Cycle component to the driving test?

[Ed no-more-lemons]

Is it me or is this not such a whacky idea?

Course it would cost more and stuff, but presumably most kids still do cycling proficiency tests. So why not adults too as part of the driving test. Unless they already have the certificate or a valid reason for being exempted from having to take to the roads on two wheels.

Oh and possibly more radical, but I would like to see parking on cycle paths being made a criminal offence.

End of rant for now.

 

[Slick]

I don't suppose it's no more radical than any other Idea, but I fear the best your going to get is a couple of questions in the theory test to make more people aware of the rules pertaining to cycling. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[palinurus]

Cycling: that awful chore you have to do before you can graduate to a proper vehicle

 

[Drago]

Why? Should they also ride a horse and drive an HGV too? Perhaps a spell on a Hayabusa, and maybe a Reliant 3 wheeler as well? While we're at it those quads look like fun.

I do agree that greater cycling awareness is indeed worthwhile, but physically making someone actually ride a bicycle for a spell is pointless, un-measurable, and unenforceable.

I'm also a fan of car-crushing for parking infringements. Cuts down 100% on repeat offending.

 

[steverob]

Even if something like that was brought in, it wouldn't have any meaningful effect on cycle safety for at least 20 years. I'm basing that upon all the close calls I've had or seen (on a bike or otherwise) involved people who had clearly passed their driving test decades ago and assumed that their experience now meant that the rules of the road no longer applied to them (and them only of course). Unless there was a sudden massive rash of re-testing, these types of drivers would never be affected by any sort of enforced cycling plan.

 

[Drago]

Many, perhaps even a majority, of driving test candidates will already have cycled for much of their childhood. This being the case many of them still drive like prats, so where's the correlation with enforced cycling and car driving standards?

Perhaps as well a chunk of the London cyclists ought to be forced to drive a car or lorry before being let loose on 2 wheels in the capital? If it promotes road safety in one direction, then surely it must hold true in the other.

 

[jarlrmai]

That assumption does not seem valid to me, it would be nice to get some figures on cyclists who driver and new drivers who biked.

 

[Smokin Joe]

That assumption does not seem valid to me, it would be nice to get some figures on cyclists who driver and new drivers who biked.

Virtually everyone has ridden a bike, and before they learned to drive. Now I've stated before that I spent two decades as a driving instructor, and through club connections I taught quite a few experienced and competent cyclists to drive, and I can tell you they were no better or no worse than any non-cyclist once they got behind the wheel of a car. The one group who took to car driving like a duck to water were motorcyclists, who came with a built in knowledge of how a vehicle worked, a high degree of car sympathy and a sharp ability to read the road and react safely and early to any situation that arose. They rarely missed road signs or markings either, all those attributes being necessary to survive on a motorcycle.

So maybe all learner driver should be forced to ride a motorcycle before going on the road in a car?