Roadcraft 5506

Whilst I note the comments you have made lower down in this post - I still maintain that a lot of what is taught on advanced driving courses does not come 'naturally' to most drivers - whether experienced or not. To an advanced driver, for example, straw blowing around on the road will be ringing warning bells - it indicates the strong possiblity that around the next bend is a slow moving tractor pulling a hay wagon. Now you may consider that to be self evident but the majority of ordinary motorists would not even notice the straw blowing around on the road, let alone begin to ready themselves for the possibilities it raises. I taught my son and daughter to drive to the 'system' but I haven't taught them 'advanced' driving - because they are not that interested. Occasionally when I am out with them I will ask a question that an advanced driver should be able to answer - they can't answer it because they don't know what they are looking for because they haven't been taught what to look for.

As I've said previously, advanced drivers are not awarded qualifications simply because they follow a set of prescribed rules - they are awarded qualifications because they have demonstrated via written examination, by demo drives, and by running commentary while driving they know what to look for and respond to what they see. If you asked an average motorist to start a running commentary on his driving, without stopping for a second, they could not do it - because they don't know what they are supposed to seeing.

See above. Advanced driving is far more than adherence to a set of prescribed rules.

And I come back to my original argument that without advanced training the majority of ordinary motorists, no matter how many years they drive, will never achieve the higher standard of an advanced driver because they have no means of picking up the necessary skills without some tuition in those skills.

I can butture you that the average motorist does not have those skills. Just watch other drivers yourself while they're jammed up the backside of a truck trying to peer around the offside for an overtaking view while the truck is negotiating a left-hand bend. It's laughable. Watch as they either brake as they go into a bend, or overbrake on the approach because they do not know how to judge the severity of the bend on the approach. Watch as they take entirely the wrong line through the bend (this is very very common). Watch how they slavishly remain on the nearside of centre line markings instead of making full use of the width of the road when it is safe to do so.

Then we agree on something at least!

Kev