Road safety advocates say changes to driver licensing is sending the wrong message to learner drivers.
The government wants to move to learner drivers having to only sit one practical test in favour of harsher alcohol restrictions and a lowered demerit threshold for learner and restricted drivers.
The number of required eyesight tests would also be reduced in the proposed changes which go out for public consultation today.
Changes 'weakening the licensing system'
Driving Change Network national director Wendy Robertson said the proposal "removes key safety checkpoints and shifts focus to punitive measures and administrative convenience".
"Replacing the full licence test with a 'good behaviour' period and increasing penalties by reducing the demerit threshold does not build safer roads or better drivers," Robertson said.
"What's missing is a clear, evidence-based pathway that actually supports drivers to learn well in the first place.
"These changes risk weakening the licensing system - particularly in the absence of any clear commitment to investment in driver education and on-road training.
Robertson said the government needed to prioritise driver education, implement a minimum number of supervised on-road hours for learner drivers and invest in community-based training programmes that assisted disadvantaged, rural and high needs communities.
"We have to all drive on these roads and if people are having got their licence through an easier system that isn't safer then all of our families are at risk," she said.
'Having a full licence doesn't make you a good trainer'
The president of the Institute of Driving Educators, Mark Revill-Johnson, said proper checks would need to be in place to ensure any requirements for training and driving practice were up to standard.
"We need to be able to make sure that people can't just drive down the road and check mirrors, put a signal on, check the blind spot and safely make a turn - like a little robot," Revill-Johnson said.
"Because on the road things don't always happen as they should."
Drivers will not need to take a second practical test to get their licence, with the government proposing the first major changes to ew Zealand's driver licence system in 14 years. Photo: 123RF
He said while the system did have similarities with other overseas jurisdictions the full details of the government's plan were yet to be figured out.
He was concerned about how advanced driving courses, which could shorten the period a person spent on a restricted licence, or the notion of supervised driver practice hours would be incorporated into the new system.
"If the supervisor is a person who passed the test 30 to 40 years ago, when the testing wasn't quite so robust, what are they teaching and do they even have a licence?
"We see many students coming through who we are the only person they can legally practice with in terms of having a warranted, registered, roadworthy car and the full licence for at least two years.
"Things have changed. The road code rules change all the time. So how up-to-date are these folks? Merely having a full licence doesn't make you a good trainer."
Revill-Johnson said funding options also needed to be in place to ensure the changes didn't put driver training out of reach for some learners.
Concerns over reductions in vision testing
Spokesperson for road safety group Brake NZ, Caroline Perry, said she was concerned that cutting back on vision tests could also leave drivers spending long periods of time without having their eyesight examined.
"Under this new proposal you need to have a vision test when you apply for your first licence and then when you renew your licence after you turn 45. So there could be quite a significant gap.
"I understand that for some people - when they are doing their learner, restricted and getting their full licence, they're having an eye test at every point in that process.
"Depending on how long that takes you could be having three eye tests in a reasonably short period of time.
"But going from that to having a very large gap in time can have the opposite effect in terms of from a safety perspective," Perry said.
Change will ease the cost burden on young people in rural communities
Wairoa mayor Craig Little said he welcomed the changes but only if people were properly skilled behind the wheel.
He said cutting back on the second test would ease the pressure on rural drivers who struggled to afford having to travel out-of-town and then pay for a second test.
"There'll be so many rural areas that still can't do that and that's the biggest concern for me - going up to a place where you don't live to get your licence," Little said.
"With our kids, when we couldn't do it in Wairoa, they had to get them out-of-town which was a hell of a cost.
"Not everyone is lucky enough to have a car in the family that can take them to Napier or Gisborne. So that alleviates that one stage - which is great.
"As long as they are competent enough to pass that first test then that should be fine."
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