The changes to the graduated licensing system announced this week following a consultation last year are the first since 2011, when the learner licence age was increased from 15 to 16.
When most of the changes come into effect at the end of January next year, new car drivers will sit only one practical test — a beefed up one to include hazard identification — for their restricted licence, rather than the current two tests.
Because there will be just one test, the cost saving to prospective licence holders is expected to be $80, reducing the cost to $282.50.
However, if those sitting the single test are ill-prepared and fail, it will presumably cost them to re-sit.
The time spent by under-25 year olds as learners will double from six months to 12 months, although this can be reduced to six months if practice hours are recorded or an approved practical course is completed.
It is not clear yet how this practice logging would be done, but it would be good to see it include a requirement for driving in a variety of settings and conditions.
As the Automobile Association has pointed out, time alone does not make safer drivers, experience does.
Drivers under 25 have the highest crash rates.
The New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi will also be encouraging the use of Drive, a free driver licensing programme it funds with the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).
It includes modules to teach specific driving skills and has an application which can record driving practice. Data from ACC shows young people who use Drive are 24% less likely to make a motor vehicle injury claim, according to the Cabinet paper on the changes.
There may be some pushback over that, particularly in areas where young people may not have many transport options.
It is hoped that increasing a driver’s time on their restricted licence by six months if they incur any driving demerit points will provide an incentive not to breach the rules. The existing demerit threshold for licence suspension for restricted drivers remains unchanged.
Those who do not incur demerit points will automatically proceed to achieving their full licence without further testing.
In the undated Cabinet paper on the changes, Transport Minister Chris Bishop said he was separately proposing a review of road traffic fines and penalties which would include considering the demerit point system. It is not clear when announcements on that might be expected.
The zero-alcohol limit for all learner and restricted drivers, regardless of age, is welcome. It will progress separately from the other changes, so any date for its introduction is not yet known.
While there has been support for the general thrust of the changes, some concerns about inequity have been raised by the Driving Change Network, a collaboration of groups involved with driver education and road safety.
The network’s view is that while well-resourced families with a spare car, confident supervisors and money for instructors or courses would navigate the changes easily, that would not be the case for those relying on community programmes already at capacity and dependent on fragile funding.
Merely punishing those who did not meet the clean slate provisions for those on their restricted licences without offering accessible intervention options, risked compounding harm rather than reducing it.
The network suggests when a driver gets their first demerit offence during the clean slate period, they should complete an approved, evidence-based driver improvement programme.
Whether there would be any appetite for that from the government is not clear.
However, it was good to see the requirement for Ministry of Transport officials to review the implementation of the changes after three years, focusing on road safety, employment and economic outcomes. This should also examine any issues of inequity.
