Drives people round the bend, raises the blood pressure like nobody’s business.

Cops talk about the number of traffic collisions going through the roof.

You read the stories. People are killed, including pedestrians.

Calgary top cop Katie McLellan says Calgary driving behaviour is atrocious.

Others look around and wonder whether some individuals operating behind the wheel even know the rules of the road.

Some of these drivers appear not to even know how to drive.

Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links, news highlights, analysis and features.

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Devin Dreeshen is the point man for transportation in Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government.

One thing about Dreeshen, he seems to want to get things done rather than just ponder some issue until it turns into a mushy watered-down serving of political pablum.

You know, like those government paper shufflers who think they were the ones elected by the people.

So we have an issue. Bad driving.

Dreeshen is considering all kinds of things to tackle that hot potato.

Some involve Class 1, the big trucks.

Some involve Class 5, the rest of us.

The Class 5 stuff especially will no doubt cause some major-league bellyaching from those who usually do the major-league bellyaching.

Dreeshen points out how more than 400,000 new drivers have come to Alberta over the last six years.

He says the driving test, the one where you have to actually get behind the wheel and drive, is only offered in English.

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But, says Smith’s main man on driving, the knowledge test is translated in multiple different languages.

Here is the question Dreeshen asks. Here is what the Smith government is considering.

“If the driving test is done in English should the knowledge test also be English only?”

That’s just for starters.

Dreeshen is eyeing a higher threshold to pass the tests, a higher pass-fail grade. He also asks if both the knowledge test and the driving test should be made tougher.

For example, he has heard the driver test in the United Kingdom is way tougher than here.

“The higher thresholds and the tougher testing could go a long way to making sure we have better trained and better licensed Class 5 drivers.”

For everyone’s information if you have a licence from many European countries, the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand, you can get your Alberta licence without taking a knowledge or road test.

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As you can see many, many countries are not on the list.

Dreeshen also says, to make sure any plans for tougher testing are actually followed, his department is also looking to see if the province would do regular audits of the testing.

Please, please, say yes.

Smith’s transportation minister once again mentions the huge influx of new drivers never before seen in Alberta.

“It’s important for us to look at our Class 5 system, to look at regular car and truck examiners like we’ve been doing with Class 1.”

He says the driver examiners are “the last line of defence to catch bad drivers before they are licensed and they get behind the wheel.”

Dreeshen throws out some stats.

There are 337 licensed driver training schools in Alberta, Class 1 and Class 5. There are 1,359 licensed driving instructors and 192 licensed driver examiners.

Now let’s talk about Class 1. The big trucks.

Dreeshen played hard ball with the trucking industry late last year.

There were inspections. There were targeted investigations.

He closed down five driving schools, pulled a dozen instructor licences, sent four warning letters to driver examiners, hit people with fines.

Now Dreeshen is considering a rule where you can’t apply for a Class 1 driver licence unless you’ve had a Class 5 licence for at least two years AND that licence has to be from Alberta, elsewhere in Canada or from a country where Alberta recognizes its licence.

As you’ve read many European countries, the U.S., plus Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia are on the list.

Dreeshen also points out the Smith government is looking at not allowing temporary foreign workers to drive Class 1 and setting up a 1-800 complaint line to report misbehaving semi drivers.

Something has to be done with bad drivers, period. Dreeshen says his top job is making roads safer.

If they toughen up the road test for Class 5 drivers, does that mean people will actually know how to parallel park?

© Calgary Herald