Car Torque - Make the driving theory test harder
Two years ago complaints were made by Malta Transport Authority (ADT) staff that the driving test theory exam was too easy. My granddaughter had swotted like blazes and successfully completed the test in 11 minutes. Sibling rivalry being what it is,...
Two years ago complaints were made by Malta Transport Authority (ADT) staff that the driving test theory exam was too easy.
My granddaughter had swotted like blazes and successfully completed the test in 11 minutes. Sibling rivalry being what it is, grandson successfully passed in nine minutes.
Road signs are of vital importance and help keep experienced drivers out of trouble, yet only two questions related to road signs. A 30km/h sign and an end of speed limit sign were asked of James. Sadly, these questions reflected the degree of difficulty of the remainder of the exam.
The ADT management should be seriously alarmed for the simple reason that once the theory test has been mastered, questions based on the test are not part of the driving examiners' remit, and sadly most drivers never look at the all-important Highway Code once the theory test has been successfully attempted.
We really should follow the Brits' lead and make the theory test unpleasantly difficult to pass. Once the theory has been mastered and a sound basis for safe driving has been established, driving with skill and polish will surely follow for most people as they gain confidence behind the wheel and get hundreds of kilometres behind them, knowing that the theoretical basis for enjoyable motoring has been lodged in the memory.
Conversely, a percentage of drivers will never pass the existing practical road test as they will always be temperamentally unfit to cope with road conditions existing today, a fact that all examiners are fully aware of.
My advice to pupils who have failed the test for the third time is to change driving instructor, as pupil and instructor may easily be on different wavelengths, have another couple of attempts, and if it still ends in failure, take a break. Get medical advice, and if there is no reason for failure, blast back in using the best local driving school.
Incidentally, although I am entirely in favour of liberalisation, it can only work when it comes to driving instructors and driving schools if all instructors are equally competent. This will only work when the ADT management stop talking and actually get round to ensuring that each and every instructor teaches to the correct format.
Unfortunately the instruction manuals are, to the best of my knowledge, all published in English. If that is still true, it is obvious that all instructors must be completely familiar with the written word in English.
Ten-odd years ago, I came back from an English holiday where I had travelled from Bury St Edmunds to Mildenhall on a 23-seater bus, a route that meandered through all the various villages on the way, picked up and dropped people at farm gateways, minor crossroads and junctions, and had a wheelchair facility at the back.
Full of the joys of spring, I returned to duties with the Traffic Control Board and was shown fascinating detailed plans prepared some time earlier by the chairman when he was consultant to, or general manager of, the Public Transport Authority. Obviously among a host of other things, a mix and match of various sizes of public transport was called for.
Equally obviously, either the minister or the management of the Public Transport Association wanted the biggest buses money or taxpayers' subsidies could buy, and we were lumbered with the giant passenger transporters that we see crawling into our narrow village streets today.
If any man can get the various forms of public transport working efficiently and sensibly in a time scale of no more than a couple of years, Transport Minister Austin Gatt should be the right man for the job. This could include a more frequent, and properly priced, ferry service from Sliema to Valletta, with a mini bus service into the city centre, as well as the reintroduction of the lifts underneath the Barrakka gardens, and the reintroduction of regular ferries across Grand Harbour to service all the towns from Kalkara to Marsa.
It would be simple to undertake, and would relieve the road system of a large number of vehicles.
As one who regularly used trams in Reading 60 years ago I would suggest that unless special tram routes are newly constructed the minister and ADT management will find that our existing roads are all too narrow to safely carry vehicles and trams, no matter how attractive the scheme appears to be on paper.
A tram is an electrically powered vehicle running on rails. A trolley bus, on the other hand, has limited freedom of sideways movement as it picks up electricity from an overhead source using a trolley wheel. Think about it.
My granddaughter had swotted like blazes and successfully completed the test in 11 minutes. Sibling rivalry being what it is, grandson successfully passed in nine minutes.
Road signs are of vital importance and help keep experienced drivers out of trouble, yet only two questions related to road signs. A 30km/h sign and an end of speed limit sign were asked of James. Sadly, these questions reflected the degree of difficulty of the remainder of the exam.
The ADT management should be seriously alarmed for the simple reason that once the theory test has been mastered, questions based on the test are not part of the driving examiners' remit, and sadly most drivers never look at the all-important Highway Code once the theory test has been successfully attempted.
We really should follow the Brits' lead and make the theory test unpleasantly difficult to pass. Once the theory has been mastered and a sound basis for safe driving has been established, driving with skill and polish will surely follow for most people as they gain confidence behind the wheel and get hundreds of kilometres behind them, knowing that the theoretical basis for enjoyable motoring has been lodged in the memory.
Conversely, a percentage of drivers will never pass the existing practical road test as they will always be temperamentally unfit to cope with road conditions existing today, a fact that all examiners are fully aware of.
My advice to pupils who have failed the test for the third time is to change driving instructor, as pupil and instructor may easily be on different wavelengths, have another couple of attempts, and if it still ends in failure, take a break. Get medical advice, and if there is no reason for failure, blast back in using the best local driving school.
Incidentally, although I am entirely in favour of liberalisation, it can only work when it comes to driving instructors and driving schools if all instructors are equally competent. This will only work when the ADT management stop talking and actually get round to ensuring that each and every instructor teaches to the correct format.
Unfortunately the instruction manuals are, to the best of my knowledge, all published in English. If that is still true, it is obvious that all instructors must be completely familiar with the written word in English.
Ten-odd years ago, I came back from an English holiday where I had travelled from Bury St Edmunds to Mildenhall on a 23-seater bus, a route that meandered through all the various villages on the way, picked up and dropped people at farm gateways, minor crossroads and junctions, and had a wheelchair facility at the back.
Full of the joys of spring, I returned to duties with the Traffic Control Board and was shown fascinating detailed plans prepared some time earlier by the chairman when he was consultant to, or general manager of, the Public Transport Authority. Obviously among a host of other things, a mix and match of various sizes of public transport was called for.
Equally obviously, either the minister or the management of the Public Transport Association wanted the biggest buses money or taxpayers' subsidies could buy, and we were lumbered with the giant passenger transporters that we see crawling into our narrow village streets today.
If any man can get the various forms of public transport working efficiently and sensibly in a time scale of no more than a couple of years, Transport Minister Austin Gatt should be the right man for the job. This could include a more frequent, and properly priced, ferry service from Sliema to Valletta, with a mini bus service into the city centre, as well as the reintroduction of the lifts underneath the Barrakka gardens, and the reintroduction of regular ferries across Grand Harbour to service all the towns from Kalkara to Marsa.
It would be simple to undertake, and would relieve the road system of a large number of vehicles.
As one who regularly used trams in Reading 60 years ago I would suggest that unless special tram routes are newly constructed the minister and ADT management will find that our existing roads are all too narrow to safely carry vehicles and trams, no matter how attractive the scheme appears to be on paper.
A tram is an electrically powered vehicle running on rails. A trolley bus, on the other hand, has limited freedom of sideways movement as it picks up electricity from an overhead source using a trolley wheel. Think about it.