PROMPTED BY Ian Noble’s
cover story in the April 5
North Shore News | weuld
like to expand the issue con-
cerning the influx of driver
training schools in the
Ridgeway neighborhood and
the region surrounding the
North Van Motor Licence
Office.

Saturation of these neighbor-
hoods by driver training cars is not
actually a new problem. It is merely
more apparent because recently
introduced legislation requires
trainer vehicles to be labeled with
their school name. This vague

“t- attempt to better monitor driving

schools has, thus far, only made
everyone aware that there are too

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schools

many of us out there.

While it is true that East 8th and
Oth is the prime territory of the
“roud test”, where driving school
cars fester, it is also an area ideally
suited for the student driver
because:

1. The area is also a playground
zone, which means trom day one
students are learning the importance
of driving at a lawful, safe speed
whilst kids are at play.

2. The area is not perfectly flat
nor dangerously sloped thereby
allowing students to learn smooth
acceleration and deceleration tech-
niques in spite of the effect that
gravity would otherwise have on the
car.

3. Two-Way-Stops abound and
so students learn the variations of
slowing before turning, stopping,
creeping out, yielding after a
required stop, etc.

And 4, The neighborhood is cen-
tral, close and convenient for me (a
North Van driving school operator)
and most of my students (North
Shore residents). All said and done,
1am not in your neighborhood for
much more than an hour per student
if at all; if you see me there fre-
quently it’s merely because. 1 have
many students. (You will also see
me in the Lions Gate Bridge line-
up, downtown during rush hour, on
the Sea-to-Sky highway — every-
where, really.)

The better driving schools based

| KEEP YOUR
COOL WHEN...

(& BEAT ve
I THE: SUMMER :

in North Vancouver have been
doing this for years. The surge of
outsiders that use your area for the
sole purpose of test-route memo-
rization is our concern, also! This is
where it gets a litte more complex.

Many schools are merely filling
ademand for instruction-by-memo-
rization. Supply and demand is the
nature of business, Our government
regulates this particular business
and here’s how it has chosen to do
SO:

Aside from the closure of the
Burnaby testing facility, our(?) gov-
ermment also cut the Road Test
down by five minutes (creating a
time slot for one more test per day
per examiner). Examiners are less
likely to wander too far from the
office lest they be late for the next
appointment — thus, the test area is
even more compacted and easier to
learn,

As J mentioned in 4 previous
column, in a bizarre and illogical
change to driving school regula-
tions, the law that stipulated practi-
cal experience before opening a dri-
ver training facility was removed.
In an attempt to justify this, a new
amendment states that all instruc-
tors must take a “refresher” course
every two years — of a kind not yet
defined nor feasibly monitored.

THE AVERAGE
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Come 1997, [ suspect there will be
too many instructors and schools to
have this otherwise fine idea see
fruition.

These muddy rules have created
a gravy train (gravy convoy?) which
many an entrepreneur has leapt
upon with abandon. Folly, surely,
and tainting what would otherwise
be a noble and respected industry.

The looming threat of a “gradu-
ated learner's licence” is another
nonsensical notion that’s currently
being peddled — they tried it in
Ontario and it has made a travesty
out of their Driving School
Industry: An over-abundance of
poorly trained/monitored instructors
working for cut-throat schools out
for the quick buck has been the
result.

On a lighter note, f can't help
but add to my favorite Sesame
Street song: “...a driving instructor
is a person in your neighborhood, in
your neighborhood...” If you truly
wish this change, go big: write to
the Honorable Jackie Pement,
Minister of Transportation and
Highways, Room 28, Parliament
Building, Victoria, B.C. V8V 1X4.

Shaun Conlin is the owaer/oper-
ator of Upper Levels Driving
School. To reach Shaun for a ques-
tion or comment, call 984-8688.

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