THE Town of Bassendean ended its branch of the Regional Youth Driver Education (RYDE) program after helping learners complete supervised driving hours.
For the past decade, the RYDE program has helped young people take an important step towards independence, confidence and opportunity.
Bassendean launched their RYDE program in 2016 and over time the program grew into a valued youth initiative built on the generosity of volunteer mentors who gave their time, patience and encouragement to sit alongside young learner drivers.
As reported in Bassendean’s callout for RYDE driver mentors, young people learning from the program would have completed the learning to drive phase of the process with a professional driving instructor.
The program supplements the formal learning with a supervisor that is willing to spend hours to help learning drivers gain experience and hone skills.
The town said they sincerely thanked every volunteer, partner, school, service provider and participant who contributed over the life of the program.
“Their efforts have made a meaningful difference to young people, helping participants build skills, confidence and in many cases enough log-book hours to confidently sit their driver’s license assessment,” they said.
While the program was valued by the town, in recent years, participants transitioned to other service providers, leading to the town ending the delivery of RYDE Bassendean on June 30.
The decision reflected a clear change in how the service was being used, with participation in Bassendean RYDE being extremely low.
The Town of Bassendean said the decision came from an intention to reduce technology and operational costs, and the recognition of other youth driver support programs now available.
“As other providers have taken on a greater role in delivering these services, it is no longer viable for the town to continue delivery of RYDE,” they said.
Programs such as the Wanderer Program were being used to assist young people from Bassendean, Ashfield and Eden Hill to gain their driver’s licences.
