January 4, 2010 11:48am by David Farrar

Sensible Simon

Eighty per cent of people want the legal driving age raised to 18 or higher.

A Herald-Nielsen survey of 2300 people found 74 per cent would like the driving age raised to 18. A further 6.5 per cent wanted it lifted to 20.

As far as I can tell this is not in fact a poll, but just the results of an online survey, so isn’t representative of the population. Anyway back to the substance:

But the Automobile Association says increasing the age is not going to make our roads safer.

“Simply increasing the age is just going to kill them one year later, if you raise it by one year,” said spokesman Simon Lambourne.

Some common sense from Simon.

“Supervised learner drivers are the safest drivers on our roads. When they go solo, the six months after is the greatest risk.”

Mr Lambourne supported enforcing 120 hours of supervised driving before a learner can drive alone.

120 hours might be a bit too much (not sure parent-child relationships can withstand 120 hours of driving together) but the concept of a minimum number of supervised hours before solo driving is a good one.