Driving test reintroduced

The acquisition of a driving licence not only represents liberation for many a youngster, but is a basic rite of passage into adulthood. Such aspirations have been put on hold for the past few months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, with that ticket to freedom unobtainable. Tests have recently resumed, but there is now a huge backlog of applications.

At the dawn of the motor age there was no need for a driving test as we now know it, merely an application to your local council and the requirement to be 17 years of age or older plus a fee of five shillings. The Motor Car Act, as it was called, introduced a number of elements that we recognise today, including vehicle registration, but was primarily to identify drivers and owners. Further acts introduced road taxation, compulsory insurance and the Highway Code – meanwhile, the driving licence remained easily acquired, with no testing procedure.

That changed in April 1934 when the Compulsory Driving Test was introduced, superseding the one from 1930 that had applied only to disabled applicants. Initially a simple test, it was conducted by examiners recruited from the military services or the police force and usually took place at a public car park or railway station car park as at that time there were no test centres. Even by 1935 there were 1.4m cars on Britain’s roads and the test was seen as a necessary control to combat the increasing fatalities of untested drivers.

When World War 2 broke out, driving tests were suspended for the general public – just as they have been recently, though for very different reasons, of course. Yet the country’s need for the mobilisation of its military and industry saw a massive increase in the number of people being taught, many of them women. For many of these new drivers it was the first time they had ever been in control of any kind of vehicle.

On 1 November 1946, more than a year after the cessation of hostilities, the driving test was reintroduced. Meanwhile, pre-war cars were disinterred from hibernation, usable tyres were sought, and petrol rationing gradually abated.