Speed Awarness Course

[swansonj]

I recently, entirely voluntarily, took an Experienced Driver Assessment, very much from the "Advanced Drivibg" school of thought. Based on that I would say that all drivers can benefit from a reminder of the importance of observation, anticipation, concentration etc - but that you probably have to be at least open to those concepts to benefit - a bit of a circular selection thing- the people most likely to benefit are the people already aware of the importance and therefore less in need. I have no experience to judge how successful these courses are in engaging people who don't want to change, though I note the positive reports about them.

The other thing I would say, though, is that much "advanced driving" seems to be dogma, and dogma changes. When I was taught to drive, the dogma was that you always changed gears sequentially, and I never agreed, so I'm delighted to see that the dogma has now changed to selective not sequential. But there are still dogmas about, eg, avoiding brake-gear overlap, and coasting, which I don't agree with. I reckon such training probably does produce safer drivers, but sometimes more because it makes drivers think about what they're doing, not necessarily because the specific techniques taught are actually any safer.

 

[Pale Rider]

The biggest risk to my safe progress is other drivers.

It's not that I'm a particularly brilliant driver, but on every journey I see other drivers taking risks I would not.

Driving too close, pulling up to within inches in a queue, pulling into rapidly declining gaps.

None of these are likely to kill anyone, but they do increase the risk of a collision.

 

[glenn forger]

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 always understood that if loud mouth bores disregarded the instructor and refused to pay attention they were kicked off the course and given points?

 

[ClichéGuevara]

In order to drive works vehicles, I had to sit in on the equivalent of the speed awareness course, it was taken by the same instructors with the same content, but with the addition of having a practical element that had the instructor sat beside me while I drove, and he looked at all aspects of my driving, with a few handy tips and suggestions thrown in.

Perhaps because my reason for being there was different, I think I got a fair bit from it. It certainly woke me up to several bad habits I'd got into and some misconceptions I had about some elements of the law.

The biggest thing I got was a reminder of the potential consequences of being distracted or taking silly risks, such as squinting at a text.

My daughter is currently taking lessons, and she says the instructor makes great emphasis on her checking for 'other road users' rather than just 'vehicles'. It seems the point is really laboured.

 

[jonny jeez]

I always understood that if loud mouth bores disregarded the instructor and refused to pay attention they were kicked off the course and given points?

I would say a few of the attendees came close. One was monopolising the course through some basic lack of social skills and was describing in far too much detail a collision he had 20 years ago, so the instructor took a patient view...but was very good at closing him down later...she was pretty well skilled to be honest.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

I always understood that if loud mouth bores disregarded the instructor and refused to pay attention they were kicked off the course and given points?

I know that when I did mine the instructor at the start specifically mentioned about being late back after the break, and would you believe it, someone came back late after the break and was kicked off.

 

[screenman]

I took some advance driving lessons on my motorbike from the boys in blue, it crossed over well to both driving and cycling.

 

[Pale Rider]

Do you all sit in a circle and introduce yourselves, like Alcoholics Anonymous?

"Hi, I'm Pale Rider and I was caught speeding."

 

[oldstrath]

Sadly, not all young, recently qualified, drivers are good, or safe, or even faintly competent. Friend of mine is an IAM instructor, with a 'student' who is doing the course at his insurer's insistence, because he wrote off a car two days after passing the test. He failed to appear for his most recent lesson ... because he wrote another car off. Her opinion is that he should just go back and start learning again, or maybe just discover public transport.

 

[glenn forger]

I would say a few of the attendees came close. I've was monopolising the course through some basic lack of social skills and was describing in far too much detail a collision he had 20 years ago

I've had that a lot with training groups. It's usually men, and they usually try to dominate proceedings through absurdly detailed anecdotes that don't have much to do with anything. It's extremely tedious and I would love the job of telling them they are clearly wasting time so here's 3 points.

 

[PaulSecteur]

I took some advance driving lessons on my motorbike from the boys in blue, it crossed over well to both driving and cycling.

I did that on a motorbike too.

I can still hear them in my head at times. I don't ride a bike now but on those rare occasions I mis-judge something I can still hear him say "That was ill advised..."

The feeling of shame...

 

[screenman]

The why use one word when ten will do person, I have had them here for training sessions. Silly thing is they are paying me good money to listen to their stories.

 

[G-Zero]

If your licence was otherwise clean I'd have taken the points and saved a few quid.

I only once got caught by a speed camera in the days before awareness courses and I hated having points on my licence. I'd have quite happily paid double the fine as an option to no points.

Cheapest prosecution for speeding at the moment is on a fixed penalty at £100 and 3 points, so an £80 course is a cheaper option.

 

[G-Zero]

I have heard similar positives from the speeding course (not been on one myself though) - would love to see a similar course for inconsiderate drivers, driving without due care, driving with mobiles, parking inconsiderately....

Those courses are out there now, speed awareness, careless driving, mobile phone use etc and I think there will be a massive upsurge in them being dished out, due to police savings.

I don't know the actual figures, but the police don't get much, or possibly anything from a fixed penalty or court fine, however they get a much larger proportion of the cost of a course, which benefits both the offender and the police budget.

Personally I don't agree with the mobile phone course, as the decision to use a phone while driving cannot be excused as a momentary lapse of concentration, it is a deliberate act. No doubt some of the other other offences will also be down to deliberate acts, but they wouldn't normally be at the lower end of the scale, which is where the courses are aimed.

 

[Drago]

Sadly, not all young, recently qualified, drivers are good, or safe, or even faintly competent. Friend of mine is an IAM instructor, with a 'student' who is doing the course at his insurer's insistence, because he wrote off a car two days after passing the test. He failed to appear for his most recent lesson ... because he wrote another car off. Her opinion is that he should just go back and start learning again, or maybe just discover public transport.

Talk about pot and kettle. The Inbred Ageing Maniacs arent generally well thought of among the advanced driving community because of their inflexibility, and adherence to certain outdated aspects of The System, and refusal to periodically retest members in order to maintain their 'advanced' status. Their syllabus falls somewhere well short of the Police Standard ticket, never mind true Advanced.

If you're into all that malarkey either join the Dibble and apply, or go the RoSPA route.