How’s your driving? If it’s anything like ours, not great

Most Kiwi motorists think they’re pretty good drivers, but if you took a practical driving test today, do you think you would pass?

At Stuff we like to walk the walk, so we decided to put two reporters, one 20-something and one ‘nudging-50’, through a (simulated) restricted driver’s licence test to see how they stacked up.

Gen Z-er Erin Gourley and Gen X-er Piers Fuller booked licenced driving instructor Jackie Hill of Masterton Driving School to take them through a 45-minute practical driving test around a mix of the quietest and busiest roads Wairarapa had to offer.

Though both reporters were “quietly confident” after the test, they were soon brought down to earth when Jackie revealed a litany of less-than-ideal driving habits.

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According to the instructor, there were too many “little errors” and there was also the matter of “a bit of an incident with a truck” which lead to an “instant termination”.

“They add up, so it becomes a ‘non-pass’,” she told us afterwards.

The driving school runs these preparation tests to the standard of the official restricted tests to prepare young drivers.

She said as New Zealand roads got busier, people needed to adopt a more patient attitude and most experienced drivers could do with a refresher.

“I think the skills are there. It’s the attitude and the aggressiveness of the driving that lets people down.”

Piers’ drive

I wanted to hit this cold and see how rusty I really was. No sneaky pre-test swot of the road code and no internal musings about the right hand give way rule at an uncontrolled intersections.

I learnt to drive as kid on my Dad’s knee, and at the age of 14 (35 years ago) he had me delivering prescriptions around Masterton in our big BMW 635.

Clearly I can drive, but really, how well?

Jackie and I got going in Stuff’s little Suzuki Hybrid where she had installed extra mirrors monitoring the car position and me.

It’s a bit weird having someone sitting next to you scribbling notes and examining your every move, but if a green 16-year-old can do it, I’m up for it.

Afterwards, I thought the test went well. I was felt I had been a safe, considerate road user, making my way through the designated route as per instructions without incident.

Jackie revealed that there was plenty of room for improvement and there were too many small errors and one “terminal” mistake.

It was little things like failing to turn to look over my shoulder before making a left turn that tripped me up.

And the not-so-little-thing of driving 50kph in a 30 zone through suburban roadworks — whoops didn’t see the sign.

I shouldn’t have stopped at the controlled railway crossing. (To be fair, I only stopped because I had a driving instructor next to me.)

Reflecting on the result, I’m not surprised I’m not a perfect driver, but it’s still confronting to know you wouldn’t pass a driver’s licence test.

I’m probably one of the many Kiwis who thinks they are better driver than the average motorist, but with a failed practical test, that’s not a mindset that I can comfortably maintain.

The experience was certainly worthwhile, and as it happens, I’m putting my 16-year-old son through some back road practice for his test, so I will be able to pass on some ‘what not to do’ advice.

Erin’s drive

As I prepared to take the mock-restricted test, all the nerves from driving tests past came back. But it was okay, because I had a gameplan: driving incredibly cautiously.

If I saw road cones, drop speed to 30kph. Stop and look both ways at the railway crossing. Check all mirrors with a sweeping glance every 12 seconds. My impression of the restricted test was that it was all about making sure the testing officer knew you were driving safely, could see that you were checking, even if those strategies didn’t help you drive in reality.

These were habits that I don’t use in my everyday driving, but which I used to pass my restricted test about eight years ago. I felt pretty confident. These strategies had served me well last time, and I had passed on the first go. Surely they would work again.

Turns out, this technique was not enough to get me a pass today and I managed to annoy a lot of other drivers on the road while I was at it.

There were a lot of roadworks to get through in Masterton, meaning for most of the test I was driving at either 30kph or 50kph. This made the expressway section incredibly boring.

In one incident towards the end, when I was on the home strait, a truck became so incensed by my slow nervy driving that it decided to drive about half a metre behind me. It was all I could see in my rearview mirror. This did not go well when I slowed down to look both ways at the upcoming train tracks.

Instructor Jackie said she was ready to swerve the car to the right if the truck hadn’t managed to stop. Because the truck had honked at me and I’d been holding up traffic, the incident would have been an instant fail in the restricted test.

There were other errors too, and they were numerous – Jackie provided both of us with a sheet of paper filled with handwritten critiques. I was slowing down when I didn’t need to, paranoid that I might be in a roadworks zone; the “sweeping checks” of all three mirrors were taking my eyes off the road for too long; and I’d forgotten to check over my right shoulder before turning into the VTNZ at the end of the test.

When Jackie gave this feedback, my first instinct was to be indignant. I was taught to do this, so isn’t it correct? Then I realised that was exactly what my Gen X parents had said when I told them they needed to indicate at roundabouts and check over their shoulder before turning left.

The safest way to drive was not to cling to old habits, as Jackie made clear, but to take a practical approach to the conditions. That doesn’t involve being too relaxed or flippant about the risks, but it doesn’t involve driving so slow that you’re holding up traffic either.

Gen Z versus Gen X

No clear winner here, but our tests did show that you needed to learn the right driving behaviours and stick to them. Another hard lesson was that being a cautious to the point of slow driver won’t ingratiate you to other road users or get you a pass in a driving test.

Getting ‘road ready’

Getting young people competent enough to take to the road usually relied on supportive families – not something everyone has.

A programme in Wairarapa has helped hundreds of people, who might not have been able to otherwise, pass restricted and full driving tests.

Established by Bruce Pauling of the Wairarapa Road Safety Council, along with Frazer Mailman and Julia London, the Community Driver Mentor programme aimed to get youth ‘road ready and job ready’.

He said there were a lot of young people driving “unsafely and illegally and would then enter the justice cycle which is a difficult situation to be in”.

“Youth with whānau facing financial hardship and not having access to a safe vehicle or a licenced driver mentor, meant these rangatahi were being left behind when compared to others not facing these barriers,” Pauling said.

A driver’s licence was also a pathway to employment.

“Many of our youth have gained employment from completing the programme, which in turn supports our local business and economies,” he said.

About 300 young people and adults have passed restricted and full driving tests in the programme since 2017, and local data pointed to young driver crashes and licence breaches “reducing markedly”.

It has received funding from Waka Kotahi, the Wairarapa District Councils, Trusthouse Foundation and Masterton and Greytown Trust Lands Trusts.