jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
I wasn't concentrating sufficiently a month or so ago and as a consequence was speeding a little through Lewisham. With an otherwise unblemished licence, I was offered a Speed Awareness Course, as a substitute to points and a fine.
I considered the points as frankly the thought of spending 4 hours being patronised about driving was not attractive but I was also curious and so went on the course.
I was surprised.
The content was very good and the instructors were well aware of the reasons why we were all there and went to great lengths to express that their role was not to patronise but to help us maintain, otherwise clean licences and to take the opportunity to refresh us with all of the recent changes to the Highway code. I actually quite enjoyed it, it was really informative.
What did strike me though was the difference in attitude between the generations in the room. As a baby Boomer I place myself in the middle aged generation, quite open to change but a little suspicious of Snake Oil from past experience.
Those on the course that were a generation younger than me were less keen to contribute but when they did were far more tolerant of the views and thoughts of others and seemed very pen to changing. They also became very honest about their driving and were really taking on board some of the important points.
The generation older than me were adamant that they had been "fitted up" were extremely vocal, to the point of tedium and maintained to the very end that they would not change a thing about how they drive.
Over the last few days I've been observing, from a different perspective, the behaviour of drivers of cars in London and am shocked that the indiscretions from drivers don't seem to fit the observations I made during the course...its seems that poor behaviour spans every generation.
So...it gets me to wondering, how powerful would it be to tap into the younger generation and baby boomers and make us all sit a 4 hour refresher course...say...every 5 years to spread the tolerance and understanding.
From what I saw, focusing on the older generation (Older than mine lets say) is probably a waste of time as most drivers of that generation will have matured by that now and will drive pretty conservatively...or will be of the opinion that they will never change.
I considered the points as frankly the thought of spending 4 hours being patronised about driving was not attractive but I was also curious and so went on the course.
I was surprised.
The content was very good and the instructors were well aware of the reasons why we were all there and went to great lengths to express that their role was not to patronise but to help us maintain, otherwise clean licences and to take the opportunity to refresh us with all of the recent changes to the Highway code. I actually quite enjoyed it, it was really informative.
What did strike me though was the difference in attitude between the generations in the room. As a baby Boomer I place myself in the middle aged generation, quite open to change but a little suspicious of Snake Oil from past experience.
Those on the course that were a generation younger than me were less keen to contribute but when they did were far more tolerant of the views and thoughts of others and seemed very pen to changing. They also became very honest about their driving and were really taking on board some of the important points.
The generation older than me were adamant that they had been "fitted up" were extremely vocal, to the point of tedium and maintained to the very end that they would not change a thing about how they drive.
Over the last few days I've been observing, from a different perspective, the behaviour of drivers of cars in London and am shocked that the indiscretions from drivers don't seem to fit the observations I made during the course...its seems that poor behaviour spans every generation.
So...it gets me to wondering, how powerful would it be to tap into the younger generation and baby boomers and make us all sit a 4 hour refresher course...say...every 5 years to spread the tolerance and understanding.
From what I saw, focusing on the older generation (Older than mine lets say) is probably a waste of time as most drivers of that generation will have matured by that now and will drive pretty conservatively...or will be of the opinion that they will never change.
- their driving tests.
) about changes to the Highway Code and even to do a 'refresher test' to brush up on their driving standards and skills. It certainly made me much more aware (careful 
) of what I was doing and how I was driving when they were in the car !
