More than half failed road tests last year “THIS IS THE WEAKEST GENERATION I’VE EVER TAUGHT.” MARGOT PODILUK More than half the people who tried to get a Class 5 driver’s licence in Saskatchewan failed their road tests last year, part of a downward trend in road test pass rates that has been ongoing for about a decade. GORD WALDNER/The StarPhoenix Driving instructor Flaviana Rodulfa says more than half of the people who tried for their Class 5 driver’s licence in Saskatchewan last year failed. Only 48 per cent of people who took a road test in 2013 passed, compared to 58 per cent in 2004, according to Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) data obtained by The Star Phoenix. Ciaran Downes, manager of driver development and safety services with SGI, said expectations for new drivers have not changed in the last decade and the drop in pass rates could be due to a changing road landscape in the province. “Our roadways are becoming more complicated. With increasing traffic volumes, you’re going to see more complicated intersections, certainly more challenging driving situations,” Downes said. Saskatoon driving instructor Margot Podiluk, who has been preparing new drivers for the road test for 15 years, said she’s not surprised by the declining pass rate. “This is the weakest generation I’ve ever taught,” she said. Podiluk said she believes part of the problem is that many new drivers grew up as passengers using televisions, cellphones and tablets, which means they never observed others driving. “The awareness level isn’t where it was when I started 15 years ago,” Podiluk said. “Today’s generation, they’re so connected to electronic devices that they don’t look out of car windows.” Another factor could be the increasing number of immigrant drivers, Podiluk said. “I’ve driven with people who drove for 15 years in another country and they go for their road test here and they fail miserably. Why? Because the driving style is so different.” People with driver’s licences from other Canadian provinces, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and a handful of other approved countries can get a Saskatchewan licence without taking a road test, but most people with an out-of-country licence must challenge the exam. Podiluk said many people accustomed to driving outside North America drive too close together and haven’t been taught to do shoulder checks. “They drive bumper to bumper; one hand is on the steering wheel, one hand is on the horn,” she said. “You have to sort of retrain them, de-program them from their driving style to the driving style that is more suitable for our North American way of driving so they can actually pass the road test.” According to Statistics Canada, more than 28,000 immigrants made their homes in Saskatchewan in the six years between 2006 and 2011, when the most recent figures were compiled. SGI does not track drivers’ countries of origin and cannot analyze whether road test pass rates differ between immigrants and people who grew up in Canada. Like Podiluk, Saskatoon driving instructor Flaviana Rodulfa said she believes an increase in newcomers to the province is causing an uptick in people failing the exam. “It’s not that the Saskatoon people are bad drivers, it’s because of the people who move into the province; they don’t have the skills,” she said, adding that road test fail rates are helping keep the roads safe. SGI monitors road test pass rates, but there’s little the Crown corporation can do to influence those numbers besides encouraging new drivers to practise more, Downes said. “We certainly want to see as many people as possible be successful as soon as possible, but the standards are there,” he said. “We’re not as worried necessarily as much about the pass/fail rate as we are about people being able to demonstrate the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to safely operate a vehicle.” Downes said SGI is looking into how Saskatchewan’s road test pass rates stack up against other provinces where driver training and licensing structures vary. According to Manitoba Public Insurance, the road test pass rate for a Class 5 licence in 2013 was 51 per cent — a number that’s been constant for the last five years. West of the border, Alberta Transportation said 65 per cent of people passed the Class 5 licence road test in 2012, the most recent figures available, and that the pass rate had been dropping since 2005. In order to take the Class 5 road test, a driver must be at least 16 years old and have completed a minimum of six hours of training with a certified instructor. The road test, which costs $22, involves driving through controlled and uncontrolled intersections, parallel parking and changing lanes. This article was shared by a user of PressReader - an online source of publications from around the world. PressReader contains copyrighted material, trademarks and other proprietary information. Receipt of this article should not be interpreted as grant of any licenses express or implied, to the intellectual property of PressReader or publishers of publications presented. 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Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 18:49:19 +0000
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