Horse wrote:But 'not paying attention'? I think that's too simplistic.
The relevant chapters in the book do give a much more granular breakdown. Certainly too much to cover here.
Horse wrote:Strangely Brown wrote:[*] I'd argue there are some easy options but they are vote losers and will never fly.
Try us anyway
The lowest hanging fruit is to stop giving licences back to people who have clearly displayed no appreciation of the privilege. i.e. if someone is banned then make it for a meaningful period and then require an extended test to get it back. Also do not allow people to plead hardship when about to be banned. What's that? You'll lose your job? Tough. Should have thought of that before. Oh, and anyone caught driving while banned goes to prison for at least the duration of their ban and then serves the ban after release. I have never understood the concept of serving sentences concurrently. Multiple infractions means multiple sentences to be served consecutively.
I have often thought that there should be a cap on the number of licensed drivers and a queue to get one. If you get banned then you serve the ban, which would be for a meaningful period of time and then you go to the back of the queue. I have no idea how quickly the queue would move as I do not know the relative figures for test passes vs ban/surrender/death rate.
Too harsh?
Of course, it's all academic because the deterrent effect is directly proportional to the likelihood of being caught. Without a properly funded and highly visible[*] roads policing presence that are capable of picking up "bad driving" as opposed to technical infringements of numbers on sticks it all falls down. I offer into evidence exhibit 'A' - <looks around and gestures to the current driving environment>.
Anyway. I'll crawl back into my hole now, tick off another job on the memsahib's list, and then go for a drive.
[*] Unmarked too. They are not that hard to spot if paying proper attention.