Opinion: K53 Not Enough

Trust is a word we tend to associate with relationships and not really with motoring, but I would like you to take a moment to consider just how much trust is involved in your daily commute.

Here we are, sharing the road with thousands of strangers, hoping that some white lines, lights that change colour and a set of rules will be enough to get us to our destination safely. The truth is that operating a vehicle is a huge responsibility and it’s something we tend to take for granted.

For me, this past week has been all about appreciating what it means to drive again, as I had the privilege of giving my 17-year-old niece her first driving lessons. It made me realise how quickly driving becomes a habit — a muscle-memory process we actually don’t give much thought to — and just how inadequate and pointless the K53 driving test is.

I have been driving for 21 years, having passed that ridiculous test at my first attempt, but this isn’t me bragging about what a good driver I am. Sadly, passing the K53 is absolutely no indication of whether you are a capable driver or not.

I am not even going to open the ‘‘buy your licence’’ can of worms, so let’s just pretend every new driver on our roads has passed the K53 legitimately. The actual physical act of driving is not a difficult skill-set to master and, as pointed out earlier, it very quickly becomes an involuntary action.

But driving to pass the K53 means you have learnt some really bad habits right at the get-go. The basic building blocks are wrong. Here is an example:

You are in fifth gear and up ahead is a stop street. The K53 requires you to bring the car to a stop in the gear you were travelling in. Engage the clutch, stop, pull up the handbrake, shift to neutral, do all your mirror and blind spot checks, select first gear, get clutch control, do all your mirror and blind spot checks again, release the handbrake and drive off. My problem is with the ‘‘stop in the gear you are travelling in’’ part. You are not allowed to gear down, nope, engine braking is a no-no because they are worried about excessive wear and tear on the engine and transmission.

What utter rubbish. Please explain how the automatic transmission works then. Or, if this is the correct way to drive mechanically, why do the best drivers in the world — racing drivers — not employ this driving style? Driving in this manner ultimately takes car control away from the person behind the wheel.

And I haven’t even started on the steering inputs they teach you... I really could go on and on about learning the involuntary aspects incorrectly, but driving a vehicle is about so much more than clutch control, changing gears and staying in your lane. Learning to be a good driver is all about the voluntary part required to operate a vehicle — car dynamics, anticipation, spatial awareness, judgment, depth perception — at which point do we teach this? At the scene of an accident?

The government is not going to change this situation because they aren’t really that serious about road safety. It’s far easier to talk the talk than to drive it. So, as is often the case, it’s left to corporate South Africa to make the difference. Discovery Insure launched their Driving Challenge to identify our best drivers, with a smartphone app measuring your acceleration, braking and cornering.

Essentially, all that this challenge identifies is efficient driving and although it requires the driver to concentrate and be more involved in the experience, it hardly signifies a good driver. I could ‘‘efficiently’’ be breaking laws other than speeding, placing others at risk with my poor driving skill set while scoring well in the challenge. What insurance companies should do is work with driving academies to establish universal advanced driving modules to teach drivers everything that the K53 doesn’t — all the important stuff.

These courses could then be subsidised for existing policy- holders — and better insurance premiums could be offered to new and existing clients upon completion of the courses. I know some insurance companies offer something similar, but this is about coming together as a collective to create a driving test that actually does teach people how to drive.

Got to run, my niece is waiting for her next lesson.

-Marius Roberts is the anchor for ‘Ignition GT’ on DStv Channel 189