In June 2011, the Korean government simplified the driver’s license test to save cost and time for its acquisition. The test was evaluated “too easy” as it took only two weeks to qualify for a license[1]. Thereby, the government eventually reinforced the test a little by adding the T-parking course[2] in December 2016. However, according to Professor Kim Pil-su,[3] the test is so much simple than other countries that approximately 5,000 Chinese get driver’s license in Korea each year. Therefore, the Korean government should reinforce the difficulty level of driver’s license test according as the domestic experts point out many problems from the current test.
The driver’s license test is an administrative measure of commissioner of a district police agency that allows the recipient to legally drive cars. Professor Heo Euk[4] said “We should educate drivers enough to be able to drive cars right away after acquisition of their license as the roads are not for inexperienced drivers.” while criticizing the current test’s problems in Korea. According to YTN in September 2021, Professor Kim Pil-su told that some inexperienced drivers even fail to turn on their lights; seemingly not knowing the function of switches in the car. It means that the current test cannot evaluate the drivers’ basic abilities. Above all, the difficulty level of current test is excessively lower than other countries. For example, the Finnish driving test requires various driving tests on icy, and snowy roads to prepare for potential real-life situations such as a car skidding. Furthermore, a full driver’s license is only given to drivers with no accident for two years after getting their provisional license. The traffic accident rates will diminish when the difficulty level of the driver’s license test itself becomes more difficult like other countries. The Korean government had adjusted the degree of difficulty once in 2016 as mentioned. According to the Traffic Accident Analysis System, the number of car accidents of drivers who got licenses within a year decreased sharply from 8,412 in 2016 to 5,852 in 2017. In addition, a research paper[5] concluded the significance of the advanced driver’s license test as an aspect of traffic safety by proving that it reduced the number of car accidents and deaths after improving the test. In other words, making the current test more difficult will protect the traffic safety by reducing the rate of car accidents.
The deaths per 100,000 people was 5.6 in 2016 which was higher than the OECD average of 5.2%, though the number of deaths from traffic accidents was 2,919, a 6.9% reduction than 2020. Hence, Korean people tend to consider the seriousness of driving too lightly, don’t you think? The Korean government should reinforce the difficulty of driver’s license test with various methods such as adding complex courses not only for “ourselves” but also for “others.”
[1] April 2022, The Seoul Shinmun
[2] It means perpendicular parking which many examinees fail due to limited time and high possibility of deduction according to the Chosun Ilbo in December 2016.s
[3] The Division of Future Automotive Engineering, Daelim University College
[4] Gachon University Graduate School of Social Policy
[5] Chang Min Lee, Choul Ki Lee, Sang Soo Lee. (2020). “Study on the Traffic Safety Effects of Driving Test Improvement”. J. Korea Inst. Intell. Transp. Syst.