Ignoring the safety aspect of it all, it couldn't anyway. Not all of us have motorways 2 minutes from our backdoor.
Should "handling" be part of the driving test?
- Thread starter Ed
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Ignoring the safety aspect of it all, it couldn't anyway. Not all of us have motorways 2 minutes from our backdoor.
hence me saying that will never happen...
Agreed. As I sad in the M5 crash thread, the reason young drivers have so many accidents is not lack of skill, but lack of experience. If you are driving properly then you shouldn't be at the edge - not on a public road anyway. I for one do not consider the pavement or my car to be part of some young idiot's run-off area. If you teach young drivers how to handle (say) skids then a fair number of them will then go off trying to induce a skid so they can show their mates how good they are at recovering. And since they have little experience they will find out the hard way that not two skids are alike.
What most young drivers need is not skill lessons, but an attitude adjustment. By all means show then how easy it can be to skid under the right circumstances, but do NOT show them how to recover from one. They should be learning how to avoid skidding, not how to recover.
And yes, I'm aware that sometimes, despite your best endeavours, the "just happen". Except even then you will realise that it was mostly your fault for misreading the road and/or conditions.
M
In my opinion "handling", or something thereabouts, should be taught despite what many are saying. If you teach people how to control things like skids, they may well go out and start inducing them to show off to their mates, but I'd much rather they have an idea of what's going on, rather than what happens now which is folk go out and induce skids without an idea of what's going on.
I don't think there is a perfect solution. As with most things experience is the key, and that can only be gained through experimentation. An attitude adjustment would work but trying to do that is genuinely an impossible task. That attitude adjustment arrives with experience and I'm pretty sure there's no other way it can come.
At 21 I'm at the stage where many of my friend's younger brothers are starting to drive. They are doing exactly as I did when I was 17/18. I could try and tell them otherwise but it would be in vein, as they have grown up under the impression that driving fast is normal and acceptable. Perhaps it's my fault as I was a link in the chain of the perpetual cycle? Who knows. All I do know is it's going to take something huge to stop the wave of young loonatics on the roads washing over, so we may as well help them drive better, even if it does make them better loonies. Hopefully they'll do less damage as capable loonies than incapable ones!
I don't think there is a perfect solution. As with most things experience is the key, and that can only be gained through experimentation. An attitude adjustment would work but trying to do that is genuinely an impossible task. That attitude adjustment arrives with experience and I'm pretty sure there's no other way it can come.
At 21 I'm at the stage where many of my friend's younger brothers are starting to drive. They are doing exactly as I did when I was 17/18. I could try and tell them otherwise but it would be in vein, as they have grown up under the impression that driving fast is normal and acceptable. Perhaps it's my fault as I was a link in the chain of the perpetual cycle? Who knows. All I do know is it's going to take something huge to stop the wave of young loonatics on the roads washing over, so we may as well help them drive better, even if it does make them better loonies. Hopefully they'll do less damage as capable loonies than incapable ones!
Soldato
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I agree, and that's one of the points I was trying to get across in that and other posts. PP and AIM are not 'what to do' but more 'what not to do' which is all well and good, until you land in a 'what not to do' situation as a lot of young drivers do (myself included, although now I try to avoid iffy situations like highspeed cornering).
As has been said, it's a very hard thing to do/teach, especially as cars do vary so much.
InvG
The test is far from fine.
You learn nothing about driving at speed (i.e. motorways) not to mention your given no idea as to what it is like from other road users points of view.
E.g. Bikers, Truckers etc.
The test is far from fine as it is and the standard of driving on our roads reflects this.
Skid training, FWD, RWD & 4x4 driving tuition etc etc
So many areas for improvement to our current system.
Soldato
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The problem that arises of just how do you teach these things?
It's quite a lot of effort to get people to drive all of those types of vehicles, even if it's under a mandatory test/learning system.
Having said that, if people did have to drive/use all of the above types of vehicles there would be less people on the road (due to the amount of effort needed to pass the test), and the ones that are on the road would be much better drivers for it.
InvG
Having said that, if people did have to drive/use all of the above types of vehicles there would be less people on the road (due to the amount of effort needed to pass the test), and the ones that are on the road would be much better drivers for it.
And wouldn't that be a good thing!
Shame it'll never happen.
Soldato
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at the end of the day you can train all you want. people will still do stupid things which will end in a crash. those who want to learn will do the extra.
Yes indeed, but, the extra training can be the difference between a bit of tail out "fun" and a written off car and / or driver.
Soldato
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as in another post of mine, it's already stupidly expensive to get a licence to drive.... this will make it worse. I imagine the amount of unlicenced drivers has gone through the roof the last few years.
A simple 2 year restriction ala motorbikes would be the simplest solution - something like a 60bhp restriction.
It won't stop people crashing if they really want to but it would cut a lot of it out as people won't be able to accelerate to the speed they exceed their skills at quite as quickly.