Test young drivers on country roads
licence is essential.
The instructor collected me from the hostel at 6am for driving lessons before much traffic was on the road to distract this nervous learner. I built up confidence, had lessons later amid busy traffic, studied the road code, sat the exam and passed.
A soon as I held that licence I could take control of a vehicle, carry passengers and not have to see a testing officer again. Maybe it was too easy, and when I sat my heavy traffic licence it was even easier. That knowledge never left me of how great the responsibility of driving is.
Mary can’t believe it was so simple then because it’s not easy to get a licence now. Living far from town with access to driving lessons and tests is more difficult and costly. Our kids learnt to drive on narrow roads, gravel surfaces and in small towns.
It takes time to gain experience and confidence with roundabouts, traffic lights, lines of cars and going-places drivers.
Most of us country drivers do the same, which surely is a safe option. The restricted test is 45 minutes completely within the 50kmh speed zone, assessing only the ability to drive in town. That’s important, but officers should see how applicants handle 100 kilometres an hour beyond city limits. Serious accidents occur on open roads, ‘the faster the speed, the greater the mess’’.
The driving test doesn’t go off tar-seal, across one-lane bridges, or along narrow roads.
We know from experience on our country road that many cars are driven by people not confident or competent with these conditions. We have a wrecked car by our shed, not the first casualty of speed and inexperience.
Stock have right of way on roads but many drivers have no idea dealing with animals. The classic story is about a driver who stopped in the middle of the road when meeting a mob of sheep being shifted in the opposite direction.
Farmer and dogs patiently moved ewes single file past the obstacle. When the naive driver leaned out the window remarking how stupid sheep are, he was informed that it wasn’t the sheep with intelligence issues.
It’s unfair and unsafe that drivers are tested purely on town skills. What is even more unfair and unsafe is that our young drivers go to great lengths, pay good money, often repeat the exercise because pass rates aren’t high and our country kids travel long distances to access the services, and yet overseas drivers come into the country, pick up an unfamiliar vehicle to head off on roads very different from ones they are accustomed to and require no assessments at all.
The next generation living at Kaihoka will no doubt still have a gravelled pot-holey road. When our children teach their kids to drive they may they also remember what a privilege and responsibility driving is.
I wonder what their vehicles will be like, what driving test is needed and whether as parents they say ‘‘when I was your age’’.
Joyce Wyllie lives on a sheep and beef farm at Kaihoka, on the west coast of Golden Bay.