After securing her driving licence at the “tender age of 53”, the question that followed Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to take to the road was why she had left it so late.
Scotland’s former first minister has yet to comment beyond writing on Instagram that the process had taken her “well out of any notion of a comfort zone” and suggesting that she hoped her news would prove it was “never too late in life to do something new”.
A tour around the spaghetti junction of statistics produced by the Department for Transport suggests some understandable reasons for Sturgeon’s caution in adulthood after deciding against seizing the wheel as a teenager.
According to the latest available figures for Great Britain, relating to people taking a practical test between April 2021 and March last year, 60% of 17-year-olds passed their test and 54.8% of 18-year-olds.
The proportion of those successfully taking the test then slumps year by year, with 44.4% of those who were 30 passing, and just 38.8% of those who were 40.
For those of Sturgeon’s age – and it must be hoped that the data was not known to the former SNP leader before she took the test – the proportion who pass the practical drops to 35.2%.
The corresponding figure for people aged 60 and over is 34%. As in the more familiar world for Sturgeon of politics, time was not in her favour.
Carly Brookfield, the chief executive of the Driving Instructors Association, said there were a number of challenges that older candidates faced after belatedly deciding to hit the road, ranging from their more cautious approach to junctions, possible physical impairments and the satnav part of the test launched in 2017, in which a candidate is asked to follow directions for up to 20 minutes.
Such explanations do not convince Noel Gaughan, 56, of Intensive Courses, whose clients over his 30 years as a driving instructor in London have included the singer Adele and the actor Rhys Ifans. He said he did not believe there was any reason for people in their later years to be concerned about taking a test and that for many the challenge was psychological. Some instructors also failed to adapt their methods to take account of the needs of the more mature client, he added.
“I think a lot of it is the perception among older learners that they are going to need a lot of learning,” he said. “Older drivers are a lot more aware of the dangers, which is not a bad thing. A lot of the young think they are going to live for ever. Older drivers have seen a few things, they ask more questions, which I like. But it becomes insurmountable in some people’s heads.
“I had a 67-year-old who had been learning for 20 years. Her previous instructors had let her use the wheel but they had controlled the brakes and gears. She had to unlearn everything but took the test after a month. It lasted 20 minutes and she passed. She went ballistic because we had covered everything and they had only gone up the road.”
Sturgeon learned to drive an automatic and electric car on the basis that unleaded and diesel cars were being phased out. She started her lessons in March after her resignation as first minister, described it as being “part and parcel of the next stage of life”.
She passed her theory test in June. The next day, Sturgeon was arrested and questioned for seven hours as a suspect by detectives investigating allegations of financial misconduct by the SNP during the period in which she was leader and her husband, Peter Murrell, was managing director of the party. They both deny any wrongdoing.
