Driving age hike: a “nuisance” for rural folk
Talia Menary of Onekaka was really looking forward to getting her driver’s licence after she turns 15 next March. Now she’ll have to wait another year. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
New road safety measures aimed at young people will have serious implications for youth mobility, say many in the rural community here.
On 15 April Transport Minister Stephen Joyce announced the cabinet’s decision to increase the minimum driving age from 15 to 16 under legislation that will be introduced before the end of the year. The restricted driving test will also be toughened up, meaning more supervised practice hours will be required and, pending a review yet to be conducted, young people will also be banned from driving powerful cars.
Commenting on the raising of the driving age, the Transport Minister said in The Nelson Mail (16/3): “Families will just have to adjust to the higher age. There is a mobility issue, but on balance ... I think it’s pretty straightforward. This is all about saving lives.”
In Golden Bay, as well as every other rural area in New Zealand, many up-and-coming young drivers are no doubt feeling gutted by the latest decision. Parents will realise they’re saddled with a further year of driving their children long distances to the school bus or to school, not to mention to sporting and recreational events—which can incur considerable distances and costs in rural areas.
Says Kaihoka resident Joyce Wyllie: “The new regulations are a proper nuisance for rural families because public transport is not an option. I think just raising the driving age to 16 only sets the driving process back a year rather than solving the actual problem, which is all about attitude. Let’s face it, this can come out at any age and cause an accident, whether it’s at 15 or 49; it’s got more to do with the person than the age. Rural kids are bought up around farm vehicles and machinery, routinely operate them even. They’re responsible and ready for the road by age 15.”
Talia Menary of Onekaka was certainly looking forward to getting her learner’s licence after she turns 15 next March. Now she knows it’ll be another year of asking her mum Ali or dad John to drive her around, not only to the Collingwood school bus which only travels as far as the Onekaka Hall, 1.8km from her home, but to netball on Saturday and social occasions around the place.
“It’s not fair. I was so looking forward to getting it and becoming a little more independent. If my birthday was two months earlier I probably would have just slipped in.”
Sergeant Arthur Clarence of the Takaka Police says he can understand why people may ask what difference a year makes, but in the end raising the driving age and in particular tightening up the licence test will have a positive impact on safety for Golden Bay roads.
“High speed limits over the region have contributed to Tasman historically having some of the highest crash rates in the country. Some of our worst crashes have involved young people breaching their licences, so tightening up that area can only be a good thing.”
He points out that licence breaches for a learner or provisional driver used to involve a $400 fine and just a few demerit points. Now the fine has been reduced down to $100 but demerits increase to 25 points. “That means if they keep breaching it, we can take their car, and that hurts a young person more than any fine.”
In regard to apparently confusing vehicle power restrictions for young drivers, New Zealand will wait for a review of the measures tried in Australian states before deciding exactly what measures to take. Under 25s in Queensland who carry a provisional licence are now not allowed to drive V8s, high-powered turbo or any super-charged vehicles. Late last year, the South Australian state government introduced legislation stopping learner and restricted drivers younger than 25 driving similar high-powered cars, but interestingly offered exemptions for rural youth.
The government here has already admitted that although Australian power restrictions “anecdotally had some real successes”, there had been problems with enforcement because of the complicated set of factors that determine power and performance. Some smaller cars, for instance, are amongst the highest performance vehicles because of their power-to-weight ratios.
Overall, however, the Automobile Association has come out in support of the Government’s package, and has said it would only support exemptions for 15-year-old rural drivers if there was evidence they were any better at driving.
“But we just don’t see that in the statistics at the moment,” said AA motoring manager Mike Noon. “We think that the problem with our young drivers is across the board. Some of the worst accidents involving young people have taken place on rural roads.”
The Transport Minister has already publicly ruled out any possibility of exemptions for rural drivers.
New Zealanders will have a chance to have their say on the changes as part of a Select Committee process.
Gerard Hindmarsh
