Driving Skills - again..

[slofox]

More the lack of them really.

There are many threads on here about this issue. But it really hit home for me this morning when I saw so much crazy stuff going on as I crossed and recrossed the city. Nothing out of the ordinary I suppose but for some reason, I noticed it more today.

You all know the stuff - poor or no indicator use, failing to give way, running the red, assuming that scooters and bikes do not have to obey the signals, crossing the centreline...the list goes on. Maybe the rain had short-circuited all the brains out there...

Or, maybe, we need to take positive action with driver training.

When my kids learned to drive, I taught them the basics of operating the machine. To the point that they could start, stop, change gears, steer, reverse, speed up, slow down, etc etc etc.

Then I sent them to a driving school to learn how to put the knowledge they already had about operating the machine into the context of operating that machine on the road. Safely. With other road users present. Proper safe driving. Knowledgable driving. Keeping themselves and others safe kind of driving.

And I would have to say that the driving schools we used did a bloody good job of just that. I even learned a bit myself. Things I had either never known or had forgotten. Nothing major, but good to know just the same. Like how to indicate properly when using roundabouts....that no other bugger in the whole fucking country knows...ngngrrrrrr.

So. Why not make that level of instruction COMPULSORY before you can get a license? I'd vote for that. Driving safely is a skill. Learn the bloody skill or NO LICENSE! Everything else requires training these days. Why should driving be any different?

OK, I'm finished now. You may go back to sleep...

[NDORFN]

Is it possible that poor driving has always existed but we just notice more these days because we expect more out of each other? I remember when hardly anyone would indicate, and it was totally acceptable.

[MIXONE]

Agree with you re indicating at rounabouts.
If the plod targeted any roundabout in enzed they could outstrip a camera for $ in no time flat.

[Blackshear]

Get x amount of Q's right on this scratchy paper, and you can drive a car!

[NDORFN]

Get x amount of Q's right on this scratchy paper, and you can drive a car!

Yeah, it's crazy that there's no practical.

[slofox]

Get x amount of Q's right on this scratchy paper, and you can drive a car!

Yeah. That's EXACTLY what I mean. Where's the practical training? The ACTUALLY BLOODY DRIVING training?

No wonder they drive like fuckwits...(roarsnortrantrave$#&@%$%$#!!)

[Maha]

Yeah, it's crazy that there's no practical.

Could always do it in a carpak???

sorry, couldn't help myself

[Swoop]

Then I sent them to a driving school to learn...

So. Why not make that level of instruction COMPULSORY before you can get a license?

Sorry, but I for one would have a problem with that.
The amount of learners that I see in "driving school" cars, that are being taught to sit in the middle fucking lane on the motorway, simply prove that the trainer does not know about keeping left.
I see a few of them about and I have only ever seen one in the left hand lane. Perturbed me, it did. Had to have a little lay down afterwards.

[BOGAR]

I think it is the rain that also seems to do it. Maybe for some of us we are more cautious in the rain (and for good reasons) so we notice the behavior more because others are not.

[NDORFN]

Could always do it in a carpak???

sorry, couldn't help myself

That was lame. Indicating and general consideration is a discapline thing. The reason it's so neglected in this country is because we sit a theoretical test then sent out to learn all our parents bad habbits, just like in the ads.

[AllanB]

More the lack of them really.
So. Why not make that level of instruction COMPULSORY before you can get a license? I'd vote for that.

Pretty sure that 'vote' thing is what stops them - I cannot not think of any other reason other than being worried a load of future and young voters will get peed off.

It should be a win-win for the Government really - they are seen to be doing something positive, plus creating jobs (more than the walkway ) and just quietly increasing their own income with the GST content

I like the system used in some USA states - if you are caught being a bad arse on the road you effectively get detention and have to do a driver training course. Not a bad idea for some of the lesser charges or repeat offenders. Obviously serious shit has greater consequences.

I do wonder if driver retraining every decade or so would help, ie you have to do a refresher course. There would be lots of people unhappy with this idea and probably way to risky for government vote counters.....

[klingon]

When I learned to drive initially my mother tried to teach me but OMG I'm glad I didn't let her! She is one of the most appalling drivers I have ever met! I ended up saving up and getting myself some professional driving lessons.

All driving instructors are definitely not created equal. I tried out three or four instructors before I eventually found one I was confident actually knew what he was doing. Some of the others were so awful they shouldn't even be allowed to drive, let alone teach anyone else to drive! I actually laid a complaint about one of them because he was so obviously incompetent (but as far as I know my complaint was never acted on).

Anyway eventually I was taught to drive by an excellent instructor, and I believe it was one of the best investments of my life. I still remember and use a lot of the lessons he taught me, and it has served me well to keep me (reasonably) safe as a biker, too.