Driver Awareness Course...

[yeti]

I'm sitting in the Basingstoke Hilton (there's a hotel chain that's gone downmarket) waiting for my Driver's Awareness Course to start. Yetimobile and I were observed to be doing a child-murdering 80mph on the A303 in a 70mph limit. I suppose I should have slowed down when the kids/elderly people/family pets started bouncing off the car at exactly 71mph, hopefully I'll learn about my evils today and which level of hell has been reserved for me...

Any 'pertinent' questions I should be asking the instructors? Like does an Aston on Pirellis with 6pot Brembos really take 360ft to stop from 70mph... Or was that done in the 50s on an Austin 7 with drum brakes?

How about if I'd had 8 pints of Stella, was weaving all over the road, on my phone, no tax, MOT or insurance and 4 bald tyres BUT was doing 69mph... I assume I'd be a very, very safe driver..?

What a crock of st

[yeti]

I now see why it's called a 'Driver Awareness Course' and also see who it's aimed at...

Of the 30 students in the class I was the ONLY one who could draw a STOP sign and a GIVE WAY sign. The only one to know the speed limits of vehicles on the roads, the only one to understand the NSL and the 30mph limit where street lights exist. Many people there would not even accept these facts as the truth when explained and got sulky.

They were not a class of idiots particularly, just utterly ignorant in the use of the roads and how to drive on them. They are your middle-lane-morons, your driver doing 40mph in a 60 limit and 40 past a school. Basically the lowest form of autopilot drivers. It is astonishing to me that they just all don't crash and die every time they get in a car. The driving test needs to be made much, much harder

I have spent too long driving with the Astonauts and Maserati/De Tomaso groups where everyone 'gets' driving. It's astounding how poor standards are if this cross section was anything to go by.

[yeti]

DB9 Ian P said:

So, in summary - you had a good time then?

Nowhere I'd rather have been... Oh wait, I just remembered, all my mates from work went on wine-tasting day out today

Oh well. I still have a clean driving licence, at least for now

[yeti]

jonby said:

Despite your comments on the participants, out of interest do you think some might now be safer drivers after this course ?

Without a doubt! I think a lot of these folks benefitted - some of the common sense ideas that are rudimentary to anyone with a decent command of driving, like observation, anticipation and so on were totally new concepts to them. Maybe a little bit sunk in. It was well taught by two decent folks and not too patronising considering how it could have been.

No-one there would have benefitted from points, many of them seemed to have been tugged for speeding because they didn't understand the limits.

Personally the highlight for me was the free biscuits. Shortbread.

[yeti]

Neil1300R said:

DB9 Ian P said:

So, in summary - you had a good time then?

I think Yeti was trying to say....





... it was EPIC!

I was expecting to be quite angry at a relentless 'speed kills, think of the children' BRAKE-type message but it wasn't at all. Calm reasoning and good statistics, no nonsense. I didn't challenge anything (Tony-style) as I wanted to leave on time

[yeti]

tonyhall38 said:

free biscuits....i didn't get any of that and had to pay a fiver for a coffee....think i'll get caught on the 303...sounds like a much better service...

Coffee was free too and they guy liked hearing about Goodwood Revival in the break. 303 the place to speed evidently...

Actually I say 'coffee was free', I'm eighty five notes down

[yeti]

Little Donkey said:

yeti said:

Actually I say 'coffee was free', I'm eighty five notes down

Why, did you go to the pub for lunch?

I wish - that's what the course cost!! As I understand it, scamera money goes to central government, but this dosh goes to the local scamming partnership to fund their initiatives and pay their wages...

[yeti]

Oof, after that prang George, I'm not surprised you don't drive any more...

We'll see if it changes my driving habits but I don't think they're bad to be honest. Very little focus on speed at the course, more an observation and improvement lesson. It was just the bone idiocy of Joe Public that shocked me. They genuinely know nothing about the roads and what to do on them.

Ban them all!!!

[yeti]

Murph7355 said:

Nasty. Quiet country lanes are always a bit of a worry - if you have an off like this, it could be ages before anyone finds you.

Quite. Friend of mine in his Esprit, brand new tyres that weren't scrubbed in and driving at his normal pace...just kept on going at a bend. His car and him spent most of the day about 30ft above the ground in a very big tree!