Editorial: Licence a rite of passage

It seems a great Kiwi rite of passage is under threat in the Bay.

I'm talking about that tempestuous transition from adolescence to adulthood made complete by obtaining one's driving licence.

From a parenting point of view, it's possibly the biggest leap of faith any parent is called to take. It's also a leap of faith in the Government, which has drawn an arbitrary line and selected the age of 16, when apparently a person's accumulation of wisdom renders them competent.

Anyone with 16-year-old teenagers is forgiven for rolling the eyes.

However, trust the system - and our kids - we must.

Yet it's this same system coming under fire from some quarters for a frustrating and expensive licensing regime.

Labour Party spokeswoman for Tukituki Anna Lorck highlighted the issue recently by claiming the region has 25,000 people waiting to get their full licences, aggravated by the fact test costs are exorbitant.

She claimed having so many drivers "stuck on their wrong licence is a matter of public interest, where costs and accessibility are preventing our future generation from getting ahead". She believes it's a $20 million problem for Hawke's Bay alone.

Seems it's much harder to get on the road these days. As a youngster raised in Central Hawke's Bay I clearly remember my driving test with a traffic officer. This officer was no different from the rest of his colleagues in that he had a neatly trimmed dark moustache. At the outset he scolded me for trying to reverse with the handbrake on, but otherwise all it took was a law abiding, mirror checking, 10-minute navigation through Waipawa's CBD (despite not having the now requisite traffic lights) and the magic words uttered on completion: "You passed."

So why the current logjam? Is it a result of more robust testing, or is there some revenue gathering going on?

Hawke's Bay Today is launching its Licence to Drive series, beginning this Monday. We'll investigate what the problem is, why youth are failing the test, whether it's contributing to crime and what our leaders are doing about it.

Let's see if we can get to the bottom of what's stalling the system.