‘Mrs. Kim.' It is the word that means women who are unskilled at driving so that they caused accidents. This word has been disputed whether it is a prejudice that only women are unskilled at driving. However, the point that we should take notice is ‘Mrs. Kim' is not just a prejudice. Actually, among women and also men who got drivers' license, it is hard to find people who drive properly. Everyone has dreamed that ‘I want to drive' when they were child and actuallythe place where most of the students who finished Korean SAT go is nothing but an academy for a driving license. Now, people have drivers' licenses just like an identification which every person has. The flood of driving license, is it okay?
Much Simpler and Much Easier
Following the current law, people can have a driver’s license when they pass three tests: an examination on academic subjects, function test, and a driving test. As the graph shows, from June 10th 2011, there had some changes because of huge costs when people want to get a driver’s license. Instead of cost reduction, the test had been simplifiedsuch as a reduction in an item pool for an examination and a time for enforced education.1 Jang Yuna, Division of Business Administraion 12’ said, “Actually I was happy that I could pass the driving test more easily. However, just having a driving license is not everything. Once I tried to drive after I got a driver’s license, I was very anxious and just felt as if I had no license. Also, when I decided to take additional training, it required 41,000 won for an hour. So I think the change gives us fear economically and psychologically.”
Real Road, Real Fear and Real Solution
When we searched ‘simplified driving test,’ we can easily find the articles that even the number of new acquisitors are increased, the number of car accidents have been declined. Then, is it true that simplification had brought only positive effects?
Simplification in a driving test has drove out people who are unskilled at driving to the road. Actually, through simplified driving test, function test became extremely easy. According to the National Police Agency, after simplification the pass rate of function test increased more than 30 percent. On principle, people go to the real road after they pass the function test. It means that they go to the road even they are not skilled enough. Son Hosun, Division of Business Administration ’12 said, “I was really scared when I go to the real road not perfectly prepared. It doesn’t make sense that we have to go to the real road after such a simple functional test.” According to the research by the federation of professional driving academies Gyungnam, the frequency of the car accidents occurred by people who passed function test had been doubled.2 As these accidents became frequent, some insurance companies made an insurance against accidents by people who passed just the function test.
To lessen this kind of fear, using a simulator can be a solution. As the word ‘simulator’ implies, it is another education to let people prepare for real situations by driving virtually. People are often surprised when they feel cars accelerating more easily than they thought, but if this kind of simulator comes in, it can help people not be as shocked.
In Germany, getting a driver’s license is so hard that people say ‘It is such like out of the frying pan into the fire.’ The reasons why people express like this are that Germans should take 14 hours of theory class and at least 42 hours of driving training. Meanwhile, in Germany, getting a driver's license is so hard that Germans should take 14 hours of theory class and at least 42 hours of driving training. Actually in Germany, they have the road named ‘Autobahn’ which has no speed limit. It means drivers in Germany are skilled enough to have that kind of road. So then, can we blame for poor drivers which are represented by ‘Mrs. Kim’ that it’s just their problems?
1 Park Sangjoo, “Getting drivers’ licenses became easy, Insurance company feels uneasy,” Economist, July 25, 2011
2 Kim Sunkyung, “After a simplified driving test, accidents had been increased,” Yeonhapnews, August 30, 2011
