Autocar EDrroR Maurlce A. Smlth o.F.c. aPoRTa ED rroR Peter Garnler aSsrgrANT EDtroRa Leonard A. Ayton, Ronald Barker UTDLAND EDrroR Edward Eves ART EDtron Howard Vyse

2A FEBRUARY I 964

If,AtrAotNo DrBEoroR H. N. Prlaulx r.g.e.

Teaching, Testing and Problem Drivers Y UST a year ago we wrote about haphazard driv-

I ing instruction; in that leading article we also rl referred to previous ones on the same zubiect printed the year before, and the year before that. Nothing has been achieved-yet-but do not imagine that we shall become discouraged or give up.

!7e want to see all driving instructors trained for the iob, tested, licensed and teaching similar methods and practices. They should be allowed to teach " L " drivers to drive rather than simply to pass the test to the saGfaction of the various area examiners (some 141000 individuals mostly, let it be added, decent, understanding chaps who are doing their best).

Such a state of affairs can be brought about only at national levels. Reluctantly we have concluded that the many organisations, large and small, concerned with driving tuition will never themselves get together, even though individually they may hold similar views on all the important issues.

their skill on advanced driving tests and trials. Good driving by as many road users as possible would not be a fianicea but lt would make a vast contributbn to road safety. * * *

Recently we listened to an interestQg theory that everv facei of the human character is reflected at some time or auother in driving. This would explain the extreme comolexitv of human behaviour and reactions on the road

"id -io't apparent inability to explain them or legislate for them. It wotld also.suggest !Iat, as maof people have suspected, some individuals must be uidt td drire at allind tliat villainy on the roads is directly related to villainy everywhere else. The one probiem, which has been with us some 50 years, will irot be solved without the other, which has been there since the Garden of Eden. A depressing thought, but one worth pondering.

Voluntary regisuation of full-time instructors is not the ultimate answer 6o1 11 might prove to be a step in the right direction. ***

Another matter which we have discussed on several occasions is that of the discrepancies in pendties for trrffic offences, and the discrepancies in severity of effect of a fine of, say, f,5 on one person compared with another. Relating this to the subfect of driving tests, we think that anyone who has had his or her licence suspended, even for a week or two, for acnral ilrioing offences, should be required to Pass tle test anew before getting it back. This would be a positive, corrective " Centence " equdly effective for rich or poor. - A welcome change in attitude to &iving skill seems to be creeping in, a growing modesty which is mani- fested in a desire to leam more of roadcraft and an increasing tendeocy for experienced drivers to check coflTElrT8

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