Learner drivers to be taught cyclist awareness.

[glenn forger]

Carlton Reid advising:

May 24 (Press Association) -- Learner drivers are to be taught cycle awareness under plans announced today by the UK's two biggest driving schools.
AA Driving School and BSM have committed to ensuring all their instructors cover vital skills about driving around cyclists.
All driving instructors from both schools will have a module which covers some "dos and don'ts" about sharing the road with cyclists. Instructors will also be given a worksheet about safe driving around cyclists for their pupils to use.
This worksheet sets out the facts about cyclists on the roads and encourages learners to think about the care, courtesy and consideration they should afford those on two wheels.
The driving schools said they are committed to improving road safety by radically reducing cyclist casualty rates which showed that 107 were killed and 3,087 seriously injured on the roads in 2011.

I've had some highly dodgy overtakes with the instructor in the vehicle. They use quiet estate roads that I use, the reasoning being quieter roads will allow them to practise, but it means they don't get used to busy roads that cyclists use.

 

[glenn forger]

http://www.bikeradar.com/commuting/...rivers-to-be-taught-cycling-awareness--37436/

Two of the UK’s biggest motoring schools, the AA and BSM, will give learner drivers dedicated instruction on how to drive safely around cyclists.
AA president Edmund King said today that instructors in both schools would take a module to standardise and improve teaching learner drivers about cyclist safety. Learners will also be taken through a worksheet to help them drive more carefully and considerately near riders.
“I am personally committed to breaking down the ‘two tribes’ attitude displayed between some drivers and cyclists. Often we are the same people,” King said. “This new module means we now have a standardised approach to teaching learners how to drive safely around cyclists from two of the country’s leading driving schools. I am convinced that this initiative will change attitudes and save lives.”

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Shouldn't they teach cycle awareness to the instructors first? I've seen some very bad driving from learners with instructors next to them and even worse from instructors driving alone.

 

[glenn forger]

They are teaching the instructors.

instructors in both schools would take a module to standardise and improve teaching learner drivers about cyclist safety.

 

[tyred]

While they're at it, teach the instructors not to drive up on the pavement to avoid having to wait a few seconds behind a right turning car.

Stupid farker nearly knocked me down as I was walking on the pavement at the time.

 

[swee'pea99]

Can I be the first to say hooray! This strikes me as a really significant move in the right direction, and a heartening indication of a broader shift in the zeitgeist, towards a more 'European' general public attitude toward cycling and cyclists.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Finally, This is a step in the right direction, education is the power.

 

[Davidc]

When everyone had used a bike on the roads before they drove it wasn't necessary. Is now.