Driving instruction in good 'ol Blighty?
Discussion
Was chatting to a colleague today, who's just failed the 'paper' part of his driving test (for the second time - he hasn't got anywhere near ICBM'ing distance of a practical yet...).
In France, you're allowed up to 5 errors on the written exam, he got 6. One of the questions he failed on is as follows (bear in mind, he's Dutch, I'm English, we're both translating from French, so I can't guarantee this is word-for-word accurate - however my wife's French and assures me I got the gist of it right):
"You're driving down a straight road. There's a junction ahead at which you have priority. A car is waiting at the junction, half of it over the junction line. What should you do?"
His response (and I agree with him - based on a general philosophy of: if a situation looks risky then do whatever's necessary to avoid an accident) was: stop & let the other car through. Wrong. The 'correct' response was "you have right of way, so continue. Period". IMHO this is utter lunacy.
It's not rocket science to me, that if this is the behaviour we have to teach young drivers is appropriate, so that they can pass the test, then this is the behaviour they will model once they've passed.
I'd be interested if it's the same in the U.K. these days (I hope not).
Comments?
In France, you're allowed up to 5 errors on the written exam, he got 6. One of the questions he failed on is as follows (bear in mind, he's Dutch, I'm English, we're both translating from French, so I can't guarantee this is word-for-word accurate - however my wife's French and assures me I got the gist of it right):
"You're driving down a straight road. There's a junction ahead at which you have priority. A car is waiting at the junction, half of it over the junction line. What should you do?"
His response (and I agree with him - based on a general philosophy of: if a situation looks risky then do whatever's necessary to avoid an accident) was: stop & let the other car through. Wrong. The 'correct' response was "you have right of way, so continue. Period". IMHO this is utter lunacy.
It's not rocket science to me, that if this is the behaviour we have to teach young drivers is appropriate, so that they can pass the test, then this is the behaviour they will model once they've passed.
I'd be interested if it's the same in the U.K. these days (I hope not).
Comments?
your trying to make sence of a French test Remember these are not logical people! If the instructions say it's done a certain way that is the way the instructions say it should be done. But it's certainly not the way it would be done.
Remember Europe works something like:
The French come up with ideas
The Germans turn them into laws
and The British actually obey them!
>> Edited by munter on Wednesday 12th April 20:37
There was once an item circulating on motoring forums - maybe here - about another similar question from the French test, claimed to be genuine, about a mother with a pushchair (presumably avec tadpole on board sign) protruding from the pavement and the same question i.e. what do you do...you can guess the (claimed) answer.
LotusNova said:
Was chatting to a colleague today, who's just failed the 'paper' part of his driving test (for the second time - he hasn't got anywhere near ICBM'ing distance of a practical yet...).
In France, you're allowed up to 5 errors on the written exam, he got 6. One of the questions he failed on is as follows (bear in mind, he's Dutch, I'm English, we're both translating from French, so I can't guarantee this is word-for-word accurate - however my wife's French and assures me I got the gist of it right):
"You're driving down a straight road. There's a junction ahead at which you have priority. A car is waiting at the junction, half of it over the junction line. What should you do?"
His response (and I agree with him - based on a general philosophy of: if a situation looks risky then do whatever's necessary to avoid an accident) was: stop & let the other car through. Wrong. The 'correct' response was "you have right of way, so continue. Period". IMHO this is utter lunacy.
It's not rocket science to me, that if this is the behaviour we have to teach young drivers is appropriate, so that they can pass the test, then this is the behaviour they will model once they've passed.
I'd be interested if it's the same in the U.K. these days (I hope not).
Comments?
Well in the UK I think many drivers would take the approach of "I have the right of way" and carry on, but if the other car is over the road, and I assume stationary, why?.
To carry on means pulling over, what about on coming traffic and other cars behind you, and if he is half way acoross the junction, isnt it possible he may continue to drive over it?
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