Rules Are One Thing, Reality Quite Another

If somebody fails the written driving test in California, it might be presumed that the person is a poor risk behind the wheel--an incompetent likely to cause an accident or run over a pedestrian.

And since motorists in California fail the test half the time, it would seem that the state is overwhelmed with lousy drivers.

Luckily, failure on the test is not a prediction of how a person performs on the road. People fail the test because they don’t know motor vehicle laws. But even experts at the Department of Motor Vehicles admit that knowledge of the law is not highly relevant to highway safety.

“Is knowledge of traffic law an important causal factor in crashes? The answer is no,” said Ray Peck, the research director of the California DMV. “When you look at causes of crashes, it does not often involve deficits of knowledge.”

However, he said, “somebody can know the law 100%, and that doesn’t mean you obey it. There is a gap between what you know and whether you employ it.”

Indeed, studies have shown that the knowledge people display in written tests and their behavior in driving tests bear no relationship to how they actually drive.

In one Oklahoma study 20 years ago, drivers were videotaped taking driving tests and again when they drove away from the DMV lot.

Their behavior--in terms of signaling, turning and speed-limit compliance-- completely changed when the examiner wasn’t in a seat next to them.

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So why bother subjecting people to written tests that are no measure of driving ability or to driving tests that are flawed because they are too subjective?

Because the alternative--a test that would actually measure driving ability or an individual’s disposition to potentially deadly driving--is a political bombshell.

Although judges and public officials like to proclaim that driving is a privilege, the reality of state law and public policy is that driving has become a fundamental right.

“There is a lot of recognition that things like aggressiveness, impulsivity, risk taking are considered more important factors in accident causation. The problem is how do you translate that into a test?” Peck said. “You can show that certain personality characteristics do have a correlation with accident probability. But it is mushy.”

Even if the government could identify America’s worst drivers--the ones most likely to run red lights, race through residential neighborhoods and cut across four lanes on the freeway-- it would face obstacles in trying to remove them from the road.

Licensing authorities do not consider poor eye-hand coordination, slow reaction time or mental confusion in evaluating drivers. A current bill in the California Legislature to require more frequent eyesight tests and written exams for older drivers is proving to be highly controversial.

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The failure rate on the written test in California is high, but eventually people retake the test three or four times and pass it. The idea is not to bar them from the highway.

“Tests are reduced to those things that you can correct,” said Jim McKnight, one of the nation’s top experts in driving tests. “If you flunk a written test, you can study and go back again. If you flunk a psychological test, how do you come back and pass it?”

McKnight’s point goes to a basic underpinning of our driving culture: As long as an individual can see and does not drink and drive, many states will not make a serious attempt to get a wayward motorist off the highway.

Tickets are a costly hassle. Eventually a license can be revoked. But determined motorists will continue to drive without licenses, and all they can get is more tickets. (Under California’s stricter laws, however, unlicensed motorists can be charged with a criminal offense.)

“A motor vehicle violation is not considered sufficient to put people in jail for,” McKnight said. “That will happen until society views cars as lethal weapons.”

Ralph Vartabedian cannot answer mail personally but will attempt to respond in this column to automotive questions of general interest. Write to Your Wheels, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA 90053. Via e-mail: ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com.