NEW TESTS FOR DRIVERS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21399, 15 February 1935, Page 18

NEW TESTS FOR DRIVERS

REFORM IN ENGLAND BITTERLY CONTROVERSIAL PROPOSALS The motoring reform in England which has been .so long and so ardently pressed for by so many people is at last to become a fact. On and after April 1 of this year every new applicant for a motor driving license, as well as all those who hold licenses issued since April 1 of last year, are to undergo official driving tests under the auspices of the Ministry of Transport. It has long been a subject of bitter controversy, says a contributor to the "Observer," London, and although the weight of expert opinion has been against the imposition of any such tests, and convincing reasons adduced why it cannot do more tfc'an a fraction of good, I believe the bulk of public opinion has always been that it ought at least to be tried. On the face of it it seems obvious that nobody should be allowed on the roads in charge of a potentially very dangerous machine without proof that he is able to control it in all circumstances. There is no contesting that. Quite plainly it should be a gain if every driver had instilled into him at least the rudiments of an ever-increasingly difficult art before he is allowed to add himself and his car to a road system which is already heavily congested in many parts of the country. Opponents' Case Those who are against the tests have an equally strong case. You can, it is to be supposed, teach a person of average intelligence, how to start an engine, engage the gears at more or less the right moment, steer a car, stop it, and so on. Some people you can teach to do these things very well in a very short space of time. Many people have mechanical sense of a high order, and the various technicalities of driving come to them very much more easily than to others. The latter teach themselves in all probability far more than they can be taught, once they have mastered the A B C of the matter, and some of these eventually join the company of the safe and skilled drivers of the road. In point of fact most of the really skilled and experienced drivers of to-day began that way. Tests prove nothing of value. Their essentially weak point is that, they cannot give the applicant, the one quality without, which he will never be anything but a public menace. They cannot give him either concentration, consideration, or courtesy, and without these three it. is impossible to make a safe driver. The tests, as they have been announced so far, are elementary to a degree, and it is to be hoped that examinees will be required to show more knowledge of the business in hand than these regulations require. Much will, of course, depend on the point of view of the examiner and the interpretation lie puts upon the regulations. It is to be supposed that anybody to whom a license may be issued will be capable of starting the engine and "moving away straight ahead or at an angle," though the latter may quite conceivably be made a difficult business, according to the fancy of the examiner.

The fourth regulation in the present order of the draft is better worded. The applicant must stop the vehicle in an emergency or normally, and in the latter case to bring it to rest in on appropriate part of the road. An experienced examiner could decide at once, on the reaction of the applicant to an order to stop, whether or not the latter had any judgment. Stopping a car properly in all but, the simplest circumstances is an art which is much neglected by the inexperienced to-day. The really important part of the tests is the requirement that the applicant should be familiar with the highway code. For several years it has been urged in the "Observer" that every applicant for a first driving license should be required to pass a :;tilY examination in the provisions of that code. Obviously it is impossible to ensure that the successful applicant will ever put that excellent teachinf.; into practice because it is impossible to alter people's characers, but, at any rate, one would have the satisfaction of knowing that nobody would be allowed to take a car out on to the road for the first time without a thorough knowledge ol the risks he runs and the responsibilities he must incur. This is one way of ensuring that, at all events, during the examination the applicant is able to concentrate, but personally I would like to see much more difficult tests imposed with the same object in view. The already good driver, which means your really safe one, has two views of the road, one of the things actually on it and another of anything that may at any moment appear on it, and he has trained himself to concentrate absolutely on th*se two. If we are to have tests at all one should be devised to discover the sixth sense without which nobody can drive a car safely. The sixth sense is best explained as the anticipation of emergencies. The Examiners By far the most serious aspect of the case is the question of the examiners. We are to have a large body of these all over the country by April 1, a new army of Government officials. On them, and on them alone, must depend the success of the scheme. As I have pointed out, your good driver teaches himself after a short interval, but even he, if he has been carelessly taught at the beginning, can pick up tricks and habits of a dangerous kind which may stick to him for years. It is obviously impossible that there should be a uniform standard of examination, and it may well be that the applicants who can pass their tests in Yorkshire with flying colours would be hopelessly ploughed in Surrey or Devonshire. Driving a motor-car as it should be driven is not one art, but a thousand, and there are very few drivers indeed who do everything perfectly. The best drivers are those who under necessity can drive fast and safely, who never take the smallest risk, who never give their passengers the smallest uneasiness, who pass along crowded roads at no matter what speed without being noticed. These are the qualities produced by the sixth sense.