Diary Of An ADI - A Driving Instructor's Blog

Inconsiderate Parking

08/07/2012

I’ve mentioned before how the car parks in West Bridgford seem to attract people with all the social conscience of a dog on a croquet lawn. If it’s not old people blocking the entire car park whilst waiting by the entrance (in the Nursery Car Park) to avoid having to actually park and buy a ticket, it’s women waiting for someone to vacate a space near to the pedestrian exit instead of driving around the other side to where all the empty spaces are. And don’t get me started on women with children who – when there is a queue for the ticket machine – lift their 4-year old darling up to put the money in (in small change) and press the button. It’s like a day out for some of them. Ford Focus - FG04 KJK

I went in mid-afternoon a couple of days ago to go to the bank. There was only one free space, and this was it. In the bay the other side was a Porsche – he was parked properly, but Porsches are quite wide, so he came close to the line. The idiot in the green Focus (reg. no. FG04 KJK) had left their car like this with people queuing to get in!

Now, I could have just squeezed into the space. But then I would have had to get out without my door hitting the Porsche (if I parked forwards) or this clown’s car if I reversed. And then there was the likelihood of this idiot having kids who would gladly fling the door into the side of my car (or maybe mummy just do it herself out of spite). Whoever was driving couldn’t possibly have got into their car if I’d have parked next to them.

There was a ticket inspector doing the rounds. They used to take photos of this sort of thing and issue penalty charges. I hope they still do.

Fortunately, as I drove round the back to leave someone left at that precise moment and I managed to get a place. When I came back I watched an old woman drive partially into and out of another space at least four times while traffic queued out of the entrance. Some days it’s like a geriatric Day Of The Dead movie in that car park.

Talking Toilet Stops Drink Driving?

06/07/2012

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Funny, News, World

I love this one in Gizmag. Apparently, in Michigan they were using talking urinal cakes to remind people to call a cab rather than drive home during Independence Day celebrations.

When I first saw it I thought about how accurate it might be (thinking that it detected alcohol in your pee of something).

It was a bit more basic than that, being triggered by motion – so just peeing on it.

According to the story, a female voice tells you to call a cab home. It also points out that even if only a few people respond positively to the advice then that’s good.

I’m just wondering what the sound quality must be like, especially coming out of a urinal!

Couldn’t use them on the UK, though. They’d get nicked.

Canadian Judge Complicates Use Of Handheld Devices Law

06/07/2012

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Bad Drivers, News, World

Interesting story from The Star, a Canadian online news paper, which tells of a judge’s ruling that merely holding a phone whilst driving should not get you a ticket under their new distracted driving law.

A female 4×4 driver had allegedly bent down whilst stopped at lights to pick up her mobile, which had fallen on to the floor. A police officer close by saw her eyes flick up and down several times while the lights were on red, and when he walked over she had an opened clam-shell phone in her hand.

This is what they call a smoking gun scenario everywhere else except in Canada.

The ruling has started the usual legal mumbo-jumbo that seems to prevail in North America.

Andrew Dekany, the lawyer who conducted Kazemi’s appeal without charge, called it a sensible decision. “When a law is too, too rigid, almost absurd, people don’t follow it.”

The wording of Canada’s new law is:

…you cannot drive “while holding or using a hand-held wireless communication device.”

When I’m out with pupils I see people’s eyes flicking up and down at lights all the time. I know for an absolute fact that they are using their mobile phones. You hold one because you intend to use it – or, in a small number of cases, because you’re a prat who just can’t put it down.

But in Canada it’s different, apparently.

In the case of this woman, having the mobile on the seat, sending it flying to the floor when stopping, and having it open in her hand speaks volumes about what her normal behaviour when driving must be like. And the upshot is that the Canadian Police have now got virtually no chance of enforcing the law, so they won’t try unless it is on camera.

Well done, Judge Nakatsuru.

Test Driver Dies

06/07/2012

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News, Transport

This from the Swindon Advertiser. This quote says it all:

Tributes… from Andy Connolly, a race marshal, who honoured Mr Allan’s involvement in the British Touring Car Championship series.

He wrote on Twitter: “Saddened to hear that former BTCC driver Dave Allan passed away earlier this week. Remember him piloting that Civic to an inch of its life.”

You Have To Laugh Sometimes

06/07/2012

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ADI, Computers & Tech, News, Transport

A story on the BBC Technology website tells of a new car headlight that can – and I quote – “shine ‘around’ rain”. True to the BBC’s objective of dumbing things down, there will now be a whole raft of people under the impression that light can go round corners!

In actual fact, what this new headlight – which is in extremely early experimental stages – can do is pick up raindrops on a camera, calculate where they are likely to fall, then turn off light shining in that direction. It takes about 13 milliseconds to do this.

In tests, they managed to block out 79% of raindrops on a thunderstorm at 20mph, but only 20% of them at 60mph. They are dimmer than ordinary lights because they remove some of the radiation. One must assume that the more rain is in the air, the dimmer they are – which seems counterproductive to me.

On a more practical note, there is already a problem with those so-called adaptive headlights dazzling people and getting broken, and even BMW admits they are hard to keep working for the lifetime of a car. Given that most types contain sensors and motors to move them, the number of things that can go wrong (and the cost of repairing them) is much higher than with the traditional fixed type. Having a camera, beam splitter, and projector in there as well is obviously a huge step towards simplification. Not.

I also love the way that people gush about the road safety advantages of adaptive lights shining around corners, when the greatest safety benefits would be gained from having to go slower – not being able to do it faster! I mean, it’s Audis and BMWs that usually have these things, and those drivers really do not need any further encouragement or justification to drive like prats.

Being able to drive faster in the rain is just asking for trouble.

Inconsistent Punishments

06/07/2012

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ADI, Bad Drivers, News

I mentioned two cases recently of idiotic driving. In one case, the culprit was removed from the gene pool as a result of his own behaviour – fortunately, before he removed anyone else – and the other had the book (admittedly, a paperback rather than a hardbound encyclopaedia) thrown at him.

In that second case, Christopher Jones was jailed for 25 months, banned for two years, and ordered to take an extended re-test.

So it is hard to work out how they arrived at what this moron was stung with.

Leigh Brennan was already banned as a result of failing to provide a breath specimen on an earlier escapade. He did the same again this time – but not before he’d smashed into a Mini and then demolished a pub wall – which collapsed on top of the landlord.

All he got was a 12 month sentence and banned for 2 years. Arguably, he came closer to killing someone than Jones did in the other story.

Philip Miles, defending, said Brennan now recognises he has a problem with drink and has sought help.

He said: “He has made great strides since this incident and is changing his life around.

He deserves credit for his plea of guilty.”

Bullshit! He deserves to be put away for a long time and banned from driving permanently.

Re-test Drivers At 70, Says Grieving Mother

06/07/2012

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ADI, Bad Drivers, News

This article again highlights the dangers that elderly drivers can cause on our roads.

The mother in question is Jackie McCord, whose daughter Cassie was killed by an elderly driver who had already had an accident a few days earlier.

The story refers to Colin Horsfall – the driver in question – but also to the case of 87-year old Richard Bradley who only got points for driving into a woman suffering from MS. Helen Harrington, who was the woman knocked down, is also calling for re-testing.

Both refer to the e-petition calling for Cassie’s Law to be introduced (the petition is now closed) and I once again urge as many people as possible to sign this before it expires in November. It is vital that someone finally acknowledges that the elderly do not have a right to drive – it’s a privilege, just like it is for everyone else.

Indicating And Overtaking (Obstructions)

05/07/2012

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ADI, Bad Drivers, Training

I was out on a lesson with a pupil recently and she was driving me mad, indicating for every parked car and stopped bus, all without looking in her mirrors. After we discussed it, it came out that she had been looking at “instructional” videos on the internet and these had told her to indicate every time. This is absolute rubbish, and if what she said was true – if ADIs really are instructing people to signal without thinking – they ought to be taken off the Register of Approved Driving Instructors before they indirectly end up killing someone!

On that same lesson, the pupil also said that she’d been told she only needed to indicate if she “was moving completely into another lane”. That is also totally incorrect.

Pupils can drive you nuts sometimes. You can bang your head against a wall and use every way of explaining something that you can think of, and they’ll still keep doing it wrong. And yet one sniff of a YouTube video or Tweet from a friend who’s just passed their test, and they’ll have a shiny new habit that you’ve got to break them out of!

As an aside on that, I was on a lesson with a guy who worked with one of my recently passed ex-pupils. He’d asked my ex-pupil if he had any advice for the test, and was told “yes, drive slowly”. That same ex-pupil failed his test first time for – you guessed it – driving at 30mph on a NSL dual-carriageway! They’re all experts when they pass!

But anyway. What are the guidelines for indicating when overtaking?

If you’re overtaking a moving vehicle then you should signal to move out (after checking it’s safe, of course). At the very least, the driver you’re overtaking needs to know what your intentions are, as well as those behind you and those coming towards you. Assuming that you’re not cutting anyone up, you don’t need to signal moving back in (but if you do it isn’t the end of the world – just make sure you check that you’re far enough ahead of the vehicle you passed to move in safely).

If you’re overtaking parked vehicles or other obstructions, then you only need to indicate if necessary. You can only decide that by looking around you and assessing the situation, because every one is different.

What does that mean in practice? Well, if you’re on a normal road, driving at a normal speed, with normal traffic following you at a normal distance, and normal traffic doing the same coming towards you, and there’s plenty of space, you don’t normally need to indicate to go past obstructions or parked cars and buses.

However, if you saw that the car behind you was getting closer then you might choose to signal as a reinforcement to your intention to overtake a parked vehicle. An alternative way of dealing with that might be to slow down if it looks like the car behind is going to overtake both you and the obstruction (yes, people can be that stupid). You have to interpret the situation at the time.

Another example. If you had stopped behind a bus or other obstruction to wait for oncoming traffic to pass on a narrower road, as soon as you could see a gap coming you might choose to signal – either for the bus driver (who might be about to pull away) or the waiting cars behind (who might be thinking about overtaking both you and the bus). Again, you’d interpret the situation at the time.

And another example. If you saw a cyclist ahead and knew you were going to have to slow down or deviate to get by, a signal might be useful to drivers behind who may not be able to see the cyclist. Once more, you’d interpret the situation at the time.

You see, that’s the key. If the signal is of use to someone then it is necessary. If it isn’t of use – or is misleading – then it isn’t necessary. Remember that unnecessary signals often are misleading: ask yourself how many times you’ve seen someone signal, you’ve thought that they were going to turn, and they haven’t. That’s why signalling for passing every obstacle is wrong. Signalling for every parked car, bus, cyclist, and road works makes them meaningless. then your signals become meaningless – completely misleading. The people following you wouldn’t know what the hell you were doing if your indicators were going on and off all the time.

Once you’ve passed your test, it’s your choice whether or not you drive like that. But it isn’t the right way. However, if you do it as a learner it could easily affect your chances of passing your test, and this is exactly what my pupil was doing – just mashing the indicator stalk without a thought for other road users.

Learners (and a lot of ADIs) often try to pigeon-hole things as a substitute for understanding them. That’s where silly ideas like roundabout 12 o’clock rule come from. The problem is that there are many things which simply “depend”, and which cannot be conveniently pigeon-holed.

So, in summary, you do not need to signal to go past parked cars and buses unless the signal is necessary. And you have to decide if it’s necessary based on each separate event.

Explaining The Car Gears To Pupils

05/07/2012

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ADI, Training

At some point in the training of many pupils it becomes necessary to explain how the gears work. Sometimes you can do it during the controls lesson – I usually mention it briefly then – but it often makes more sense to them once they have got a basic understanding of how to make the car move. Horses for courses, as the saying goes – you adapt your lesson to the needs of the individual.

Anyway, it seems that a lot of instructors don’t go into detail at all (and that includes how the clutch works). Not having had something explained to them – whatever it is – is usually why someone is having difficulty with it a long way into their training. As far as they’re concerned, they “aren’t progressing”, so they jump ship and find another ADI.

~~I’ve put this little animation together~~ to help explain how gears work. If you want to play along, don’t fiddle with it until you read the explanation that goes with it. (Sorry, this post was written a long time ago before Flash was discontinued. I’ve only just rediscovered it, so I will find a replacement shortly)

In the animation above you can see the drive gear rotating. This is connected through the clutch to the engine, so if you put more gas on it goes faster (and if you slip the clutch it will go slower).

Click the “1st” button and the first gear appears – this is connected to the wheels, and when it goes round so do the wheels. In this demonstration it’s exactly the same size as the drive gear, so for each revolution of the drive gear the first gear will also revolve once (the red marker dots show the movement). You can get moving easily, but if you want to go faster after that you need to change up.

Click on the “2nd” button and the second gear replaces first. The second gear is smaller than first and for each revolution of the drive gear it will go round 1.25 times in this demonstration. By moving to this gear once the car is moving you’ll maintain your previous speed and be able to accelerate more without the engine having to do so much work.

Click on the “3rd” button and the third gear replaces second. This gear is even smaller than second and for each revolution of the drive gear it will revolve 1.7 times in this demonstration. This will allow you to accelerate even more.

Click on the “4th” button and fourth gear replaces third. This gear is smaller still and for each revolution of the drive gear it will go round 2.5 times in this demonstration. If we assume this is the top gear, this will allow you to travel at the highest speed for your car. Obviously, that means safe speed – not necessarily the maximum speed.

Click on the “All” button and all the gears are visible. See how the marker dots all move at different speeds.

Now, you have to remember that the car weighs quite a bit – typically, about 1 metric tonne – and it takes a lot of effort to get this moving. You need as much power from the engine as you can get to start moving before you move up through the gears as you gain speed. You can get that initial power transfer using first gear.

If you choose a higher gear than 1st, each revolution of the engine has to move the car by the equivalent of more than one revolution of the chosen gear (in the demonstration), and if you are going too slow it will be too much and for the engine and it will stutter or stall. But in first gear, one revolution of the engine will move the car by the equivalent of one revolution of that gear. That requires much less effort by the engine.

The demonstration is not intended to represent actual gear sizes and ratios in a real car. It just shows how different sized gears work.

Going into too much detail is a double-edged sword – both edges of which are nasty! You will either bore the pants off 75% of your pupils, or get caught out when it turns out 5% are mechanics and know more about the gears than you do. The other 20% might just be getting too much information – information that they don’t need, but are paying for.

ADIs are supposed to teach people how to drive – not how to strip down a gearbox. Keep it simple, keep it focused, and keep it sensibly brief.

Addendum: In spite of pointing out that the above explanation is not intended to represent the exact gear ratios in a car, and that it is intended as a brief explanation for pupils about how gears work, there are still some people out there eager to put down this advice and point out that the gears are different sizes and ratios in a real car. Yes, I know. I said that already.

But for anyone who still believes that it is an instructor’s job to give physics and engineering lessons as well as driving tuition, and who is desperate to shoot holes in this tutorial, the gear ratios in the simple demonstration above came about because I started with a 25-toothed gear and went down in 5-tooth steps. They ended up as:

1st – 1:1
2nd – 1:1.25
3rd – 1:1.7
4th – 1:2.5

These numbers of teeth were chosen purely to get an animation that wasn’t too complicated, but which showed how the gearing works when moving any vehicle. In a current Ford Focus, the actual ratios are:

1st – 3.67:1
2nd – 2.14:1
3rd – 1.45:1
4th – 1.03:1
5th – 0.81:1
Reverse – 3.73:1
Final drive – 3.82:1

In other words, the drive gear is smaller than 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears. Of course, the ratios will be different for all other Ford models (including the various Focuses), and for all other makes and models. And if you want to go still further, you could use this information to calculate the distance moved per engine revolution as long as you know the exact circumference of the tyres and then get on to the effect the differential gears have on the final power yield. Your pupils will marvel at your erudition on the subject!

I’ve got one girl who gets bored within 5 seconds if I pull her over to discuss why she tried to drive us off a cliff, and I don’t think I’ve yet come across anyone – even those studying physics at Uni, or who are apprentice car mechanics – who feel they’re paying me to lecture them on this topic.

If you’re going to lecture on something, the more detail you go into the more of an expert you need to be. Driving instructors need to recognise where their “skills” end and “nit-picking” begins.

The Morons Will NEVER Learn! Part III

05/07/2012

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ADI, Bad Drivers, News

Two stories in the newsfeeds worthy of comment.

This one tells of an 18-year old, Jack McKenzie, who couldn’t drive and had bad eyesight. He took the family car after having smoked cannabis and drove without his glasses. He was involved in a collision whilst overtaking at 60mph and died from his injuries.

The story gets close to – but never quite comes out with – “he was a nice boy”, as most of them usually do. That’s probably because everyone can see what he was.

I’m sorry, but I have little sympathy in these cases. Fortunately, he was the one who died and not some innocent third-party.

And then there is this one, about 26-year old Christopher Jones, who drove for 14 miles the wrong way on the M25 whilst trying to escape from police. He even tried to run down a police officer. And he was living in the south having done a runner from his native North Wales, having failed to turn up to his trial for another dangerous driving charge involving a police chase!

Jones was jailed for 25 months (so he’ll probably be out next year), banned for 2 years, and ordered to take an extended re-test. He should have been put away for life so that he was off the roads permanently, too.