sorry mate but i have to disagree with ya

if you loose a family member in a road accident and the other driver has only been licensed for 2 months

you will know what i mean. i do  agree that the hours seem a to be rediculously lop sided considering the responsibilties

pilots have. if it was up to me i would like to see even more restrictions on P plate drivers but not necessarily more hours for learners.

mick....

120 hrs is excessive . there is no evidence to show that younger drivers are better now , than they were 30 yrs ago. infact we seem to have an epidemic of stupidity within the under 21 yo demographic , who insist on killin themselves and passengers despite safer vehicles, engine restrictions , driver testing etc ...

its a fuckin nonsense to suggest that these extra hours have lead to better young drivers . it hasnt !!!

Just a couple of comments on this one:
1) once your airborne there's not much but the ground to hit if your flying a plane. ( the sky is not full to bursting with other planes) so maybe that's why you don't need so many hours.

2) I have long thought that instead of all this crap with hours logged etc( which of course is going to be forged who wouldn't) make it mandatory that  everyone spends 6 months on a scooter with L plates. that way everyone would learn that they are very vulnerable on the road, to look over their shoulders, and all the other things that make riders better car drivers. I also think that stay upright style driver training courses would be golden as well.

In the states you get your license at 16 and the drinking age most places is 21. doesn't stop people doing dumb stuff but seems to work ok on some levels, encouraging responsibility for your actions at a younger age I think is a good idea.

People will always drive like idiots at some point who has never sped or broken a road rule at some point. Some folks just make poor choices consistently.

I think thats about 5 cents worth " src="/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif" />

120 hrs isnt much IMO, its 40 days of driving @ 3hrs a day, not that bad.

The 120 hours is fucked. I'm 19 don't have my P's, yet.

My family weren't in a position when I was 16, for me and my brother to get our L's and drive after school. Then I finally got my L's when I was 18 (straight after the 120 hour crap came in), still had no way of driving often, only about once every few weeks due to having no car available and money for petrol, shit like that. I mean fuck, me or my brother didn't even have a chance to start driving until my grandma died and my family then had her car to use.

Fuck it, I'm just going to wait till I'm 21 and don't need the bullshit 120 hours to get my P's (unless they change the 'requirements' (read: money-making scheme or whatever) again).

i get that every persons situation is differant, my missus is on her l's and doesnt have to do 120hrs, but being in the passanger seat makes me think 120 hrs is not enough for her.....lol, my kids are a few years of gettin l's so mabee its a differant story then....lol, cant you get l's at 16? thats 2 years to get 120 hrs..dont get me wrong if it was me having to get the hrs id be furious....lololol

I think 120 is crap

I got my l's on my 16th birthday, 2 weeks (minimum time allowed) got my P's, had to have them 12 months then the full license, got my P's for the car 3 days prior to the full license so automatically had a full car license with the bike.
people prior to me (by a couple of years) didn't have to have P's,
so we the kids (16 years old) better learners than the kids of today, I doubt it, I think its the faster, lighter cars of today, WRX v EH Holden
perhaps today's kids are more show-ponies

120 hours i feel is a lot....why not make them do a defensive driving course instead, might be better.?? Some of the questions they ask on the test are a load of crap and have nothing to do with common sense driving.

You would have to wonder how any of us were born

our parents got their license by fronting up to the police station and asking for it, maybe a short drive around the block

these days you need a bachelor of driving and Doctorate in road safety.

and lets not start on getting a bike license

I have a 19yo and a 17yo both on L's and I can tell you, it is a real drag, both financially, and time wise. The 19yo has had his for nearly 18mths and is around the 100hr mark. Why is it taking so long? 2 reasons-  1) I aint a millionaire and cant afford the petrol to take them out as often as I would like, I think there should be some sort of voucher system for subsidised fuel for families doing it tough trying to get their kids a licence! Yeah right, I can see that happening!.One thing I have been finding though, that it is a lot easier to get the hours up, by just letting them drive almost everywhere. If my wife or I need to go to the shop for something, we throw one of them the keys and get chauffer driven there, and back! How cool is that, and its not really using up any more petrol than I would normally use anyway. Also, I drop my 17yo at his work on my way to my work, and he drives as far as his work, then I take over, that gives him about an hour and 40min extra a week experience in peak hour traffic (5x 20mins.).and 2) Because I am a hard task master and wont let them fudge it! They will do every one of those 120hrs guaranteed.I must say though, that if the attitude of my boys is an indication of the attitude of the majority of teenagers, then I reckon it should be more like 500hrs! either that or not let them get their L's till they are about 25!!!No Joke! kids these days just cant get their heads out of electronic devices long enough to achieve anything substantial!!.I had the devils own job trying to get them to drive without the iPod in their ears.FFS! How can you teach someone who cant even hear what you are saying to him! I have resorted to refusing to take them if they take any electronic device whatsoever with them, they now have to leave mobile phones, iPods, etc at home.And if they answer me back and argue with one of my directions, and tell me I'm wrong (Ive only got about 35yrs more experience than them, yet they think they know it all already! GD!!!) I make them pull over and I drive the rest of the way to where we are going! They are slowly learning that they cant mess around while learning to drive, it is a serious business, and if you mess up you often dont get a second chance. What really worries me more is a few of their friends whose parents (if you could call them that, because they certainly aint parenting very well! ) are letting their kids drive around unsupervised on their L's, and fudge the books, whatever, they dont really care! Sooner or later one of them is bound to ask one of my boys to get in and go for a drive, thats what worries me more than anything! I have told them if I see them in one of those guys cars( I know who they are, the walls around here have ears!)) I will tear their log books up into a thousand pieces and they can start the whole 120hrs all over again, just for being so stupid! Am I a tyrant? well maybe I am, but if it helps keep my kids alive I will be as much of a tyrant as I need to be.