DRIVING TESTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 June 1928, Page 17

DRIVING TESTS.

PROBLEM OF THE NOVICE. iu response to a, request from the Minister of Public Works, a number or local bodies are making the tests for motor drivers more stringent, and some authorities which 'have earned reputations for leniency are bringing their requirements into line with the exacting conditions imposed by the Auckland City Council, in Christchurch it was omy possible to obtain a license after a. run on the flat. Now a test is given on a grade. L a driving test is to bo imposed it might as well he stiict, and it should certainly be uniform among contiguous bodies. The varying interpretations ox the regulations nevertheless open up the question of the value of a test, writes “Focus” in the Auckland “Herald.” Unless the absence of a license has a marked psychological effect inI during caution, a test achieves nothing. It is only necessary to review the experience of one’s acquaintances to appreciate this. Take the experience of the average man with no mechanical knowledge who has bought a car. He does not want to damage his new passession, aiul lie gives trailic a wide berth. A friend takes him out and explains the working of the controls, and

there follows the laborious practice on quiet (streets. Then a feeling of confidence and perhaps a few cautious di’i>es alone. The new driver then submits himself to a driving test and repeats what he has learned. If he is Jniusy lie is sent away lor more practice. All this time ho is learning to look after his car and own skin. He is not competent, and commoiusense and wholesome fear usually keep him out of busy streets. Now assume that no test is imposed. The new motorist presents himself at the licensing office, makes the same declaration concerning physical fitness, indicates that he knows the vital hand signals, and receives his license to drive. He then goes out in the same fashion with an obliging friend or a

paid tutor and loams how to drive. It is difficult to believe that the knowledge that these is no test ahead would be conducive to recklessness in the learning stage. If the learner is fully impressed with the penalty which will be visited on him if he cuts corners and ignores signals lie would probably he as qualilied as the tested and certified in-torist by the time he began driving in thick traffic.

.self-preservation in the novice motorist may be as. good a safeguard as a bookfull or by-laws. The confidence which follows the passing of a haphazard test may prove tiie driver’s undoing. If the time can he spaied—as it is spared in Auckland—to put aspirants for certificates into all sorts of puzzling situations, the successful driver certainly emerges knowing things which might j save him prosecution in the future. If ihe tests are to be taken lightly by the great majority, they could 'be abolished without greatly lowering the standard o. driving.

Driving .tests are not imposed in Great Britain, and there is yet nothing to show that the accident rate is abnormal. An American analysis of 853 ! tiattic accidents in a selected area re-/ cealed that only twenty-two. of the drivers had under three months’ experien.e. In nearly three-quarters of the total l of 853 the parties had been driving for over two years. The spirit ox