Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-28
NEW DRIVERS WILL BE BETTER
THAN OLD ONES, IF PLANS WORK
More Rigid Tests Before Licensing Will
Enable Beginners to Be
Really Expert.

Being beginner at the wheel will be
something to boast about rather than
regret If the elaborate plans of leading
motor vehicle commissioners material
lie within the next year. Predictions
of more rigid driver tests forecast a
situation where those who pilot cars
for the first time may know more about
the process than many thousands who
have been getting away with it" for
years.
The odds appear to be greatly in favor
OF new era in motoring in which the
last shall be first.
While 20 States of the Union make
no effort to license drivers, and thus do
not provide any test of the public's
capacity for driving, many of the re-
manning States are making plans to
devise more serviceable tests. The aim
Is to develop a higher grade of driver
rather than to exclude those who may
through inexperience seem unfit. 1t is
generally recognized that high per-
centage OF unfit drivers already confuse
the roads, and that one way of meeting
this situation is to seek to raise the
general level of competency through
greater care in making additions to the
ranks.
No Extreme Methods.
It is not expected that any State will
engage in such extreme methods as
shocking applicants with disturbing
electrical rays, but in at least one in
stance efforts will be made to determine
through psychological tests how the ap-
plicantS view their forthcoming re-
sponsibilities awheel. Tests will be
more mental than physical, and will
require considerable amount of study
Study of the applicant will serve two
purposes, according to the most ad-
vanced thought on the subject. 1t will
enable the motor vehicle authorities to
determine the fitness of the PROSPECTIVE
driver, and in addition will automati-
cally school the applicant in some of
the deeper features of motoring With
all cars, big or small, now compare
lively easy to operate, experience is
demonstrating that accidents occur, not
because drivers do not know how to
shift gears or otherwise handle the car
skillfully, but because they have OBJ
normal judgment and perverse ideas re-
garding responsibility. u
One Tentative Test.
In one tentative test now worked out
by one motor vehicle department appli-
cantS would be asked if they carry life
insurance. The question at first seems
irrelevant. It's answer, however, pre-
sents a fairly good picture concerning
the applicants consideration of others.
The general schools of thought are
currently at work on the problem of
assuring motordom a higher level of
new additions to the ranks of operators
One is concerned with picking out the
unfit driver through ingenious tests of
such factors as reaction time, mental
lag, visual defects and emotional sta
AZ fC NN1rfVNN oN4lN 20.
ested in his or her qualifications for
highway citizenship While a consid-
cradle amount of research work is be-
ing done in the former line, the pros
poets are that at the next session of
Legislatures in States where changes are
contemplated the new tests will be
largely given over to getting a line on
the applicants character.
test used as prerequisite to OBJ
tanning a driving permit in Vienna re-
qulres the applicant to direct a marker
through streets depicted on a slowly
revolving chart, In marking his imagi-
nary way through the city he must OBJ
serve all traffic regulations and make
turns according to the rules. Such a
test, while appearing to bring out the
drivers capacity for the job of handling
a car, has been placed in the category
of those examinations which merely
QCHiOADbIhIG DkIlL anu nave DceH WIDELY
condemned. 1t is pointed out that
many driver who shifts gears very
competently may be lacking in ordinary
courtesy and Judgment.
Hope Of Safety Advocates.
That science may succeed in discard
ing unfit drivers is the hope of most
safety advocates, but in approaching
the problem there is a constant tempta-
ton to overlook the science of psychol-
ogy. A research campaign at present
being conducted by DR.. knight Dunlap
of Johns Hopkins University and DR..
A. p. Weiss of Ohio State University
gives promise of bringing psychology
into proper perspective with its related
sciences Of biology, chemistry, physics
and endocrinology. One of the tests
devised by this group checks the appli-
cant's ability to coordinate hand and
eye movements, thus demonstrating his
ability to do several things at the same
time.
The Bureau of Standards at WASH
ilgton, d. c., has devised ingenious
methods for testing the applicants abil-
it, to lift his foot from the accelerator
and step on the brake pedal at the
sound of a pistol shot. Various deduc-
tions have been drawn from the re-
~flite and anrfais1 fvlNae IF I,erg0f1s Wlan