10 signatures reached
To: Chris Grayling - Transport Secretary
Remove restrictions to post-1997 driving licenses - 'Grandfather Rights' for everyone.
Please show that we deserve the same opportunities that our elders had and still have. We are the future of business and the economy in the UK, so we need all the same doors open, this way we can work out of the mess big banks made in 2008. Securing a more prosperous and sustainable future for our children and theirs.
Why is this important?
Just because of skewed statistics for the benefit of insurance companies and sub standard driver training in the 90's should we suffer a loss of skills? No, today the development of UK independent business is what is helping our country climb out the mess big banks left behind. The young generation, those born in the nineties, we are the ones investing our time, passions and future into independent business and sustainable development.
Many of us are finding much resistance and obstacles to gaining the skills and legal certificates to make our growing businesses viable and recognised. These obstacles are surprisingly the effect of polices that have only been implemented in the last 20 years, therefore effecting our generation severely.
I have been running and managing mobile catering at outdoor events for the last three years, and now I am ready to expand and develop but I can't drive and tow the vehicles to make this jump; i have access to these tools, but I can't use them. Yet those only 10 years older than me can, by default.
To me this feels like discrimination, despite understanding that according to statistics our generation are higher risk. Yet if you look at the same reality with some common sense in tow and holistic view: The syllabus for UK driving licenses is far more rigorous than it was; before 1996 there wasn't even a theory test, and now there is the Hazard Perception Test as well (Introduced in 2002). Not only is our generation more qualified than previous years, but we have also have grow-up with and learnt on far more hectic and crowded roads, between 2000 and 2016 the number or cars on the road has increased by more than 4 million. Last but not least; the stats that our Government uses to support the changes to our driving licenses and other related policies effecting young drivers actually falls quite short; the Guardian in 2013 reviewed some stats from Transport Research Laboratory to be used to support a Goverment policy increasing the age at which you could apply for provisional license to 18. When considering the raw data only 2 of 100 of drivers between 17 - 19 yrs old are involved. Also the academic support for conclusions of TRL were majority form a 44 year paper! If our Government, and its trusted stats providers are skewing the data then, where is the support for the 1997 change to the driving license limitations and legalities? Not to mention the extortionate insurance premiums that have become the norm for all young drivers.
Please Help me make it easier for young people to expand and develop their opportunities in business and work by levelling the playing (or driving!) field. On top of property prices, student debt and unpaid internships, we don't deserve to be constrained by any more age specific policies.
