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Is it time for all motor vehicles to be fitted with a black box?

I'll be the first to admit that car ownership is getting out of control. I was wondering if you could have a system whereby the number of drivers is kept to a fixed limit & then, you could only get a licence when another driver either revokes theirs or passes away.

The 2019 mid-year population estimates release showed that the population of the UK reached 66.8 million, up from 66.4 million in mid-2018. This population growth marks an increase of 0.5%, or an additional 361,000 people, between mid-2018 and mid-2019.

So you would be happy to tell the 'additional' 360,000 people every year that they are not allowed to drive a car...

Say 1 car between 2 people or even 3, how much extra car parking space is required for 100,000 extra cars per year ??????

Though when you mention population increase you are accused of racism - lol.
 
To be honest, I'm seeing more and more young adults choosing not to drive, 25 years ago when I started uni, most of my group drove or had a license. I now work in said university, in automotive engineering and the majority of students do not hold a driving license. I would think the number of new drivers in the UK is declining, the increase in traffic is probably at the other end of the age range, where people are driving for longer.
 
The Japanese system where you have to get a certificate from the police that you have parking before you can buy a car
Or Singapore who only allow rich people to own cars
 
Buy a MX-5, drive with the top down (or the RF Targa open) even at the speed limit and it's fun and feels far faster than you are actually going. Mind you I still get annoyed being stuck behind a Prius doing 5MPH under the speed limit. Oh, and you really don't have to be a hairdresser to drive one... (well perhaps a Prius, yes).

Black box? I got one fitted to my MX-5 but it doesn't sent data back to big brother :)
 
Here in Sweden they introduced such a system on diesel cars in 1974 to pick up tax. A simple mechanical system that counted the miles.

It worked very badly. Lot's of bureaucracy that costed the car owners money. The mechanical things put into the cars didn't work very well, when the police did a raid on 220 cars, 55 of them simply didn't work. And, yes, there where people cheating. There where also problems when you went abroad, it had to be disconnected at a service station before, and connected again when you came home. At the car owners expense. And this was all without todays much more complicated technology...

But, I'm sure it will happen again soon, it's for 'our own good'.
 
The Japanese system where you have to get a certificate from the police that you have parking before you can buy a car
Or Singapore who only allow rich people to own cars

Is it in Athens where cars with odd last number on the license plate can drive only on odd calendar days and even ones on even days? You couldn't guess it, but rich people then have TWO cars with odd/even numbers!
 
To be honest, I'm seeing more and more young adults choosing not to drive, 25 years ago when I started uni, most of my group drove or had a license. I now work in said university, in automotive engineering and the majority of students do not hold a driving license. I would think the number of new drivers in the UK is declining, the increase in traffic is probably at the other end of the age range, where people are driving for longer.


are you a city centre HEI?

We are a campus HEI, with huge numbers of commuting students. Despite really good rail and bus connections (we have our own bus company on routes from where our students live), there is increasing demand for scarce car park spaces on campus.
 
My insurance black box even tells me when I drive ‘badly’: it analyses everything – for instance when I take a roundabout too fast, or when my speed is unadapted to the road I’m using. And so on.
Obviously I can monitor all that with an app.
But then I’m a law-abiding driver, so I just don’t think about it. I just check my driving performance from time to time.
Did anybody mention Black Miror? ;)
 
Is it in Athens where cars with odd last number on the license plate can drive only on odd calendar days and even ones on even days? You couldn't guess it, but rich people then have TWO cars with odd/even numbers!
This rule exists in Strasbourg. Certain number plates are allowed in town on certain days. Doesn't seem to bother the locals.
 
As someone suggested, having a regular (say 10-years) re-test of drivers (Education) would do more to improve driving standards than an optional black box that monitors your driving, especially for a lot of older drivers who have not taken a modern style driving test.
Lets face it, the worst offenders would not use them or find ways around it anyway. I do think for young drivers its a good idea to reduce insurance premiums.
 
A lot of anti-car stuff focuses on the cities, and certainly when I lived in London I didn't use the car much as public transport was a much better (and usually quicker) way to get around the city. It's rather a different story in more rural locations though - for example I have a house in a village in the Cairngorms National Park which I've owned for a month but still haven't seen a bus in the village. Apparently there are 2 buses per day to the town 15 miles away that has the nearest high school - but those only run during the school term. There are also supposedly two buses a week to the nearest large town (allowing a couple of hours for shopping before the only bus home).

On the plus side I have room to park maybe 20 vehicles on my property there (unlike in my Edinburgh place where I only have parking for 3 or 4).
 
Son had a black fitted , within 4 weeks we had texts saying he was driving too fast and threatening to cancel.

Let's face you can't drive like an old lady in a city and survive well so we hate the things . We got it disconnected . A VERY expensive mistake getting it fitted

My daughter had this and we told her (and her sister who shares the car) very very firmly to slow down. She did - so it had the desired effect. Now 3 years later I have procured regular insurance and hopefully they are a bit more responsible.
 
A couple of points.

The 'capacity' of the 'system' to retest every driver every 10 years. Daft idea and completely unworkable. Would create a whole new expensive industry of trainers and examiners and a huge increase in civil servants working at the DVLA. Just think about the numbers involved - incredible.

But... coming down the track.... is the rapid and oncoming increase in nearly self driving cars. In a few years there will be a big increase in both electric vehicles and auto-pilot systems - which of course will not be 'speeding' anywhere. I was thinking about this the other day - driving around the very very narrow lanes of the South Hams in Devon and thinking that no self driving car was ever going to be able to drive even some of the 'A' roads down there without driver input to pull into passing spaces. I had to reverse 1/4 mile on mirrors last Saturday when a we were faced with a recovery truck trying to get down to some small hamlet (Beesands for the curious). Behind me were a couple of quad bikes that were too big to turn around and had to reverse as well.
 
Absolutely not; stupid idea for most motorists

Just another 'big brother' ploy that'd end up costing us all.

I can understand it for new drivers or for drivers just getting their license back; but for everyone else, nope!
 
A couple of points.

The 'capacity' of the 'system' to retest every driver every 10 years. Daft idea and completely unworkable. Would create a whole new expensive industry of trainers and examiners and a huge increase in civil servants working at the DVLA. Just think about the numbers involved - incredible.
I don't see this as a real problem. It could largely be self-funding from retest fees, and the extra employment in fairly skilled, therefore well-paid, jobs would help the economy. As would any knock-on benefits from roads being safer and better used.
 
A couple of points.
is the rapid and oncoming increase in nearly self driving cars. In a few years there will be a big increase in both electric vehicles and auto-pilot systems - which of course will not be 'speeding' anywhere.

I thought so to. But it seems that in BMW's nearly self driving cars it does change the speed according to the speed limit. Only, there is a button you can push for it to increase the speed by 10 km/h. Push it again and...
 
A lot of anti-car stuff focuses on the cities, and certainly when I lived in London I didn't use the car much as public transport was a much better (and usually quicker) way to get around the city. It's rather a different story in more rural locations though - for example I have a house in a village in the Cairngorms National Park which I've owned for a month but still haven't seen a bus in the village. Apparently there are 2 buses per day to the town 15 miles away that has the nearest high school - but those only run during the school term. There are also supposedly two buses a week to the nearest large town (allowing a couple of hours for shopping before the only bus home).

On the plus side I have room to park maybe 20 vehicles on my property there (unlike in my Edinburgh place where I only have parking for 3 or 4).

Even in Oxfordshire, we have a bus that goes from our town to Oxford (45min) or Swindon (45min), and that's it. Yes you can then get somewhere else by train or another bus, but its not practical say, unless I want to go into Oxford or Swindon, which I rarely do!
 


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