Cutting the Cost

Now that sounds like a good idea, cut back on expenses and have more money in the bank, yet really our expenses are pretty much consistent, so how about the learner, they are looking to cut costs, save money and end up with a driving licence, before they join one of the more expensive pass times, motoring.  Driving is a luxury, it was always only the wealthy that drove a car, only a boom time promotes us living outside of our means but what do we do when the crash happens, as it invariably does, once you have a car key it is very hard to hang it back up again, and a car seems to now indicate a step on the ladder of personal success, starting with the banger and leading to the top of the range vehicle.

I was an eager learner, I loved to drive and I loved to drive fast, looking back too fast in some situations I'm sure, with the eye of an ADI trainer I know it wasn't peer pressure, it wasn't inexperience that made me push the pedal to the metal it was the thrill of speed, and as any fairground attendant will tell you, that feeling is perfectly natural.  Did anyone think of driving and road safety in the 1980's not in my group of friends or work colleagues, it was all about the car, the wheels the seats and the shine.  I remember crowding around an RS2000 with friends thinking wow shiny, then we would pile in and go for a ride, it was mainly for the show value, as in the group were a few Ford Mexico's and RS turbo's and of course the XR3i, I don't remember any reckless speeding because if you were going too fast nobody could admire the paintwork. There were of course moments of fast driving on country lanes but never in town, yet fatality rates amongst young drivers at that time were far higher than now.

So is the pride in driving disappearing under a haze of finance, has crippling insurance costs added to the reduction in fatal accidents amongst young drivers, because it is something regularly mentioned by pupils, they think about not being able to afford insurance in the event of an accident that is their fault, as finance is always a consideration, surely matching the approach of other countries would make the driving education a more serious subject too.

Educating young people in driving as a responsibility during the school process will switch off as many as it switches on, having to work through a theory based programme that costs money, and this is serious finance, using the Netherlands as an example, also a sunflower country, the cost of theory based tuition is 95e for 90 minutes, all paid in advance, a lesson is 60e for one hour, and from the school finishing at the school if you want to be collected from somewhere else it is another 12.95e with a fee of 25e for collection and return to a different site, everything is advance paid, what a great idea, it also means they take it very seriously, money does talk.

As the research suggests that those who can least afford to drive are the ones most likely to be involved in a serious or fatal collision, that surely ticks the road safety box. I was browsing some driving forums in different EU countries and they all recommend coming to the UK to learn to drive, the test itself is considered harder but the cost is minimal in comparison, now surely someone must sit up and smell the coffee here.