ADI - Diary Of An ADI

Car Roll Back + Biting Point

29/01/2011

Someone found the blog using the question “can the car roll back at the biting point?” If you understand what the biting point is then you already will know the answer. I’ve explained the biting point before. Here’s a summary.

If the car is in gear, the clutch acts like a volume control on a radio or mp3 player. When you push the pedal all the way down, the ‘volume’ is at 0, when you lift the clutch all the way up the ‘volume’ is at 10 (maximum). If the clutch is only part way up then the ‘volume’ is somewhere in between.

The “volume” in the case of the clutch is how much of the engine’s power is transferred to the wheels.

In reality, because of how the clutch is designed, the “volumes” we’re interested in occur over a very narrow range of pedal movement quite a way up from fully depressed – this is what we call the biting point. It is not a fixed point, but a range – how much bite depends on what you are trying to do, and where.

A ‘volume’ of 4 or 5 might get the car moving on the flat or perhaps a very gentle incline, but on a steeper upwards slope you might need a setting of 6 or 7 to avoid the car rolling back slightly. Similar considerations apply to moving off more quickly.

Precisely where the bite point occurs in the pedal travel depends on the car. It will be different in every car you drive. Even your own car will change its biting point as time goes by, as the clutch plates wear down. Knowing the basic principle is useful, but operating the clutch and finding the bite should be instinctive rather than coldly calculated every time you need to do it.

So yes, you can roll back at the biting point – if you haven’t got enough bite set.

Will the car roll back when you have the biting point?

By definition, no. However, if you haven’t got enough bite then it might – just as too much bite will make it move forward.

You have to try to understand what the biting point is – and how it is part way between no engine control of the wheels at all and total engine control of the wheels. The exact point of bite varies depending on the angle of incline.

Will I fail my test if I roll back?

It’s not automatic, but if you roll back a lot, or do it every time, then yes you could fail your test for it. I’ve written about it in detail in this article.

EDIT 20/2/2011: I’m still getting hits on questions like “how to find the biting point every time”.

Obviously, I can’t be certain what people are thinking, but the wording (and the fact there is clearly a problem) suggests people are perhaps being a little lazy in the way they approach driving.

You cannot just magically “find” the biting point at the outset unless you think hard about it. You have to “feel”, “look”, and “listen” for it (i.e. feel the car change its revs, listen for the engine slow down, and look for the slight movement as the bite takes). The more you do it then the quicker you’ll get to that magic point where you just find it and go without having to think.

Some people – not many in my own experience – have a serious coordination problem and find manual driving a huge challenge. If they switch to automatic then they never look back (although if you pass in an automatic you can’t drive manual without passing a test in a manual car). But these are exceptional cases.

Driving properly and safely requires thought. Learning requires even more.

The Coaching Saga Continues

29/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

In the past I’ve written specifically about the GDE Matrix, Coaching and instructors, the DL25 and how to use it for coaching purposes, and most recently about how you can use coaching in a variety of ways (which most ADIs can’t even begin to understand).

The last two attracted some smart aleck comments from one of the webforums. It made me laugh hard when one of the self-proclaimed experts said that the examples I had given weren’t coaching, and that they were “just Q&A” and “leading the pupil”.

The same forum has recently held an online session with a guest “coaching expert” speaker who was actually on the HERMES project, and it has made the transcript available. If you can sift through the 90% of the transcript which contains the usual “how r u” type comments, and ADIs trying to get one over on everyone and everything (“I already do that”, “I was using that 20 years ago”, and so on), there is one absolutely telling comment from the speaker:

An example of a coaching technique. Coaching techniques focus on questions and problem solving exercise.

Well, well, well. The HERMES expert says Q&A is part of coaching. As for the other guy – the “expert” in his own living room – I’ll just repeat that phrase I used at the beginning…

Most ADIs can’t even begin to understand what coaching really is.

These are the ones who need to spend some money on the right sort of CPD. The DSA is unlikely (well, it won’t. Period) to assume that no one is coaching – but just as there are some people who barely scrape a Grade 4 (and are happy with it). The reason they never achieve better is probably already due to them not using any coaching techniques anyway, and it is these who will be seen not to be training pupils properly once the new DSA syllabus comes in and Check Tests start (well, after the trials are completed, anyway).

I still don’t think that that last paragraph will get the point across, so I’ll say it differently:

Coaching is a skill that any good ADI should be using already anyway. The reason for the present focus on the subject is twofold:

too many people are killed on the roads and the DSA et al wants to try and change that
we have too many ADIs who are simply not good enough

Like it or not, although poor teaching isn’t the only cause of deaths on the road by a large margin, those two things above are closely linked. Bad ADIs are obviously not going to teach people to drive properly, are they? It is these deficient ADIs who need the coaching courses. However, those people also need to realise that paying £500 or more to go on one doesn’t automatically mean you are a suddenly a good ADI – coaching is a skill, not something you get off a shelf by paying a retail price.

And this is where the problem is. The people pushing coaching courses are trying to make a fast buck in an industry where many people are finding it hard to make money from simple driving lessons. So they are talking things up, and gullible ADIs are swallowing it hook, line, and sinker.

The big question is whose interests are they serving? The ADI’s? Or their own?

Coaching is something which is missing from a lot of ADIs’ toolboxes. A lot of ADIs are not teaching to a high enough standard. They may even be unsuitable to remain on the Register – who knows?

Coaching is not something brand new that everyone has got to go out an buy lots of. Unfortunately, this is exactly how some people are treating it.

Using Your Mobile + Driving

27/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI

I saw this news item on the local BBC News programme today. Leicestershire police are apparently giving motorists caught using their mobiles while driving the option of attending a road safety awareness clinic instead of being fined/given points.

The website story doesn’t mention the thing being an option, but the TV programme definitely said it was.

I can understand the need to do something about the problem, but I’m not sure this is the solution. It’s just letting people off after committing a clear offence that they knew about.

On the news clip, they interviewed some stupid woman who’d been caught. She said:

This way, I won’t be on my phone – I won’t even have it in my hand now.

She shouldn’t have been on the bloody thing in the first place. She knew it was wrong. She’d have been just as reticent – probably more so - about doing it again if she’d been fined, given points, AND forced to watch the road safety video.

I don’t agree with the softly-softly approach, and especially not unless it is happening across the country and not just in one county. These people are menaces, and should be taken off the roads and not encouraged to stay on them.

Trained By Non-ADI

25/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests

At the test centre today, we arrived and parked in the usual place. Well, more or less.

At Chalfont Drive, it is customary to park with the centre on your left – facing towards the Beechdale Road end. Common sense would dictate that the first arrival parks as close to the gates as they can, and subsequent arrivals park sensibly backwards from there. This way, everyone – as many as eight tests go out at a time – gets a place to stop.

Unfortunately, an increasing number of instructors are trying to make life easy for their own pupils wihtout giving a thought for anyone else’s. You get them parking with 2 or more car-length gaps so their pupils can get out easily when the test starts. You get them parking away from the gate, even if they’re there first. Basically, they’re idiots who shouldn’t be submitting their pupils to test in the first place if they can’t drive out from behind another car without having a 15 metre gap to aid them (or if they don’t know the meaning of the phrase ‘convenient location’ when it comes to stopping).

Today it was even worse. It turned out there was someone waiting for test who’d been taught by her husband. They’d parked their car on the left side of the road – but facing the opposite way. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot – it’s almost a driver fault before they even get in the car!

And when she returned at the end - the examiner had obviously asked her to pull up on the left as they came in from the Beechdale end – she apparently deliberately parked it about half on the pavement! There was definitely something not right, because about 60 seconds later, the car reversed backwards, then parked properly on the road.

With the recession, an increasing number of people are turning up to test without having had any professional tuition. But it has to be false economy for many of them if they are making these sorts of mistakes. After all, time is money, so whoever is doing the ‘training’ has to value their time at nothing in order for this method to cost less than using an ADI. And the longer it goes on, the more bad habits have to be broken when they eventually do realise that they need to do it properly. One way or another, learning to drive costs money.

I also suspect that some of the people who fail when training by this route are driving illegally anyway in between times. International licence rules have a very flexible interpretation for some people.

When Is Fast Too Fast?

25/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

Just going back to that post from earlier today, about learners being taught in fast cars.

I noticed on another forum that someone is likening ‘making adequate progress’ on test with ‘driving like a prat with no regard for anyone else’. It appears to be a contrivance, engineered to have a go at the DSA.

Let me just make something absolutely clear. On test, if a pupil is in a 30mph zone and they’re driving consistently at 25mph or less, then they are going too slow and are holding people up. In a 40mph zone, they need to be doing 35mph or more for the same reason. In a 50mph zone, 40mph at the least. In a 60mph zone, above 50mph. And in a 70mph zone, above 60mph. These figures are approximate and should not be interpreted otherwise.

Under absolutely no circumstances is this ‘speeding’ or an example of the DSA encouraging reckless behaviour. It does not ‘instill speed’ in peoples minds. Indeed, if the pupil doesn’t slow down for hazards and junctions, he or she will soon find themselves booking another test for another try.

In order to be a complete driver, you need to know how to drive at the speed limit – not to be afraid of it, with all the extra hazards such fear would introduce to someone’s driving style. Driving 20mph below the limit when there’s no need leads to road rage and increases the risk of accidents. It’s shocking that ADIs should be advocating such behaviour.

What Goes Around… Goes Around Again

25/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI

There are many magical things about being a driving instructor.

One of these magical things that is bugging me at the moment is coughs and colds. As an ADI it gets you three times.

The first hit is when the cold first appears. Pupils get it, and some cancel lessons, but some don’t.

The second hit is when YOU get the damned thing off the pupils who didn’t cancel while they had it. Depending how bad it is you may have to cancel lessons. Even if you don’t, you feel lousy.

The third hit is when the pupils you passed it on to start cancelling. This is the stage I am at right now.

As a general rule, you know who gave it to you to start with, and you can be pretty certain who got it off you when they start coughing and sneezing in the car. You can’t charge people for being ill, so you have to absorb it. To be fair, though, it’s only been about 6 hours total in the last 3-4 weeks all told, plus feeling lousy during Hit #2.

Be warned: it’s a sore throat that develops into a cough, a runny nose with sneezing, a headache, and aching limbs. It lasts for a week or more.

Fast Cars + Fast Learners

25/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests

On another forum I just saw a discussion about how many hours it takes to learn to drive. This question crops up a lot in one form or another.

The DSA says (as of January 2011) that people who pass their tests have typically had about 47 hours of professional training with an ADI combined with about 20 hours of private practice. These figures vary a little from time to time as new data are added, and in any case are by no means absolute numbers.

Naturally, a thread such is this is the only prompt needed for some ADIs to start boasting how they did it in 10 or 12 hours – thus demonstrating why the pass-quick-pay-little mentality gets in the way of decent ADIs doing their jobs properly in the first place.

If the right person came along, they could take their driving test and pass it without having had a single second of tuition or practice for the driving test – but statistically, the odds of that happening are extremely low. And at the other end of the spectrum, you could get someone who is never, ever going to be able to drive – no matter how many lessons they have. These are not as rare as you might think, but many just give up when they realise they can’t do it and so never get to test standard.

So, the majority of people require SOME tuition and it averages out at about 47 hours for most of those who pass their tests in the end. Yes, some can do it quicker. Yes, some take longer. But we’re talking about that statistics thing most ADIs cannot understand: the meaning of the phrase ‘on average’.

I’ve had a few people pass in a little over 20 hours, having had no experience of driving at all before that, and in one case I can remember, no opportunity to do any private practice either. I’ve also had people pass having taken well over 80 hours with lots of private practice on top. It all depends on the individual.

I think I’ve mentioned in the past about how I am always uneasy when someone passes quickly – not because it means I can’t get money from them any more, but because they may go out on the roads thinking that they are better than they really are. One common conversation I have with pupils after they’ve emerged too quickly from a junction or on to a roundabout, and we’re analysing the fault, involves explaining that what their heads think they can do is not the same as what their bodies are actually capable of doing at this stage in their driving careers – and they mustn’t try to copy what their family or friends do.

Only last night, when I was talking to a pupil about her need to be 1mph over the speed limit all the time, to go hurtling into situations she’s incapable of handling quickly (so speed makes it even harder), and forgetting the speed limit until she’s accelerated over it, she said:

Well, the reason I do it is because I’m always out with people who drive like that.

Honestly, that’s exactly what she said. And later that evening when I raised it with her mum (who wants her to do Pass Plus when she passes), she said:

It’s her best friend who she’s talking about - she drives like that to show off and [Jane] is trying to copy her.

Can you imagine what someone like this would behave like on the roads – and what a mess they could easily get into – if they passed their test too quickly without gaining valuable experience?

What worries me even more is that some of the people who boast about fast learners are also selling the idea of fast cars to those learners. One poster comments that he knows of an ADI teaching people in a Subaru WRX, who takes learners to a race track to drive fast, and who is openly scathing of speed limits. So imagine:

you have a learner who attracted by the Subaru and so books lessons
he’ll already have a certain attitude towards speed and road behaviour, and even life in general, otherwise he wouldn’t be there
he’ll be further conditioned to be cynical of speed limits by the ADI
the ADI is merely showing off and behaving as immaturely as the person he’s teaching
the learner will be soaking it up like a sponge
being more porous than most (the Subaru attracted him, remember) he’ll soak up all the wrong things

This is a real scenario, and it is not going to produce a driver who has respect for the law or his own driving skills. It is not going to produce a driver who has consideration for others. It’s going to produce a driver who is the epitome of what the DSA wants to try and stamp out, and what no ADI should be within a hundred miles of teaching.

The GDE Matrix springs to mind here. If ADIs are to be expected to get involved in the so-called ‘higher levels’, how can they possibly do that effectively if they are doing it in prat bait?

Pass Plus A Waste Of Time?

25/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI

I notice on one of the forums someone boasting:

[I’ve kicked Pass Plus into touch. It’s a total waste of time and money (theirs and mine) – teaching them what I have already taught them.]

What an unfortunate attitude from a supposedly ‘fit and proper’ professional ADI.

To begin with, you can’t teach them motorway driving as learner drivers (EDIT: well, apparently later in 2012 this is going to change), so that’s one thing Pass Plus covers which cannot have been covered properly before.

But most importantly, a learner driver has a very specific goal when they are learning to drive: to pass the test by spending as little as possible. So no matter what an ADI tries to do, the learner will always be learning as a learner, and not as someone who is trying to acquire Safe Driving For Life skills.

In large part, any training – and this includes post-test training – is only as good as the trainer. To that end, it is possible to make Pass Plus as useful – or as much of a total waste of time for all concerned – as possible.

If Pass Plus is a ‘total waste of time and money’, it is clear where the fault for that lies.

Pass Plus is actually extremely useful if delivered properly. There is talk of replacing it or revamping it at some stage, but the only reason that that is necessary is because of the bribery and corruption which has led to it being considered valueless by some.

Many of those taking it ONLY wanted it to get lower insurance premiums. As a result, an unfortunately large number of those providing it did so without actually carrying out or completing the necessary training. Some even took money just for a signature on the registration form. Fit and proper people they most certainly are not.

Yes, it’s easy to see the reason for Pass Plus being considered a waste of time.

Orange Maps

19/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Computers & Tech, General

One of the less pleasant experiences of my trip to Glasgow yesterday… Orange Maps.

Now, I have a Tom Tom sat nav, but I don’t use it very often. It was great playing with it when I first got it, but I quickly realised that I don’t need the darned thing. It was a pain having to keep setting it up, then keep removing it for security purposes, plus charging it and keep docking it to update it.

And of course, being a bloke means I can find my way anywhere – in the dark, blindfolded, in a coma – without having to ask anyone for directions or use a sat nav in the first place.

However… trying to find an obscure place like the Old Fruitmarket in a big city like Glasgow is what sat navs were created for… but they’re still a pain to have to lug around as standalone units.

Since I got my Android phone, though, the possibility of a sat nav in your pocket became highly desirable. So I started using Orange Maps when I needed to find somewhere or navigate to it. It was OK when it worked, but a few months ago – when I needed to get to Manchester avoiding the motorways – it scared the crap out of me by deciding it couldn’t contact the Orange Maps server after it had dumped me in the middle of Chesterfield’s one-way system during the rush hour. Fortunately, it decided about half an hour later that it could contact the server after all.

Learning Point: the last thing you want is your sat nav telling you it’s lost!

So anyway, last night I’m on the outskirts of Glasgow – Hamilton Services to be exact – and I had to make a phone call. Orange Maps has a habit of terminating when you do that, so you need to tell it again where you want to go. It chose this moment to again refuse to contact the server.

I can see a connection here: both times, it was during the rush hour, so the phrase ‘server overload’ comes to mind. Well, what bloody use is a sat nav service you can’t use when other people are trying to use it at the same time?

The problem was that this time it just would not connect. Period. So there I am, paying £5 a month for a service which doesn’t work at exactly the time you need to be sure it will, literally abandoned 300 miles from home!

Thank God for the Internet (and, fortunately, getting out of the various 3G blackspots around Glasgow to be able to access it). I looked at a couple of sat nav options in the Android marketplace. I downloaded one, only to discover the configuration file… “is downloading…this will take approximately 6 hours… no, wait… 8 hours…” Aaargh! No wi-fi and a wobbly 3G! I briefly toyed with the idea of driving around to find an unsecured wireless network, but decided against that.

I accidentally found GoogleMaps (weird, because I use that all the time at home for finding out where new pupils live, but hadn’t really clicked that they had a sat nav feature on Android phones (well, it is beta). And so it was problem solved… GoogleMaps got me there without any glitches at all, and home again later on.

I cancelled Orange Maps today and won’t be going back. As usual, their customer service was excellent – just a shame that Orange Maps isn’t.

Having A Laugh + Coaching

16/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Training

UPDATE: The DSA has now embarked on its implementation of coaching, so read this article posted in November 2012.

I was on a lesson with a pupil on Saturday, and we had just done a parallel park and were looking for another car to try it on. My pupil asked:

Why don’t we do them on that [the right hand] side of the road?

We pulled over, and the conversation then progressed like this:

Me: Well, there’s no real reason why you can’t sometimes do them on that side. Why do you ask?

She: I just wondered how you would do it.

Me: Well, it’s almost exactly the same as doing it on the left side except you steer the opposite way and look for traffic in the right places. How do you think you’d decide when you’re close enough to the kerb to bring the car in?

She: Errr… the [points to offside] mirror?

Me: That’s right. Or you could just look over your shoulder – you’re right by the kerb that side, aren’t you? What I’ll do next time we practice it on the left is find a quiet road so you can get out and see how far away from the kerb the car is, then you’ll know what to look for if you ever need to do it. We might even try it if we get time.

She: Would I have to do it on the test?

Me: No. But once you’ve passed you might.

At this point, I remembered a recent topic where someone had moaned about a non-driving forum where the members were having a go at a female-only driving school, with such comments as these (and I mentioned them to my pupil):

The first lesson involves the importance of arranging fluffy pink things on the parcel shelf, and attaching dangly things to your key-ring…

…second lesson is all about driving at 29mph in a 40mph zone hogging the white line in the centre of the road…

…one of the hours is spent sitting in your car fiddling around(after you’ve spent ages filling up and half and hour in the shop) while there’s a queue building up behind you at the petrol station…

There’s many a true word said in jest, and whether you like it or not the reason these sorts of comments come about is because they have an element of truth about them (just like with older drivers, people in 4x4s on the school run, Audi drivers, and so on).

So I joked:

Me: You know how it will be. You’ll be out shopping, see a parking space across the road, and decide to go for it. Then you’ll need to park on the other side. It’s a woman-thing.

She: [Laughs] Yeah, my mum does that all the time.

Me: And you’ll be able to do it safely. But can you see the point I’m making? Different people drive for different reasons – I drive because it’s my job. Why would you decide to drive somewhere?

She: Well, to go shopping, or to see my nan or my auntie. Or to go to work.

Me: What about other people? Why do they drive?

She: The same reasons?

Me: Well, perhaps. But what other things? Taking the dog somewhere for a walk? Taking their kids to or from school? What about rushing to the A&E at the hospital? What would you do if you were late for work and caught in traffic?

She: I’d take my time and drive safely.

Me: That’s good, but your concentration might be affected whether you like it or not because you know your boss is going to yell at you. What about those other people, though? If they’re in a hurry, will they drive safely?

She: Not all of them… well, no, in the morning none of them are driving safely when I go to work. They’re speeding, and they keep overtaking and cutting in.

Me: So you can see how it isn’t just what you do that makes you safe?

She: Yes. We even get it on our lessons, don’t we, with people trying to get past.

Me: Exactly! And going back to the parallel park, when you’re on the other side of the road you’re usually facing oncoming traffic which might be in a hurry and not expect you to be there.

She: So I shouldn’t do it?

Me: Well, it’s up to you. If the road is empty, why not? If you’re going to cause a hold-up, then that’s a different matter. But you could always find somewhere else or turn around and come in from the opposite side and do it the usual way.

She: I don’t think I will. It sounds dangerous.

Me: Well, there is one place where you’d have to do it – and it’d be quite safe – if you wanted to park and the parking spaces were only available on the right. Can you think where?

She: [Gives a few suggestions]
Me: Well, possibly, but those are not really what I’m thinking of. What kind of road definitely has no cars coming the opposite way?

She: Oh. A one-way street. There’s one of those near the shops and you can only park that side.

It can’t be bad, can it? Sexism, a driving lesson, and even “the higher levels of the GDE Matrix” in one seven minute session.

Category - ADI