If you took your driver’s test again today, would you pass?
CTV hit the road with a number of experienced drivers. We asked drivers to identify Manitoba road signs and sat them behind the wheel for a mock test.
According to Confidence Driving School instructor Harold Tabin, all four drivers failed the test. He has been teaching people how to drive for 30 years.
Tabin said after people pass their test, they pick up bad habits and there is no one to correct them.
"They are not being policed,” said Tabin. “In order words, there is nobody to watch them 10 years down, so they are left to their own devices to see how well they follow those rules.”
Manitoba Public Insurance said it doesn’t hurt drivers to brush up on the rules of road every couple years.
“When a person takes their drivers tests 25 years ago, obviously some of the questions then…they are different now,” said Brian Smiley from MPI. “We know that many drivers fall into bad habits. Perhaps they speed,” he added.
MPI said the top reasons people fail their drivers test are:
- Failure to fully stop at stop signs
- Speeding
- Failure to signal lane changes
- Improper shoulder checking during lane changing
- Driver inattention
MPI said about 49 per cent of Manitobans fail their driving test on their first attempt. The average number of tries it takes a person to pass their test is two.
On the question of if drivers should ever have to re-take their test, MPI said: “Re-testing would require a change in legislation, which rests with the government of the day. Manitoba does not have mandatory re-testing, which is consistent with all other Canadian jurisdictions.”
