Sir, – Writing about the idea that driving should be taught in secondary schools, a correspondent suggests that after “a full year’s training” all pupils would be “skilful and confident drivers”. I must say I’m pretty sceptical. By the same argument they’d all be fluent in Irish and, generally, a third language. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
RM Block
Sir, – In the 1990s a system of graduated licensing was brought in Ontario, in which learner drivers had to sit a theory test before not one but two road driving tests at least a year apart in order to garner a full driving licence.
The G1 stage with more onerous conditions was to be endured for 12 months before a test allowing you to G2 was permitted. One of the conditions was that you could not drive unaccompanied, and you wouldn’t dare risk it, as the police were and are out frequently for speed checks.
Time restrictions were also in place. However, a loophole did exist: if you did a certain number of approved lessons and a 40-hour theory module, you could reduce this to eight months.
Nearly everyone did this and it was a very long week of the Christmas holidays spent learning driver theory, but the four months came off and the first test was passed.
Restrictions were also in place for the second level, dependent on age, time and number of passengers, among other things, with a further road test to be passed after a year or so of driving at this level.
Graduated licensing no doubt helps, as does the acceptance of it, but it is rare to see a driver fiddling with their phone. Red-light cameras, speed cameras on roads (even in fairly residential areas) and a frequent police presence with monthly quotas and speed guns are also a large part of their road-safety strategy enticing drivers to be far more circumspect than we might find them here. It is a multifactorial issue that schools cannot nor should not be expected to solve and one that the wider community needs to address. – Yours, etc,
NIAMH BYRNE
Fairview,
Dublin 3.
