BOYS AND MOTOR-CARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19510, 14 December 1926, Page 10

BOYS AND MOTOR-CARS.

j Sir,—l read a report dealing with the age limit for motor drivers, in which the City Gouncil urges that the minimum age limit be increased to 17 years. I have been engaged teaching people to drive for the past 14 months, and it has been my experience that boys of 14 years and upwards are far and away more capable of taking charge of cars than are adults of, say, 130 and upwards. Boys, especially young boys (by young I mean those ranging from 14 to 16 years of age) develop what is known at Home as road sense very readily.. Young men may develop it after considerable experience, and elderly people rarely, if ever, do. Why! a boy is in his element controlling a car, while to an adult, learning to drive and passing a-test is a terrifying ordeal. I have taught people, of' both sexes, of ages ranging from 7 to 70 years, and I am emphatically of the opinion that there is practically no danger from boys driving, provided they are strong enough to control their machines. One accident ..is cited in the report. It is the only one I ever heard of since I came to New Zealand, and I do not think I exaggerate when I say I have heard of hundreds, perha'psj a thousand, motor accidents caused by f adult drivers. What a boy may lack in sense of responsibility is more than compensated for by his natural aptitude and road sense. What makes driving dangerous m Auckland, in my humble opinion, is tjie multiplicity of by-laws and traffic inspectors, v Each little borough has its inspector, whose duty it is to get convictions by timing motorists over stretches of road which are perfectly safe, and -where speeding is consequently likely to take f'lace. The speed limits are often ridiculously low in such places, too, and while the practice of getting convictions is no doubt a very lucrative one, yet it does nothing whatever to minimise accidents. Paddy.