By 
WITH a historic overhaul of the North’s driver licensing and testing system set to apply to from April 2027 – including mandatory training modules, a two-year ‘R’ plate, passenger restrictions for young drivers and the removal of the long-standing 45mph limit – the Ulster Herald has spoken with a local driving instructor and some aspiring motorists to see what they make of the new rules of the road.
Lindsay Stewart, chairman of the Omagh and District Driving Instructor Association, has been practising his profession for 28 years.
Speaking to the UlsterHerald about what the Infrastructure Minister has described as “the biggest reform to driver tests and licensing we’ve ever seen”, Lindsay said the changes – which he and his colleagues will be basing their lessons on from October this year – will allow instructors to better prepare learners for real-world driving.
“These new rules will not make our jobs any easier, but they’ll make us better able to get people ready for the reality of the road,” he said.
Being a driving instructor, according to Lindsay, is not just about preparing people to pass their test; it’s about teaching them how to be safe, confident drivers.
“These new rules – particularly the removal of the 45mph limit – will make it more possible for us to do that,” he said.
Under the new rules, drivers will be required to complete 14 new training modules and wear an ‘R’ plate for two years. For the first six months after passing their test, new drivers up to the age of 24 will only be permitted to carry one passenger aged between 14 and 20 between the hours of 11pm and 6am, although exemptions will apply for family members.
The current 45mph speed restriction for restricted drivers will also be removed.
“These are great changes from an instructor’s standpoint, from a parental perspective and even for young drivers themselves – though some might not see it that way yet,” said Lindsay. He then outlined the aspects of the graduated driving licence system he believes will be most meaningful.
“There are too many fatalities and serious injuries on the road, and you can hardly get through a week without seeing a report that a group of young people travelling in the same car late at night have come to harm. Reducing those awful occurrences is the aim of the one-passenger limit between 11 at night and six in the morning.
“To the mind of any right-thinking person, this has to be seen as a positive step. We all know what peer pressure feels like, and this rule will reduce the risk of a young driver feeling the need to drive faster or more recklessly because they have a crowd of people in the car.”
The next rule Lindsay said has been well received, particularly among instructors, is the removal of the 45mph restriction for ‘R’ drivers.
“If young drivers feel the one-passenger limit represents a loss for them – which it shouldn’t – then the removal of the 45mph limit is their gain. This is huge. I mean, absolutely massive,” he said.
For many years, Lindsay explained, a large number of driving instructors have believed the lower speed limit for new drivers was no longer making roads safer and should be revoked.
“That rule was brought in back in 1968, and it probably served a purpose for a time. But nowadays our roads are very different, and it has been past its sell-by date for years. Today, all it does is prevent us from teaching new drivers how to overtake safely. As well as that, it creates big tailbacks on main roads, which put new drivers under a lot of stress and increase the risk they’ll make a poor decision, such as pulling in to let traffic pass in an unsafe place.”
The only part of the new system Lindsay reserved some criticism for was the rule requiring new drivers to wait six months after receiving their provisional licence before taking their test.
“In Belfast and other urban areas, that’s probably fine. But we live in a rural part of the county and people really need their licences, so I don’t like that condition. Generally speaking, though, these changes represent a real improvement in terms of road safety.”
