To regulate or not to regulate?

[D_E_Bishop]

Thank you all for responding to this post, I have the answers to my questions and truly appreciate your civility and your thoughts, I will no longer be following the thread as I am satisfied with you responses. Thanks again for responding. David

Over the years there have been innumerable posts and discussions on the lack of preparedness of new RV owners in handling their rigs. Should there be performance tests or not and should driving an RV require a special operators license or not. There have been discussions about who should be responsible for training and licensing. So with the understanding that this is a delicate hot button question and there is a wide range of feelings and beliefs, should there be special written and performance tests for RV owners. If so, should the test be for all RVs or just for the “Big Guys”. Should the training be done by manufacturers or dealers, or from a for profit school or can it be self taught with performance tests by a governmental agency(DMV).

This is not a troll and I have the feeling that I should make the questions more exact and usable in framing so that there is quantifiable information gained. So here are my questions for the community;

1. Should the community have uniform training and performance testing in order to operate a RV on public roadways?

2. Should there be size and weight categories or applied to all owners regardless of size and weight?.

3. Should training be performed by a special entity and/or self taught based on specific criteria?

4. Should any or all of the above be age related?

5. Are current regulations adequate?

I am not sure what could be done with the results, I’m just wondering what the community thinks about being regulated. The questions are basic and exhaustive replies aren’t requested or needed, just K.I.S.S. Too much detail would make analysis of the answers very difficult, I don’t want to write a set of rules and regulations, I’m just interested in the communities viewpoint.

[fj12ryder]

Bionic Man wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
If more regulation, training, and more rigorous licensing didn't do any good, it's very unlike that the German high-speed autobahn would be as safe as it is.

Of course we need better licensing, that's a given. As for who should pay for it, obviously the people who are using it, and ability to perform with your vehicle of choice is stupidly obvious. How in the world can it be safe for a person to drive a Yugo to pick up his 40' diesel pusher, or his 1-ton dually pulling a 40' fifth wheel? That's just ignorant.

Training and licensing should be mandatory, and more testing for the inexperienced, i.e., the younger drivers, and those over 65. These are easy questions, and easy answers. We have high accident rates because drivers are just waved through the testing with no need to have any real ability to drive that multi-ton vehicle they just drove off in.

I'd suggest you read the comments posted prior to yours before you emphatically come across with "of course" and "that's a given". Because most folks here don't agree with you.

Disagreement with people doesn't make me wrong. People certainly are allowed their opinions even when they are wrong. Happens all the time, and many times in the past. Popular belief is not a criteria for the correct action.

Lots of people drive poorly simply because they have not been trained properly. Good/safe driving is a complicated task, and for some reason this country seems to think it is innate in any person that can walk through a door and correctly answer a dozen questions on a test, and drive a car around the block without running into anything.

I lived and drove in Germany for 2 1/2 years and discovered first hand how poorly Americans are trained. It's not that we can't be trained, it's simply we aren't given the opportunity.

[Wildride64]

In the Army, there is a requirement that before a Soldier is allowed to ride a motorcycle, they have to attend a motorcycle safety class. I think that maybe offering a safety class when you purchase your RV would be helpful and stop some accidents from happening...but as we all know jackassery will always be present no matter how hard you try to stop it.

[2oldman]

fj12ryder wrote:
Also the regulations for fishing, and hunting partially, mainly came about because people could not be trusted to self-regulate, leading to over fishing, over hunting and scarcity of fish and game. A person may be smart, people are stupid.

Hard to disagree with that. Groups of people always act stupider than a person would on his or her own. Regulations don't exist simply because the gov't is evil and just wants to harass people. In fact, many regulations exist because people insisted the government step in and do something.

It doesn't matter on here who agrees or disagrees. The fact is, people don't police themselves very well.

[Bionic_Man]

fj12ryder wrote:
If more regulation, training, and more rigorous licensing didn't do any good, it's very unlike that the German high-speed autobahn would be as safe as it is.

Of course we need better licensing, that's a given. As for who should pay for it, obviously the people who are using it, and ability to perform with your vehicle of choice is stupidly obvious. How in the world can it be safe for a person to drive a Yugo to pick up his 40' diesel pusher, or his 1-ton dually pulling a 40' fifth wheel? That's just ignorant.

Training and licensing should be mandatory, and more testing for the inexperienced, i.e., the younger drivers, and those over 65. These are easy questions, and easy answers. We have high accident rates because drivers are just waved through the testing with no need to have any real ability to drive that multi-ton vehicle they just drove off in.

I'd suggest you read the comments posted prior to yours before you emphatically come across with "of course" and "that's a given". Because most folks here don't agree with you.

[magicbus]

ScottG wrote:
OTOH, some stiff regulation might free up some camp sites!

Nah, the miscreants who don't bother with the new driving regs, leave their lights on, fly drones in the campground over smokey fires and let their kids ride bike everywhere will grab them all while we're looking for someone to give us lessons. 🙂

Dave

[ScottG]

OTOH, some stiff regulation might free up some camp sites!

[fj12ryder]

down home wrote:
Regulate, regulate the call of the Socialists and those who think everyone else cannot tie their won shoes because they ccan't.
People know if they need practice and suchand attend to it themselves.
No regulations needed.
One of those kind is now in charge of TWRA and you must have safe boating certificate if born after 89 to operate a boat over 85 hp and register even a canoe. Limits on the number or Bream when you can catch hundred at a time every day e of the year.
The reason I said that because he a Liberal thinks that regulation and expensive licenses and permits gives control and money for more Regulators.
No Regulations and no Regulators. People are smart enough in most part of the Country to figure out things and to tie their won shoes themselves.
We want a free society not a well not a well regulated and permitted and poorer society.

Ah, this explains why people don't use cell phones, read books/newspapers, and just in general not pay attention: because they know it's not a smart thing to do.

That sentence positively dripped with sarcasm.

Also the regulations for fishing, and hunting partially, mainly came about because people could not be trusted to self-regulate themselves, leading to over fishing, over hunting and scarcity of fish and game. A person may be smart, people are stupid. Why are passenger pigeons extinct when they used to darken the skies, bald eagles were endangered at one time, the list is pretty long.

[fj12ryder]

If more regulation, training, and more rigorous licensing didn't do any good, it's very unlike that the German high-speed autobahn would be as safe as it is.

Of course we need better licensing, that's a given. As for who should pay for it, obviously the people who are using it, and ability to perform with your vehicle of choice is stupidly obvious. How in the world can it be safe for a person to drive a Yugo to pick up his 40' diesel pusher, or his 1-ton dually pulling a 40' fifth wheel? That's just ignorant.

Training and licensing should be mandatory, and more testing for the inexperienced, i.e., the younger drivers, and those over 65. These are easy questions, and easy answers. We have high accident rates because drivers are just waved through the testing with no need to have any real ability to drive that multi-ton vehicle they just drove off in.

[valhalla360]

BurbMan wrote:

Seriously, the biggest eye opener for me was when my kids took driver's ed 10 years ago and they told me that there was NO highway time included in the instruction, only local roads.

Let's spend our time, energy and money teaching regular folks to drive their Camrys better before we dote on the small % of the population that own RVs.

You do realize, non-freeway roads have crash rates literally 50 times higher (even serious injury and fatality crashes are massively worse on surface streets).

So if we are going spend our time, energy and money...focusing on surface street driving is the place to do it. I don't necessarily think there should be no freeway time but if they do well on surface streets, they should manage freeways fine.

There's lots of bigger fish to fry before we start messing around with RV licensing.

[down_home]

Regulate, regulate the call of the Socialists and those who think everyone else cannot tie their won shoes because they ccan't.
People know if they need practice and suchand attend to it themselves.
No regulations needed.

[imgoin4it]

How is the government handling everything right now? Do we need to make the government bigger? If you answer “no”to these questions, the answer is no.

[bob213]

Seems like the thinking these days is more regulation will fix all things. Pretty soon they will regulate how many squares of toilet paper we can use.
We can't trust an RV dealer to do a decent PDI and now we think they should show us how to drive our RV? Drivers Education has gone to hell since they took it out of schools and made it a private business. These new drivers today don't know the rules of the road. They can't even negotiate a 4 way stop sign. So why would private RV training be any better? I agree that many need more knowledge but regulation will not guarantee that.
Training should be offered but not mandated by some Gov. agency.
If you want to see something that needs training, go to the lake and sit at the launch ramp for awhile.

[time2roll]

I am going with #5. Current regulations are adequate.

Try not to control everything other people do. The little freedom we have left is very precious.

[Isaac-1]

Here is my take on it, we already have many states adding a requirement for special licenses when the GVWR goes over 26,000 pounds, it has recently been noted that Texas has started ramping up their enforcement of this requirement. So if you are going to draw the line, this is a reasonable place to do it. In the commercial driving world 26,000 pounds is the split between just needing a Chauffeurs license and needing a full CDL. The problem comes in with no one (DMV, etc.) knowing what should be on this "non commercial CDL" test, since the skills needed for the two are different.

Personally I don't think we need a special license as it seems most people will seek proper training on their own, and also ease into things. The relative lack of high speed motorcoach accidents would seem to support this. Low speed accidents, backing into rv sites, etc. may be a different matter.

There is also a chicken and the egg problem here that must be faced, there are no RV driving schools like truck driving schools that provide training coaches. So how would one practice to take a driving test if they did not already own and drive a motorhome.

[2oldman]

I guess the anti-government extreme viewpoints think driver's ed and tests should be eliminated because accidents keep happening.