Sitting in the passenger's seat provides a different perspective

The reason will be immediately obvious to any parent of a 16-year-old - a learner driver in the family.

Getting your licence now is a much different process to when I was young.

Back then it was a few months on your Ls before trying your luck with the driving test. And in the small country town where I grew up, it was almost harder to fail your Ps test than pass it.

But that was also a time when the national road toll was more than double what it is now, or almost four times the current rate in terms of deaths per 100,000 population.

Many of those killed on the roads were young, inexperienced drivers whose confidence behind the wheel was not matched by their ability.

Clearly, something had to be done. Thankfully, much has been.

A push to make the time on their Ls a genuine learning process for young drivers has been just one change, but it's a thoroughly welcome one.

Young drivers now must spend at least 12 months on their Ls and must log at least 120 hours of driving before they can sit for their provisional licence. At least 20 hours of that driving must be at night.

Even once they get their Ps it's not the free-for-all it was so many years ago, with restrictions on the number of young passengers allowed in the vehicle.

As a teenager I would have thought the whole thing horrendous. As a parent, I can't be thankful enough.

Those of us who live to be old enough to remember some of the stupid things we did in our youth - often behind the wheel - don't want to see them repeated through our kids.

Sitting beside my son as he learns to drive has been a chance to talk to him, to pass on knowledge to him and to learn from him - and about him.

We're just half-way there and it's been a hard slog at time, but there's already a part of that knows I'll miss it when he gets his Ps.

Even so, I'm grateful I don't have twins.