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I noticed that Alvin took the driving test in 1957, some 22 years after the tests introduction and I wondered what the main differences between the 1957 test and the current one are? I remember hand signals being phased out in '75, the year I took mine and I know that the current test has a written paper, but what else? Anyone know?
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They are about to bring in hazard perception test videos I believe.
Don't forget changes in content too.
When I took mine (about same as yours) you were supposed to take bends on the outside of the road (as far away from oncoming traffic as possible, and contrary to the police manual - as far to the outside of the bend as possible for best view round - if I recall correctly!)
Changing up and down through all the gears!!
However one thing has gone backwards:
You used to turn right offside to offside to get a clear view in case there was another car approaching (yes the possibility of three cars on the same stretch of road!).
But if two queues of traffic were turning you passed nearside to nearside so as not to block the opposite queue of turners if you couldn't proceed (clear view was not relevant, as it would be blocked by the queue anyway).
Now it's only offside to offside, so just in those few rare cases where there are more than two cars turning, you block all the others!!! Good job that you hardly ever come across that situation anymore.
H*************
I wonder who's idea THAT was :-(
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Since 1999 practical became about 10 minutes longer than it used to be, with more emphasis on NSL roads. The marking system that the examiners use has also changed, with faults that used to be marked as minor errors now known as driving errors, ie failing to make a mirror check before a signal. Whereas previously any number of minor errors on the part of a test candidate would not result in a fail, there is now a limit of fifteen, above which a fail would result.
Examiners are now much more stringent in the way they mark a candidates performance on the test. It surprises many drivers who took their test years ago and passed after as few as ten lessons that todays learner driver generally takes forty to fifty hours of tuition before they are ready for their test, and all instructors have pupils on their books who will touch 100 lessons before they are anywhere near ready. The written examination, introduced in 1996 and regarded by most driving instructors as a complete waste of time means there are no Highway Code questions at the end of the driving test.
About ten years ago a major failing of the test marking system was changed. Previously if a candidate were to cut a blind right hand corner, to give just one example, provided that he or she caused no actual danger to another road user, the error was marked only as a minor fault! How many fatal accidents did that result in over the years.
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Michael,
I took my driving test in 1957 whilst being in the Army. I was a National Service at the time and was in a transit camp at Norton Barracks Worcrstershire waiting to go to Malaya with my Regiment the Sherwood Foresters. As it was another three weeks before we sailed a group of us asked to go on a driving cadre. They were very good to us and sent us to Newhall camp near Oswestry and gave us training on the old Bedford QL 3 tonner which I doubt many people have ever seen. After days on a huge concrete square they took us out on the welsh roads. Two weeks of that and we then took us into Oswestry where an old grizzled Sergeant examined our driving individually. After cursing us constantly he gave us a little piece of paper which entitled us to exchange for a civilian licence when we returrned home from abroad. So this wasn't a civilian style test.
However my Mother took her test at about the same time in Ashbourne Derbyshire which was a nice little town to take it apart from the hills. There were two full time examiners and everyone tried to avoid one who was considered to be a tyrant. I imagine the test was similar except indicators were only just coming into use and played no part in the test. The forward rotation of the arm had to be used to signal turning left and up and down to indicate slowing.
Emergency stops were in use and starting off on a hill plus three point turns.
At the end of the test an oral examination of the highway code was done and the final decision was given. I imagine a similar number of passes and fails were about as today but driving conditions were far easier than today with little or no aggression shown to each other on the road as we see today. I even remember that each week in one of the newspapers that a "Knight of the Road" award was given to someone with a write up of what they had done to deserve it. If someone was broken down which was far more prevalant than today one soon had a few cars around you to help out. In those days also there was thousands of National Servicemen thumbing lifts to get from one part of the country to another for weekend leave or similar. No problem at all, always a lorry or car stopped immediately when they saw the uniform.
Altogether a much nicer environment than today!!!!
I don't even remember a car being broken ito or stolen at this time although we did live in a rural area.
regards,
Alvin
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'I don't even remember a car being broken ito or stolen at this time although we did live in a rural area.'
Thats because they were crap
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Kev,
Do you really believe this was the reason?????
Couldn't you imagine any other reasons.
Alvin
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My youthful emagination has been crushed by oppressive thought police. I am told what to eat, drink, wear, think, say and know. I also have the misfortune of being a white male, so therefore racist and sexist.
Imagination and free-thought are dead, we live under a dictatorship.
And for car stealing, it was only a half serious comment, police might actually have been bothered about catching car thiefs, unlike today where they have better things to do than stop murders and burgulars, obveously stopping motorists obeying a sensible speed is more important.
End of rant, in bad mood, cheered up slightly mow,
Kev
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Kev,
It is true that the cars of the late 50s wouldn't stand up to comparison with a current model in todays society. But remember then a car, any car, was still something people aspired to and many couldn't afford one.
Of course there were high spec models and low spec models but there wasn't this competition culture of having the latest whatever. As long as it got you from A to B (yes that boring old phrase) that was all that mattered.
People had so many fewer personal goods of value, including the car, there was little reason to burgle them. Who wanted to break into a house for a couple of 1930s chairs and Auntie's old ornaments.
The age of kids/guys causing the most trouble now nicking cars were still kicking a ball about down the playing field then. They happily rode pushbikes and "knew" they wouldn't get a car for years.
People were more supportive as a community because they needed the community. You couldn't just get the Barclaycard out and buy any product/service from anywhere in the world, you needed other people.
My period of experiencing this type of culture was a little later than Alvin but I think it stayed essentially the same into the 60s, the 70s started a change and the 80s/90s cemented the "right" of kids to have things their parents could never have dreamed of.
I am not saying these were the good old days or knocking youth today. We have young children that will be involved in the youth culture of ten years time, I hope to support them through whatever that throws them. Perhaps with the understanding we had far less pressures to deal with.
David
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I remember the motorcycle test in 1961, taken in Hove. The examiner stood at the road side and watched me do some basic low speed manoevres (pulling away, hand signals, stopping at a junction etc.). Part of this involved me riding round the block (probably so he could have a swift cigarette), and then he walked alongside insisting that I keep pace with him and had my feet on the pegs - that sharpend the handling skills on a BSA 500 twin!
Then the emergency stop. Approach the target area (where I knew he was lurking) and he jumped out in the road brandishing his clip board. I passed, but he was really taking a chance with the brakes on an 1950 bike.
Oh, what innocent days!
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Back in the days being talked about here people just did not travel as far. Its quite interesting to go back to where you were brought up, for those of us who have been away some time. You might have grumbled at the vast distance Mum used to send you to fetch something from the Co-op but do it today in a modern car and its just seconds up the road.
I think we forget just how cr*p the cars and roads were in those days. Remember as a sprog we went on holiday in summer from W Yorks down to relatives near Portsmouth. Set off in Austin A40 Somerset (anybody still got OVC 87) as dawn was breaking and got there around 5pm ish , having been on the go all day, apart from refreshment breaks. Nowadays catching the ferry its a question do we allow 3 or 3.5 hours?
The regular lorry driver for our firm who retired a couple of years ago could remember when Birmingham from N Derbyshire was a night out trip.
I know we complain, I for one am not sure I would like the good old days. What worries me is these could be the good old days for some.
Cue for a Monty Python thread, I'll get you all going, "Nay when I were a lad......."
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