4 Things That Have Been Added To The Learner Driver Curriculum Thanks To Covid

THE long backlog of driving tests has spurred the Department of Transport to instigate a 10-month extension for learner drivers, as well as introducing some new rules and regulations to reflect the post-Covid ‘new normal’ of life on our roads:

How do drive with a fully-licensed passenger but still be within government health guidelines

With government Covid restrictions during the pandemic often calling for no mixing between houses, and transport rules stating that no learner driver should travel without someone in the car with a full license, there’s been a confusing loophole in the system since March of last year. This loophole still exists, so if anyone has a half-way decent answer for it, that’ll count as a ‘pass’ on the test.

Avoiding delivery drivers

The pandemic has driven thousands of out-of-work people into the delivery economy, and with Amazon and Deliveroos razor-thin margins, these drivers have to work long hard hours to earn a living, and dare we say it, flex the rules of the road on occasion to make sure people get their Big Mac without leaving your home. Are you a good enough driver to react to a van coming round a corner on the wrong side of the road as the driver checks directions on his phone? The new tests will check just that.

Repetitive route fatigue

In case the Delta Variant sends us back into our 2km radius again, new test routes are being devised at the minute. Rather than checking if a driver can navigate around a busy city and cope with ever-changing traffic, these new routes will check if people have the mental capacity to deal with driving the same 2km stretch 10 times in a row without ‘cracking the fuck up’.

Increased Garda excuse gauntlet

The average Irish driver encountered a garda checkpoint maybe once a year in pre-Covid times, but in the height of the pandemic they could expect to meet three, maybe four per journey. Is your excuse game strong enough to come up with acceptable reasons about why you’re ‘just tipping up the road’?