Stickers Not Favoured For Learner-Drivers

Press, Volume C, Issue 29469, 22 March 1961, Page 22

Stickers Not Favoured For Learner-Drivers

A remit suggesting that vehicles being used to teach learner-drivers should carry a suitable sign to indicate the fact was rejected by the New Zealand Carriers’ Federation conference. Considering the great number of private motorists who taught girl friends, wives and members of their families to drive, such a regulation would be observed "more in the breach than in the observance,” several speakers agreed. The remit, put forward by the Christchurch Carriers’ Association, was aimed at easing traffic congestion, said Mr L. V. Etwell. In Christchurch, “right on midday or five o’clock,” one frequently found learnerdrivers trying to make a right-hand turn, and “holding all the traffic up,” said Mr Etwell. Other traffic could move past such vehicles if they were indicated. “Fashionable People”

Mr J. E. Greenslade (Palmerston North) said a lot of “fashionable people”—teenage girls learning to drive for instance—would not be keen about displaying a placard saying they were learners. There would, therefore,

be probably only a part application of the idea of displaying a sign, which was more dangerous than no application at aU.

A second delegate agreed that he could not imagine a man teaching his wife to drive “rushing round to get a sticker” to display on his car.

Supporting the remit, a fourth delegate said the Public Service garages, bus operators, and “alert and alive” traffic schools all used notices on their vehicles indicating a driver under tuition. Prominent Sign

To be effective, regulations would have to require the carrying of a prominent sign on the front as well as the rear of a vehicle, said another delegate. The time might come when full-time driving instructors would press for the teaching of all drivers, and “take away the right of a man to teach his wife and family to drive,” said a third delegate. The remit should be considered in this light. After it had first been suggested the remit be referred to the federation's council to obtain the feeling of the motor unions, it was put directly to the vote and lost.