qualified drivers have to have "R" plates displayed to replace the "L" Plates ( [R]estricted)-they have a Year's probation with a 45mph limit imposed following qualification.I heard at work this evening that a 17yo student who'd briefly worked in our place (then left) had passed her driving test within the past week. That same evening,I'm told,She and a friend whose birthday it was were out driving and whatever happened,they hit a tree..One has a fractured Pelvis..
 
#22 ·
It is not the age at which people start driving that is the issue. It is simply inexperience. If the age for driving was pushed up to 25 we'd end up with lots more accidents for 25 yr olds. It only stands to reason. Better to train them young. You can't say 'people shouldn't be let loose in a car without enough experience' as that would mean no-one would ever drive. Far more important is one's attitude to driving, which is very poorly tested for, if at all. Anyone who is well-minded to drive in a safe manner will do their 'real learning' once out on the road. Anyone who does not comprehend the dangers is a danger to themselves and others.

Too much emphasis is put on age and 'driving skill'. It's all psychology. We need 'driver's ed.' in schools. Sign the petition!
 
#26 ·
It is not the age at which people start driving that is the issue. It is simply inexperience. If the age for driving was pushed up to 25 we'd end up with lots more accidents for 25 yr olds. It only stands to reason. Better to train them young. You can't say 'people shouldn't be let loose in a car without enough experience' as that would mean no-one would ever drive. Far more important is one's attitude to driving, which is very poorly tested for, if at all. Anyone who is well-minded to drive in a safe manner will do their 'real learning' once out on the road. Anyone who does not comprehend the dangers is a danger to themselves and others.

Too much emphasis is put on age and 'driving skill'. It's all psychology. We need 'driver's ed.' in schools. Sign the petition!
It is of course true that driving experience matters, but so does life experience and emotional maturity. The former will help you know what to expect on the road and make it more likely that you can control your car in multiple situations. The latter will make you less liable to respond competitively to other drivers, and make you less likely to make bad judgements, like cramming six people into a car "because we're all friends and it'll be cool".
 
#23 ·
Drivers ed is schools from the age of 16 is a really good idea, but I still think a Twizzy style vehicle restricted to 30 mph-ish would be far safer for everyone concerned and would probably save lives as well
 
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#28 ·
Perhaps there should also be an aptitude test, to assess maturity and common sense...
Exactly. This has been a topic in road safety circles for some years now. Some countries do manage this, though it is difficult to create a 'pass/fail' criteria, so the real approach must be to build people to a standard of attitude. It would be problematic to tell someone they can't have a licence as they have 'a bad attitude', but you could grade them somehow and that might be taken into account if they do nothing about it (e.g. volunteer to remedial sessions) and go on to commit a traffic offence, for example, where the severity of the sentence might take that into consideration.
 
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#29 ·
We don't give out shotgun licenses (an equally murderous tool) to irresponsible people, yet they're licensed upon the same principles as drivers are.
Funnily enough, there is no minimum age limit for a shotgun licence (which differs slightly to a firearms certificate for which it is 14). This is all AFAIK, things have changed since I was in a rifle and pistol club (of which the latter has now been banned completely).

As usual, the law is geared to limit law abiding sensible citizens in what they can do as a mis-guided means to control the idiots and crims. A totally non-sequitur piece of modern-day political thinking.
 
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