Freedom is a pretty valuable commodity in the scheme of things. So it's no small wonder that those who are lining up to get their four-wheeled liberty get the snip when they fail - and it does seem more likely to be when, not if.
Last week's missive on the injustices of drivers' licensing, the dangers of kids in powerful cars and the power of a bit of education sparked a lively debate in the comments section on nzherald.co.nz/driven, which is great to see.
Between these comments, and the emails to Driven in the past week, there seems to be an overwhelming distrust of the current system. Farming something of high importance like driver licensing to private entities is - as many of you pointed out - introducing a huge flaw right at the beginning of the process.
Some sort of transparency in the way in which tests are conducted is vital to maintain any sort of integrity for one of the biggest tests a teen will face - we won't count NCEA for obvious reasons.
If young drivers are resigned to being failed as a matter of course, because they know that rebooking their tests is simply going to add a few more bucks to the testing company's coffers, there won't be much trust in any other parts of the system.
