Category - ADI

Yet More Pro-Cyclist Rubbish

12/08/2013
DOAADI
ADI, News

As the number of cyclists being hit by cars continues to rise, the government still demonstrates it’s inability to get with the plot. This story tells how £94m is being pumped into promoting cycling around British cities.

Laughably, the story says:

The money is to improve existing and fund new cycle routes.

Yeah, right. And just to clarify that for people who might not know – a “cycle route” is something that no “serious” cyclist would ever go near, preferring instead to use the roads (or pedestrian crossings and pavements if the lights are on red). Of course, the term “cycle route” could also mean just painting some lines on existing roads, which would get around that problem completely and also allow councils to brag about how many million miles of “cycle routes” they have installed.

Although the current death toll is down to the fact that bicycles and cars don’t mix, and the monkey-see, monkey-do effects of two years’ worth of Tour de France victories and the Olympics, Labour is making itself look foolish by missing the point by as wide a margin as the bunch of clowns who run this country:

Labour said roads had become less safe for cyclists under this government.

As I say, the rising toll is down to the rising number of cyclists – most of whom only have one helix in their DNA – tottering around on the roads. The only effect the government’s cash injection will have is to make matters worse. Cameron says:

Following our success in the Olympics, the Paralympics and the Tour de France, British cycling is riding high – now we want to see cycling soar.

This government wants to make it easier and safer for people who already cycle as well as encouraging far more people to take it up and business, local government, developers, road users and the transport sector all have a role to play in helping to achieve this.

I think people need to be prepared for this for the next 50 years. We’re going to be milking the bloody Olympics for all we can get, and using it to justify idiotic schemes like this.

Cyclists should be encouraged to use velodromes and closed cycle routes. Those who insist on using the roads should be licensed, and subject to the same penalties as motorists for breaching Highway Code rules – one of which needs to be that they MUST use official cycle routes when one is located less than 10 metres away from them. And 99% of them need proper training before being granted any such licence.

The money being made available should be spent on all that – not in encouraging more of the prats to go on to the roads.There’s enough trouble with just motor vehicles without adding more and more poorly trained and not-very-bright cyclists to the equation.

Quality Private Practice Counts

04/08/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, General

This thought has occurred to me on and off for quite a while now. I often mention it to pupils when they say they’ve been out driving with their mum or dad, or whoever. But one pupil in particular has hammered it into my brain recently.

Her husband is called… well, let’s call him Ray. She drives me mad (in a harmless way) – especially at the start of lessons – when almost every sentence will start with “Ray said…”

Not long after she’d started with me, she got in the car one lesson and immediately said:

Ray said you shouldn’t park next to a lamp post.

I’d parked near one (it was level with the back door) so I could open the passenger door. I explained that this was nonsense and the only thing you had to make sure of is that passengers could open the doors if necessary. But that set the stage for all lessons since.

I should point out that Ray is – or was, until recently – a taxi driver.

A few weeks ago, we were driving away from her house. The speed limit goes from 30mph, up to 40mph, then up to 60mph over about half a mile or so. Even before we’d driven off and gone round the first roundabout, I’d had at least four “Ray said…” answers to my advice and questions.

The next thing I know, we’re accelerating rapidly in the 30mph zone with the 40mph several hundred metres away – we’re over 35mph when this conversation took place:

Me: Hey, hey, hey! What’s the speed limit here?

She: Ray said it’s OK to speed up

Me: [I hadn’t yet realised she was accelerating for the 40mph zone] The speed limit is 30mph, so slow down!

She: But Ray said it’s OK to get ready for the 40mph speed limit.

Me: [using the duals controls to slow us down] What? The speed limit is 30mph here…

She: But Ray said…

Me: That’s it! Take the next left and pull over [we pull over]

Me: What do you mean “Ray said it’s all right”? The speed limit is 30mph and you were aiming for 40. The 40mph sign is miles away. What do you think would happen if a speed camera saw you doing 40mph in a 30mph zone? Would you get a fine?

She: Well… but Ray said…

Me: Look. I’ve had enough of what Ray said. Who are you paying to teach you to drive? Me or him? He’s a taxi driver, and they’re not especially renowned for their driving abilities.

As an aside, that reminds me of another conversation with this pupil via text (I’d asked her to book her test for early August):

She: Can I book my test for July [date]?

Me: Well, it’s a bit earlier than we said. Do YOU think you’ll be ready?

She: You’re the driving instructor, that’s why I’m asking YOU.

Me: OK, book it – but this is on the strict understanding that if you’re not ready then we will move it. Are we agreed on that?

She: Yes. But Ray said he will help.

Me: How? Is he going away?

She thought that was really funny (and we DID have to move the test). But back to the first conversation, later in the lesson – and I can’t remember what prompted it – we had this exchange:

Me: Has Ray got any points on his licence?

She: [pauses] Well, he will have.

Me: What for? [I then had a thought] Hey, they’re not for speeding are they?

She: I wasn’t going to mention it. But yes – but it’s not like what happened back there.

Me: I’ll bet.

She: No, it wasn’t…

I won’t go into full details, but it still demonstrated a lack of road skill on Ray’s part – and he’d obviously told her to break the speed limit, so he must have been prepared to do it himself.

Then there was the Nuthall Roundabout Situation (cue: soundtrack from Pulp Fiction). A few weeks ago we were heading towards this along Woodhouse Way (A6002), and I’d prompted her through it for the A611.

Earlier this week, again approaching the roundabout from the same direction, the conversation went like this:

Me: We’re coming up to the Nuthall roundabout. Now, we’re going straight ahead down the A610 this time – not the A611 like last time. Can you remember how to do it [she apparently does this a lot with Ray, and has “no problems”]

She: Erm… well…

Me: [we’re closing in] Look for A610 on the road. You need to keep to the right, remember… Can you remember how to do it? [She heads straight for the left hand lane marked ‘M1’]

Me: OK. So that would be a “no” then… [I twitch the car over to the right hand lane]… now, look at where it says A610… [we stop at the lights]… Plan ahead. Look for where it says “A610” on the road lanes… [we move off and head straight for the A611 lane, which means cutting other traffic up. I grab the wheel and get us back in the correct lane]

She: Oh, I normally go that way with Ray. I didn’t know you meant this way.

Me: That’s why I said we weren’t going down the A611 like last time, and why I repeatedly said A610 and to look for “A610” on the road.

And just for the icing on the cake, right at the start of the lesson I had asked her to go straight ahead, 2nd exit at a small roundabout. The lanes are clearly marked with white arrows. She makes straight for the right-turn only one. Her justification for this?

That’s the lane I normally use with Ray when I go to see people up here.

This time, I pulled her over and just explained that Ray obviously wasn’t picking up her faults.

So, as usual I have come to my point in a very roundabout (no pun intended) way. And it is this:

  • Whenever you do private practice, make sure it isn’t just to “go to the shops” or for mum or dad to have a drink so that they don’t have to drive (which is just as illegal as drinking and driving, anyway).
  • Go out for practice, and only practice.
  • Practice the things you aren’t good at, not the things you are.
  • If it becomes apparent mum or dad (or whoever takes you out) is missing faults, get them to sit in with you on a lesson and let your instructor point out what they should be looking for.

Common missed faults include:

  • MSM
  • mirrors on overtaking or slowing down
  • not looking properly at junctions and roundabouts (emerging)
  • steering
  • braking (too late/too harsh)
  • roundabouts
  • lanes
  • speed and speed limits

This is by no means all of them. They are often missed because mum or dad (or whoever) isn’t as good a driver as they might like to think.

Being taught the wrong things – or being allowed to do the wrong things without being picked up for them – leads to bad habits, and bad habits are far harder to break than they are to form.

They also lead to failed driving tests.

Seatbelt Law

02/08/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Transport

A reader wrote asking about the Law relating to the wearing of seatbelts by rear seat passengers. You can read the full legislation here.

The Motor Vehicles (Wearing of Seat Belts) Regulations 1993 says that seatbelts MUST be worn IF FITTED. This applies to both front and rear passengers.

Part II of the legislation says:

Requirement for adults to wear adult belts

5.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of these Regulations, every person—

(a)driving a motor vehicle (other than a two-wheeled motor cycle with or without a sidecar);

(b)riding in a front seat of a motor vehicle (other than a two-wheeled motor cycle with or without a sidecar); or

(c)riding in a rear seat of a motor car or a passenger car which is not a motor car;

shall wear an adult belt.

(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to a person under the age of 14 years.

There are exemptions. Under these, the legislation says:

Exemptions…

…

(3) The requirements of regulation 5 do not apply to—

(a)a person driving a vehicle if the driver’s seat is not provided with an adult belt;

(b)a person riding in the front of a vehicle if no adult belt is available for him in the front of the vehicle;

(c)a person riding in the rear of a vehicle if no adult belt is available for him in the rear of the vehicle.

So in most modern cars, all occupants are required to wear seatbelts, and there is no distinction between front or rear passengers.

Incredibly Stupid Learner Banned

01/08/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Bad Drivers, News

In Chelmsford, a learner driver on a motorbike did a wheelie in a snow storm, overtook a car, and then crashed. He suffered what are described as “life changing injuries”.

George Harding, 18, admitted driving dangerously, driving without insurance, driving without an MoT, and driving outside the conditions of his licence. He was not displaying L plates, even though he only had a provisional licence. You’ll note in the story that the bike was a 510cc model – considerably outside the maximum engine size allowed for provisional holders.

Incredibly, his lawyer said:

It was a moment of madness. It was out of character, a moment of utter stupidity.

As a result he has paid a very high price in terms of his injuries suffered and his family.

Well, if he knew how to do a wheelie in the first place it was hardly as “out of character” as this comedian suggests. Likewise the fact that he had such a large bike and was not displaying L plates – it was absolutely and completely premeditated behaviour. The only word we can all agree on in that first sentence is “stupid”.

And as for the second sentence regarding his “suffering”, arrange the following three words into an appropriate sentence: right, him, serves.

He was banned for 12 months, ordered to take an extended test, and fined £525.

Road Rage. Again!

01/08/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Bad Drivers, News

This report from Scotland tells how police are seeking (link now dead) a driver who punched another in the face and walked away after narrowly avoiding a collision.

The report doesn’t say anything about who was to blame for the near miss, but if the guilty party was the man who ended up being punched… well, sometimes people do such stupid things on the roads you can see why things like this happen. It doesn’t make it right, but you can understand it.

Unfortunately (and that’s a joke before “angry woman from Manchester” chimes in again), doing what many people simply dream of being able to do when confronted by idiots is against the Law.

Remember: if someone cuts you up, or nearly causes you to have a fatal accident while you’ve got your kids in the car, you are wrong if you in any way show resentment towards the other driver.

Low-life Boy Racer Threatens To Do It Again

01/08/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Bad Drivers, News

The picture below shows an example of pond scum. The one on the right is some stinking green stuff that grows on stagnant water.

Shiad Mahmoon and some Pond Scum - spot the differenceThis report tells how Shiad Mahmoon, who is 24 and unemployed, was spotted driving a hired Audi R8 Spyder (worth more than £100,000) at speeds estimated to be in excess of 165mph. This was measured from a helicopter – police believe Mahmoon could have been going much faster.

He was found guilty, banned for 3 years, ordered to take an extended test, and fined a paltry £515.

He said in court:

I’m still going to drive- catch me if you can.

He defended himself, and in what must be the worst attempt at mitigation in the history of the world he tried to claim that he couldn’t remember the incident because of “a brain injury”. I’d certainly have to agree that there is something wrong with his brain, but I’d put the problem much further back in his pathetic little lifetime. Somewhere around the point of conception.

Shiad Mahmoon clearly has a few chromosomes missing. Police will undoubtedly catch him again.

Bay Parking (Another Update)

27/07/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, Training

I’ve written a couple of articles in the past to do with bay parking. One thing that keeps cropping up is how people refer to “the DSA way” and starting from a 90° angle to your final parked position. You do not have to start from 90°! You can park however the hell you want as long as you’re safe, in control, and end up in the bay (including on the line) and reasonably straight.

When I am teaching my pupils to bay park I recommend that they use the 90° method on test unless they already know how to do it using their own judgement (and sometimes, they do). However, I make it absolutely clear that when they start driving on their own there will be times when the 90° method doesn’t work. The two main examples of this are:

  • when there is no third line along from the target bay
  • when the bays are not of regulation size

I always explain how to park using other methods, but for most the easiest way is the 90° way and this definitely works in the Colwick MPTC car park. However, I’ve had a couple of tests at the new Beeston test centre in Nottingham recently and I’ve noticed that the bays do not appear to be the regulation size and the 90° method doesn’t work unless pupils have been taught specifically for those bays – or unless they know how to correct their position as they move into the bay. In fact, a pupil who passed his test today was asked to do this manoeuvre and it was only because I’d covered with him how to monitor  and adjust his position accordingly that he was able to do it perfectly. But he was an exceptional driver – and some of my other learners struggle doing that.

It’s an interesting one. ADIs love to rattle on about not only “teaching people to pass the test”, but in situations like this there is a large grey area. For many learners the manoeuvres have to be taught in such a way that they can get them right on the one attempt they get on their driving test. The driver who naturally has all the spatial awareness necessary to steer effortlessly into any space in reverse is not the norm, and the majority need a structured method that will see them through the test.

Fortunately, Language Is No Barrier To Passing The Driving Test

26/07/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, Funny, Training

You have to laugh. Someone found the blog on the following search term:

is stallibf a najor or mibor

For those who don’t speak gobbledegook, this should read: is stalling a major or a minor? Fortunately, language skills are not a barrier to getting your licence. Of course, whether they should be a barrier or not is open to debate.

I’ve written about stalling on your test before. Stalling isn’t automatically a serious fault – but it could be. And it could easily turn into one if you don’t deal with it correctly and panic.

Northern Ireland To Crack Down On Scam Sites

24/07/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DSA, News

I mentioned in an article in January about how certain websites are purposely making themselves look like the official DSA site in order to snare learners when they book their tests. The same company was also pulled up again in May for other claims deliberately designed to mislead candidates. More recently, another company was also telling carefully crafted tall tales and was prosecuted and heavily fined (in that one, a “pass protection guarantee” was only valid if you scored 42/50 (the pass mark is 43 – anything else and you fell foul of the small print).

It seems that Northern Ireland is encountering similar problems – and not just where driving tests are concerned. A European Health Insurance Card is free from the NHS, yet people are inadvertently paying for them from these scam sites. Trading standards acknowledges that these sites aren’t strictly illegal, but that they do deliberately mislead and deceive.

Damien Doherty of Trading Standards in Northern Ireland said: “While the majority of these sites are legal, they are highly cynical.”

Too right they are. He adds:

It is important that companies are clear about the service they are offering, and do not trick people into paying for something that they can get for free or much cheaper on government websites.

Personally, I don’t think they should be offering any sort of service under these circumstances. It should be illegal, and driving test scam sites are a prime example. The top-dog, highest level company which actually carries out the tests (DSA, or DVA in NI) offers them at a fixed price and anyone charging more than that is a lying scammer, no matter how “clear” they make it in the small print that they’re charging a premium.

A Couple Of Australian Stories

24/07/2013
DOAADI
ADI, Bad Drivers, News, World

Two stories came in on the newsfeeds, both from Australia.

In this first one, an 11-year old boy died as he was driving his sister and himself to meet the school bus and they hit a tree! You have to remember the size of Australia in relation to the UK, and when the story says he was driving “on a rural property” (i.e. a farm) you probably have thinking in terms of tens or even hundreds of acres, as opposed to the square metres it would probably be over here. But that doesn’t disguise the fact that 11-year olds and cars don’t mix for all kinds of reasons, farm or not.

And in this second story, a man was arrested whilst driving a car which had no steering wheel. He was using Mole Grips to turn the steering column. The car was being driven dangerously and had two flat tyres. It was unregistered, uninsured, and subject to an existing defect notice. The car had apparently just been involved in a hit-and-run, and the driver was found to be disqualified and he then failed the police drug test. I don’t think there was anything left for him to get wrong.