Driver Training - Killer or Savour?

[Flannelman]

Driver training. No not the defensive drivers course to reduce your restricted time. Im talking behind the wheel driver training, be on the track by yourself or with an instructor.
The skills learned in that time cant be learned in an environment as safe as a racetrack, yet according to governments point of view learning these skills are a waste of time. In fact they say that by learning these skills increase the risk of dying on public roads by creating over confident drivers.

should government funded driving requirement training be introduced? As to say you can pass a test saying you can competently control a vehicle in certain situations, understeer, oversteer, driving on gravel and wet roads, and showing that if you want to go fast, then you go to a race track.

For the experince of the many that have been on a race track an the knowledge gained has this made you a safer driver? got and example? or has it made you a worse driver? again examples please

[Mr.Phreak]

I've known very good drivers who are $&#$% idiots on the road, and vice versa.....

I don't think there's a direct relationship between talent and attitude

[Lloyd]

government funded driving requirement training

Problem one..




And I don't think it should. Handling a car doesn't appear to be an issue. Not indicating, not looking, generally not being aware of anything around you or what you are doing is far worse than not being able to pull something out of a slide.

And you don't have a straight no option. I haven't done driver training, but I still think no to it being compulsory

[molex]

Driver training is definitely a good thing.

I've spent a bit of time on the track and been to BMW driver training and found all of it invaluable in everyday situations.

The BMW driver training course is fantastic, you partner up and get given a car (in my case a Z4) and proceed to do a variety of exercises ranging from slalom to some pretty tricky emergency stop/swerve techniques and some basic race training. Cornering lines, ergonomics behind the wheel, when and where to brake etc etc

I went with quite a few workmates and we managed to get up to some fairly reasonable pace around pukekohe, our instructors gauge the overall skill level and adjust speeds to suit, end of the day we were pretty much allowed to go flat out down the back straight which was an entirely new experience for most of the people there.

Holden also have quite a reputable driver training course that a LOT of employers send their staff too - I've heard nothing but good things about it from people who have been driving for 5 up to 40 years.

Contrary to conventional thinking, after finishing a full day of thrashing sports cars and high speed manoeuvres we ALL drove slower on the way home. Something along these lines (obviously not a full day) should be COMPULSORY in my opinion. If you can't complete an emergency stop within X metres in a known car you shouldn't be allowed to drive on public roads, end of story.

[Adamal]

See Top Gear the other week where James May was drifting an E190 (Like a proper race preped one, not a bagged South Auckland one) around a forest in Finland?
Over there they have some pretty intese driver training, which involves controlling a car in the wet in a 'out of control' spin. And thats the sort of stuff you MUST do to get your license.

[postfach]

Licences need to be hard and expensive (but not prohibitively so) to get, and easy and expensive to lose. People think it's a right to be able to drive a car, and its so easy to get a licence in this country, it may as well be. The fact is it's a priviledge, and we should be made to work hard for it, and be diligent and lawful in order to keep it.

The whole test thing is bullshit, it should be training, and take a lot of work.

[Mr.Phreak]

The BMW driver training course is fantastic, you partner up and get given a car (in my case a Z4) and proceed to do a variety of exercises ranging from slalom to some pretty tricky emergency stop/swerve techniques and some basic race training. Cornering lines, ergonomics behind the wheel, when and where to brake etc etc

Done the same course, and if I had to pay for it, I would've felt a bit let down especially compared to the same course held overseas (Although hopefully that should change with Hampton Downs) but it probably covered a lot that Joe Public Commuter doesn't think about.

That said, was a lot of fun fanging new Bimmers around with little to no mechanical empathy. And am pretty tempted by the next level course

[sergei]

How about a theory retest once a year, as I am under impression that most people tend to forget basic give way rules around the auckland, and non-aucklanders are oblivious to indicators.

[Mr Revhead]

remember when they went to the new ten year licence? original plan was to resit a test every ten years.
but government decided to just make it a fee......

i think there should be compulsary training. in both handling and basic rules.
seriosuly the amount of ppl taking absurd lines through corners and wobbling all over the place as a result is shocking!

[Bling]

I think any driver training is a good idea!

Too many muppets on the road with no idea rules even exist

Regarding the loss of control training that would be mint, never done any myself but if it was reasonable i'd give it a go. We need a much harder system in place to test new / existing drivers. Too many people just get lazy and pick up bad habits. I have bad habits too sure, but they don't involved changing lanes without indication etc etc

[pc]

Too many people seem think they can cut every blind corner on a tight road and get out of the way of an oncoming car if they have to... some training would help them to understand that they are wrong.
Also, too many people seem to think that cars always stop when you hit the brakes, and wet/dry doesn't matter... again some training would fix this stupid view.

Stupid people that don't have any understanding of the laws of physics need to be shown with training.

[strx7]

a number of years ago MNZ were looking at trying to get a better insurance deal for MNZ license holders. the info the MNZ gathered showed that on the roads, competition license holders were 80 times less likely to be involved in a crash than a random joe public driver. I'm sure its not just a coincidence

[matt dunn]

If you've ever been a driver trainer for Pro-Drive or similar like I was a few times,

you'll understand how useless some people actually are.

Some guys are so over confident that they are no where near getiing it right,
and some girls are so scared of a car that they panick,
lock the wheel and close there eyes,

even have some who jump hard on the clutch and the gas
in the emergency stop situation.


And theses are people who already have there liscence as
you needed your restricted at least to do the course.

[escortman]

a lot of people still seem to forget the give way to your right rule at intersections that are not controller by lights, stop or givway sign

[1I1]

See Top Gear the other week where James May was drifting an E190 (Like a proper race preped one, not a bagged South Auckland one) around a forest in Finland?
Over there they have some pretty intese driver training, which involves controlling a car in the wet in a 'out of control' spin. And thats the sort of stuff you MUST do to get your license.

a lot of people still seem to forget the give way to your right rule at intersections that are not controller by lights, stop or givway sign

Agree with both of these.

TBH it looks kinda hard to get a license in finland - and would probably heavily reduce the number of people on nz roads with licenses. What was the cause for most of the accidents last weekend?... speed. All good and well knowing the theory (not saying it isn't important) but people also need car handling "skills". Not just pulling over and telling the instructor what they just saw.

[Leon]

The current driver education operators in place are there to make you pass a test, not there to actually teach you to drive.

Interestingly AA is running a course with Emma Gilmour (rally driver) to teach real life driving skills. That sounds fairly useful.

The vast majority of people on our roads are incapable of understanding why they crash. Because we don't teach them otherwise. We teach them how to do a hill start. Big whoppee.

Yeah, racing cars has taught me what happens to me, and cars under extreme conditions. It has also made me drive like a grandma on the road, because after competition driving, road driving is just dull, and the roads are full of semi educated peasants

[Mr Revhead]

but the government has been telling us what makes us crash for years.....
its speed! our roads, cars and us are incapable of traveling over 80kmh on the open road and 40 in the towns
we just cant handle it! only super men can travel safely at such speeds
i mean the goevernment wouldn't lie about that would they
what would they have to gain from all the speeding tickets if it wasnt our own safety?

if it was driver skill then they would address that by installing proper training guidelines, making practicle courses such as prodrive compulsary etc.

no, its not skill. its speed. otherwise the government would be looking after our safety and making us better drivers

[holden_fan2005]

seriosuly the amount of ppl taking absurd lines through corners and wobbling all over the place as a result is shocking!

I strongly agree with you there. A prime example is SH58 heading from paramata to whitby. The amount of people who take the complete wrong lines heading through a corner and ending up in the other lane as a result is shocking! I see this daily when delivering and I'm not exactly speeding in a 1000cc charade!!

Driver training would be mint. Just being a passenger in my younger mates cars is scary sometimes with the things they do (or don't do!).

I think its helped me being around cars from when I was born helps though.

[Leon]

but the government has been telling us what makes us crash for years.....
its speed!

It is easier to 'sell' speed being dangerous.

As compared to saying 'you're on average a bunch of pig ignorant no brain untrained monkeys who shouldn't be behind the wheel of car'. That particular aspect of why we have a road toll isn't going to go down well in a media campaign.

Though, the catch phrases could be hilarious

"You die because you're too stupid to live"

"You're killing other people, because you're a dumb son of a biatch"

[rollaholic]

rofls.

have had a few ass clenching moments lately, been buying and selling a few cars so plenty of test drives in the silly seat. not fun!

trouble is, so many people seem to be actually pig ignorant / semi retarded

the lack of thought you see on the road sometimes is just astonishing. i dunno if driver training can remedy lack of brain cells.

licence tests need to be way harder, in a more life like way rather than specifically being about not $&#$% up a couple of key things. for example slavishly following the speed limit