Finally a date has been set in stone for the abolition of the paper counterpart part of the driving licence
As part of the government’s Red Tape Challenge initiative to remove unnecessary burden, it’s now been
confirmed by Ministers that from 8 June 2015, DVLA will no longer issue the paper counterpart to the
photocard driving licence. This means from that date, existing paper counterparts will no longer be valid. We’re advising drivers to destroy their counterpart after this date.
Drivers who hold a paper only licence (issued before the photocard was introduced in 1998) remain valid and should not be destroyed.
So how will drivers check their driver record when the counterpart is gone?
In 2014 DVLA launched View Driving Licence service which allows GB driving licence holders to view their driving record online. The service is free and easy to use and available 24/7. Drivers can check what type of vehicles they can drive and any endorsements (penalty points) they may have. Driving licence holders can also check the details on their driving record by phone or post.
How will employers, car hire companies, and anyone else who currently checks the paper counterpart be able to check driving licence information?
DVLA are currently developing two new digital enquiry services. The first service is ‘Share Driving Licence’ which will provide an online alternative for those who currently have a business need to check the information displayed on the driving licence counterpart. Share Driving Licence will be a free, 24/7 service and is currently scheduled to be available in Spring 2015.
The second service is ‘Access to Driver Data’ which will provide real-time driving licence data via a business-to-business interface (or API). Access to this service will be subject to users agreeing contractual terms. Connection and enquiry costs are currently under consideration. The service is currently scheduled to be available in summer 2015
Www.Drivingtuitionblackpool.Co.Uk

Dvsa updates the hpt part of the theory test to cgi.
FROM DVSA
CGI makeover for theory test
The hazard perception part of the driving theory
test has been updated with computer generated imagery and came into effect on Monday 12th January.
DVSA announced in December that the hazard perception clips in the theory tests will be replaced with new computer generated imagery (CGI) clips.
Filmed video clips are currently used to test candidates’ reactions to developing hazards on the road. The scenarios in these clips are still relevant, but the image quality isn’t as clear or defined as modern digital technology allows.
No change to how the test works
The first new clips show the same situations as the filmed clips, but are clearer on the screen and include updated vehicles, roads and surroundings to reflect modern day driving.
The way the hazard perception part of the theory test works won’t be changing. The pass mark will stay the same.
The clips:
 feature everyday road scenes
 contain at least one ‘developing hazard’ – but one of the clips will feature two ‘developing hazards’
Www.Drivingtuitionblackpool.Co.Uk

News from Dvsa on drug drive law. There’s only days left.
New drug driving law comes into force in March 2015: A new offence, to make it easier for the police to arrest drivers who drive after taking illegal drugs or abuse medicinal drugs, will come into force in England and Wales on 2 March 2015.
Www.Drivingtuitionblackpool.Co.Uk

So as a wY of avoiding collisions these vehicles will be driving on the footway. Genius! We complain about cyclists on the footpaths as a danger to pedestrians but now we consider outing s fully automated car on there?

UK government paves way for driverless cars The government has announced that it wants to make the UK a world
centre for the development of driverless cars.
It said it would conduct a review next year to ensure that the legislative and regulatory framework is in place for such vehicles to be incorporated on Britain’s roads.
It will also create a £10m prize to fund a town or city to become a testing ground for autonomous vehicles.
Milton Keynes is already experimenting with driverless pods.
By mid-2017 it is planned that 100 fully autonomous vehicles will run on the town’s pathways along with pedestrians, using sensors to avoid collisions.
The plans for self-drive cars were announced in the chancellor’s National Infrastructure Plan.
Much of the hype around driverless cars centres around Google. Its self-drive car recently completed 500,000 miles (804,000km) of road tests.
In the US, California, Nevada and Florida have passed legislation to allow driverless cars.
This month Nissan carried out the first public road test of an autonomous vehicle on a Japanese highway.
Many envisage a future when we may not own cars at all but simply hail one to fulfil all our transportation needs.
Brad Templeton, software engineer and adviser to Google on its self-drive car project thinks that such cars will make cities both safer and greener. He says “I call it mobility on demand. You pop out your mobile phone, say where you want to go and how many people and in a short amount of time a vehicle rolls up, people will be like the millionaires of old where you just had a driver that did everything. These cars will worry about recharging, parking and refuelling. They will drive down a road without you paying much attention to it,” he said.
“It will radically change the amount of energy we use, how congested our streets are and eliminate most of the parking lots that take up a huge amount of space in our cities. Adding…”Humans kill 1.2 million people in car accidents each year so the idea of being able to make a safer vehicle is very appealing,”
Many think that the issue of who will be liable in the event of accidents will hold up the development of autonomous vehicles but Mr Templeton is not convinced.
“I think only the barristers will find it the most interesting question,” he said.
“For me the more interesting question is whether a machine is more liable than a drunk driver. Countries that decide a machine is more liable will slow the development of this technology,” he added.
Car manufacturers suggest that autonomous vehicles will be on the roads within the decade.
Google has given 2017 as the date its cars will hit the roads. Not to be outdone, Elon Musk, head of electric car company Tesla Motors, has said he will have such vehicles ready in 2016.
Other car manufacturers, including Daimler and Nissan have given a 2020 date for their own versions.
Much of the underlying technology for autonomous driving is already installed in cars such as the Mercedes S500 which uses onboard radar and 3D stereoscopic cameras to gauge the distance from other cars.

It would seem a road sign created by children in the 1980’s is offending the elderly. Just as a point the kids that designed it will be approaching their 50’s. Irony?
Beware, elderly people getting crosser: OAPs demand revamp of insulting crossing sign
It is one of the most instantly recognisable traffic signs – a hunched couple with a walking stick warning motorists to
watch out for elderly pedestrians crossing the road.
But campaigners are calling for it to be scrapped because it is insulting to today’s fitter, healthier senior citizens.
Help the Aged said showing pensioners with walking sticks was behind the times ‘The sign portrays a small proportion of the older generation,’ said Help the Aged senior policy officer Lizzy McLennan, 26. ‘ Very few older people are hunched over, with a walking stick. ‘They are assuming everyone who is old looks like that, and they don’t.’
Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said: ‘The motivation behind these signs – to make drivers more careful of their speed in areas with residential care homes – is positive. ‘However, in practice a reduced speed limit in such areas, as implemented in school districts, would be a more welcome way to achieve this.’
The current sign for ‘elderly people crossing’ was the winning entry in a children’s competition held in 1981.
Regulations introduced in 2003 did away with the caption ‘elderly people’ underneath the road sign because it was ageist.
A spokesman for the Highways Agency said it would not be making further alterations.
‘To change every sign in the country would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds – and a change in the law.
‘It’s not a simple process, and I don’t think most people would see it as
a high priority for government spending.’

Well a prank is a prank but what happens on what you thought was private property?

Woman’s Driving Ban For Wheelchair-Towing Prank
Security cameras caught the 20-year-old driving up and down a Tesco car park as her friend sped behind in a wheelchair.
A woman has been banned from driving for two years for towing a man in a wheelchair around a supermarket car park.
Maria Adams, 20, drove her Nissan Juke outside Tesco in Roker, Sunderland, as her friend gripped a towel hanging from the boot.
After several minutes, he climbed out of the chair as
astonished shoppers looked on.
He then got into the car and Adams, a call centre worker, from Whitburn, South Tyneside, drove off.
Judge Penny Moreland at Newcastle Crown Court described her actions as “a piece of stupidity”.
Adams admitted dangerous driving and was ordered to pay £1,369 prosecution costs and a £60 victim surcharge.
She was also given a four-month curfew and a 12-month community order

Dangerous drivers beware. Video Vigilantes Chasing Down Dangerous Drivers
More and more people are using portable cameras to film their journeys – footage which is helping convict and caution bad drivers.
Dangerous drivers should be keeping their eyes peeled not just for police after it emerged that tens of thousands of motorists and cyclists are recording every journey they make. That footage is then being used to help settle insurance claims but also to help stretched police forces pursue cases of bad driving.
Cyclist Dave Sherry has recorded 400 incidents in the past two years that have resulted in dozens of convictions and cautions: One bus driver lost his job last year after being videoed by Mr Sherry looking down at a handset while driving along the road with passengers on board.
Some police forces are more than happy to use footage from the public but others say they simply do not have the resources to deal with it except in the most serious

What is going on in the world when kids are involved in this?

Children as young as 11 have been caught drinking and driving, according to police records.
An 11-year-old was stopped in the Thames Valley area in 2011 and several 12-year-olds were apprehended in Scotland
in 2012 and in Manchester in 2008.
An average of 1,000 under-18s have been convicted of drink-driving every year since 2008, according to figures
obtained by in-car camera provider Nextbase.
Every week since 2008, an average of five drink-drivers under the age of 18 have been caught, the figures also revealed.
All 43 police forces in the UK have stopped under-18 drink-drivers between 2008 and 2013, with figures from Freedom of Information requests revealing the worst area in England for offenders was Greater Manchester, with 409 people arrested over the period.
Other hotspots included Scotland with 718 offenders, Hampshire with 276 and Devon and Cornwall with 241.
Nextbase said the overall number of underage drink-drive arrests had fallen year-on-year, but a number of areas including South Yorkshire, Northumbria and Kent had seen a rise.
A Department of Transport spokesman said: “Under-age driving is illegal and no person under the age of 17 should be driving a car. “We have tough laws in place to tackle those caught driving without a licence. “Drink-driving is a menace that costs lives, and the Government is strengthening the law to help police crack down on this problem.”

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING!

Gales, and more locally severe gales, are expected to affect much of the country on Tuesday. Whilst Monday night will see wet and windy conditions sweeping eastwards, the strongest winds are expected to occur after the rain clears and winds veer northwesterly through Tuesday morning. Gusts exceeding 55 mph are likely inland, with 60 to 70 mph gusts in some exposed coastal areas in the west and possibly to around 80 mph around coasts in northern Scotland.

The public should be aware of the potential for disruption to travel and possible damage to trees. Difficult driving conditions will result, perhaps exacerbated by surface water and spray in places. This is a further update of the warning first issued on Saturday, now including central areas of Scotland, where latest evidence suggests an increased risk of localised disruption.
The remains of Hurricane Gonzalo are running across the Atlantic, reaching the UK on Monday night, bringing a period of strong winds to the UK. The strongest winds are expected on Tuesday as the low pressure clears eastwards; some uncertainty remains in peak windspeeds but there remains the potential for disruption to travel, especially as the strongest winds coincide with the morning rush hour in places. Fallen leaves impeding drainage increases the risk of surface water affecting roads, while some damage to trees is possible, given that many are still in full leaf.

Congrats Matty Egan on passing 1st time this afternoon with just 4 minor faults. He’s off to the merchant navy next week so it was do or die! Well done fella!
See you christmastime for you pass plus.