THE PRESS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1982. Driving tests and licences

Press, 13 February 1982, Page 14

THE PRESS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1982. Driving tests and licences

The road toll is so serious a problem that almost any measure that offers even a small reduction in the number of accidents warrants serious. consideration. A tightening up of the procedures for issuing driving licences would seem one sensible way to ensure that drivers who have the sole charge of a vehicle are more skilled in driving techniques and more knowledgable about the road code and about different road and traffic conditions.

The specific proposals put up by the Ministry of Transport — ■ for public discussion rather than as notice of immediate action — have some merit. The Ministry has suggested that those applying for licences should pass through a probationary period, during which they must drive under supervision, before getting their full licence. This probationary period can be shortened if the probationary drivers take courses that improve their driving skills. Such procedures would help to avoid unskilled drivers having sole charge of vehicles, especially when the roads are most dangerous. They would also encourage learners to take courses in the education of ‘ drivers and in defensive driving. ( .

A serious drawback would seem to be that such a probationary system might be impossible to police effectively. Will young drivers and their parents, or other experienced drivers who may be helping them to learn, find the procedures too complicated and irksome to observe? A good case can be produced for making licences harder to get. Licences are more easily obtained in New Zealand than in many other countries. Preventing people without the necessary knowledge and skills

and appropriate attitudes from driving is one thing; policing the system, and ensuring that it is fair to aspiring drivers and their seniors, and easy to obey is another.

A licence is meant to be evidence that the holder has certain theoretical knowledge and has demonstrated a certain level of skill in the special circumstance of taking a test under the eye of a traffic officer. Young drivers are more prone to accidents. Is this because they lack knowledge and skills, or because they have foolish, and foolhardy attitudes towards driving? The problem is commonly less one of skills or knowledge of the road code than of attitudes. No acceptable test can really weed out applicants who disregard good sense when it comes to drinking and driving,, are impatient on the highway, or who use vehicles to demonstrate their aggressiveness or for other dubious psychological or emotional purposes. The most dangerous drivers on the roads are those with unsound attitudes towards driving, and they tend to be not the 15 to 17 year-olds, who would be most affected by the changes that the Ministry has proposed, but those in their late teens and early twenties.

Even acknowledging that there are limits to what can be realistically expected of any testing and licensing system, more searching tests seem to be in order. Greater emphasis could be placed on education and formal training, even in schools, where it may be possible by sustained and effective persuasiveness to implant sound attitudes towards driving. This is something that a campaign being prepared in Christchurch sets out, commendably, to do.