CHRISTEL YARDLEY/Stuff
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has changed the fees for driver licencing tests, starting October 1. (File photo)
Young Southlanders fail learner licence tests more frequently than their peers around the country, however they are more likely to ace their restricted and full licence tests.
For Southland 16 to 19-year-olds, 76% passed their learner licence test in the first nine months of 2023, compared to a national pass rate of 81%, data from Waka Kotahi NZTA shows.
For Southland 20 to 24-year-olds, 68% passed their learner licence test in the first nine months of 2023, compared to a national pass rate of 72%.
Automobile Association Invercargill driving instructor Geoph Keach said many of the drivers he took for lessons admitted they had not read the Road Code. Most of his bookings were people aged 16 to 18, practising before their restricted licence test.
“They just take those questions that you can buy online, or purchase a pack of them. But the Road Code can give them more detail,” he said.
“They obviously haven’t got the rules clearly in mind. The driving lesson helps [them] to understand what the rules are. If they want to pass the test, they have to follow these rules.”
Fortunately for those who failed their driver’s licence tests from October 1, the fee to resit examinations had been scrapped.
However Southland drivers actually outperformed their national peers in getting restricted licences.
Bruce Mackay / STUFF
An investigation into roundabout habits and how motorists use their indicators.
For Southland 16 to 19-year-olds, 76% passed their restricted licence test in the first nine months of 2023, compared to 65% nationally.
For Southland 20 to 24-year-olds, 68% passed their restricted licence test in the first nine months of 2023, compared to 60% nationally.
The trend continued with full licences. The pass rate was 86% for Southland’s 16 to 19-year-olds in the first nine months of 2023, compared to 81% nationally, and for Southland’s 20 to 24-year-olds it was 80% compared to 74% nationally.
“A lot of people can do a good job … There’s just no substitute for practice,” Keach said.
“Some people come to do the test, they might have only done four or five hours of driving, and they wonder why they can’t pass the test. [That] is never enough practice to [do] the test because you’re just not confident enough … It just doesn’t work like that.”
Keach reiterated the importance of studying the Road Code properly and to practice as much as possible.
“Regular driving, not just once a week or once a fortnight, you need to be driving several times a week, so that gets into your muscle memory,” he said.
Southland drivers also needed to make sure they checked their blind spots, their mirrors, signal properly at roundabouts, and enter them in the correct lane.
Keach said young people should also seek a balanced set of skills on both rural and urban roads. Some young drivers had no experience driving on 100kph roads, for example, he said.
“A lot of people come from the country … they haven’t been around roundabouts much, or railway crossings before, where they live, so it’s all new to them when they come into town. If they haven’t … experienced them before, they’re going to have trouble passing the test.”