Is improved driver testing a valuable goal to go after, or just pie in the sky?

Running an aeroplane is difficult, and rightly so. If you want to fly solo then to get your licence you need a medical, you need to pass 7 written exams and a practical test for communicating by radio, and finally you need a minimum of 45 hours flying experience. After all that, you can then fly little more than a single-engined washing machine with wings during the day in good visibility.

Want to fly at night? You need additional ratings on your licence. It's the same if you want to do aerobatics, fly multi-engined planes, or fly in poor visibility. If you progress to flying aircraft with jet engines, then you need additional qualifications for each type of aircraft you fly. Fancy picking up an old Airbus A310 and giving it a spin? Not until you've passed a course specifically for that model of aircraft.

Oh, and if you don't keep flying you can lose your ratings, requiring a skills test to be passed before you can fly solo again.

Now compare this to a UK driving licence: you've passed your test, now go drive anything you fancy.

What stops a 17-year old who's spent all his teens playing Gran Turismo getting into a Porsche 911 GT2 or a Ferrari F40? If they can afford it and insure it, absolutely nothing. It's the same lack of controls that sees any Tom, Dick or Henrietta climb into three tonnes of 4x4, safe in the knowledge that all that grip means they can still do 40mph as the snow falls around them.

If the Drive Cult party were to be elected to Government, here's how I'd overhaul the driver licensing system:

• Learning would require minimum hours behind the wheel, and involve sessions at centres like the Porsche Experience at Silverstone, where you would experience low-grip surfaces and undertake training on how to drive safely in low-grip circumstances.
• The driving test would have multiple components: a written theory test, a longer road test with real-world scenarios including motorway driving, parking in a supermarket carpark while others glare at you, and ad-hoc navigation tests with an atlas in a layby. Then it's onto the skid pan and road circuit to provide you can safely handle a car in bad conditions and make decent progress in the twisties without trying to be Gilles Panizzi.
• Once you've completed the driving test, you'd be licensed to drive something with a small engine and probably derived from either Eastern Europe or the less glamorous parts of Asia. Low weight, low power, and front-wheel drive. If you want to drive something heavier, more powerful or rear/four wheel drive (or all three!) then you'll need more testing.
• Oh, and a refresher test every five years or so, to make sure your skills are still up to scratch, as well as being able to teach changing advice on technique, winter tyres, etc.

Some will say that the current test produces safe drivers, and that's what is important. I'd argue that the current test produces an absolute minimum of skill with little incentive to get further training - and that which is available is done in such small volumes that it is very expensive.

A nation of drivers properly trained for a variety of conditions and skilled for the type of vehicles they're driving would not only reduce accidents through loss of driver control (a far greater factor in accidents than speed, despite what the adverts might suggest), but would also mean that the nation doesn't grind to a halt when poor weather conditions arrive. Given the additional training, administered by the DVLA/VOSA, it should also reduce risks for the insurance companies, so those who pursue the training would also see cheaper insurance premiums.

Driving is so common, so ingrained into our everyday life, that it's easy to take it for granted. Since you're reading a car website, you probably take pride in your driving and seek to improve it. However. you are in the minority. We're surrounded by people guiding several tonnes of metal on the road at great speed. Cars can, and do, kill people in large numbers every year. On that basis if no other, shouldn't the use of cars be subject to far, far more scrutiny?

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