From What Car? – Hyundai is releasing three new Bluedrive models this year, each with CO2 emissons figures of less than 100g/km. “Bluedrive” is the branding Hyundai will use for its eco-friendly ranges.
The models will be the i10, i20, and i30 (city, supermini, and small family) – and the Bluedrive range will be a subset of these (i.e. also available in full-fat versions).
Much is made of the fact they’ll be exempt from London’s congestion charge. Big deal – to a mere 15% of the population.
This story in What Car? suggests that Tesco is moving into selling used cars.
No details are know – so it is a little bit of speculation at the moment – but they have registered the tescocars.com domain name. It is thought that sales will be purely online.
Tesco already sells insurance and tyres, so this wouldn’t be a complete surprise if it happened.
From the Kirriemuir Herald – the Prime Minister has been challenged over planned closures of the Forfar and Arbroath test centres.
I’m not exactly sure what the beef is.
Commenting on the closures Mr Weir said: “It is completely unacceptable that the Driving Standards Agency can act in this high handed and undemocratic way.
“They simply announced the closure of the centres in a letter about the opening of the new multi-purpose test centre in Dundee. There was no consultation with either the community or the instructors affected by the move.
So? That’s exactly what happened around here when West Bridgford and Gedling closed, and Colwick MPTC took over. Parking and access to both West Bridgford and Gedling TCs was appalling and moving to the MPTC has turned out to be great – although that’s not how ADIs viewed it at the time (big surprise there, then).
Arbroath, Forfar, and Dundee are each about 15 miles apart – so those who previously took tests in Arbroath or Forfar will simply have to travel 15 miles to Dundee. Compare that with the cost of maintaining two additional test centres and there’s no comparison.
The politician involved (Mike Weir) appears to have a much bigger issue on his mind. He talks of “localism” and “consultations” with the local community. And, of course, this is Scotland we are talking about – so the chances of positive discrimination in one form or another is a card he can play.
A quick look at the Google images for the three locations show that both Arbroath and Forfar TCs are located in narrow streets in residential areas – just like West Bridgford and Gedling were. A look at the Dundee image shows a wide open industrial area – just like the Colwick MPTC location. The Dundee MPTC opens on February 28th, which means it has been purpose-built: planned as a direct replacement for Arbroath and Forfar, and also covering the Dundee area.
Mr Weir has the additional lever in that Mickey Mouse – sorry, I mean the Prime Minister of this joke government – is hell bent on reversing everything that was ever decided under Labour.
They should all get a life.
EDIT 18/02/2011: An update to this story – a stay of execution is granted to Arbroath TC.
If Mike Weir gets his ridiculous way on this, I want West Bridgford and Gedling back – and the Colwick MPTC converting back to a fly-tipping site.
EDIT 22/02/2011: According to The Courier newspaper, a “one year reprieve” has been granted to the test centres. The wording allows all concerned parties to pretend that they have won.
Reading between the lines, though, and the test centres are still likely to close – it’s just that the government is going to take a year to “consider” it:
Mr Weir had been verbally assured by UK transport under-secretary Mike Penning that the centres would not be shut while the matter was being considered, and that promise has now been cemented.
That part I’ve emboldened is the key phrase. The article continues:
He said, “The DSA have assured me that the two centres will remain open for at least a year whilst all options are looked at for delivering the service in Arbroath and Forfar. The strong campaign, locally and in Parliament, has clearly forced a major rethink in how the DSA are looking at local test centres and I will be keeping up the pressure to try and ensure that we continue to have testing facilities locally.”
Mr Weir claimed the extension would provide “breathing space” and time for discussion.
It’s not quite the same as a reprieve, is it? And a tacit admisson, perhaps, that they are going to close at some point from Mr Weir? The DSA replies:
…”We will be continuing to use the test centres at Arbroath and Forfar for another year while we consider all options for service delivery in that area.”
Seeing as the new MPTC was due to open very soon (so has obviously been partly built, or at least planned to building point), the DSA has now been forced into a money-wasting situation by Mr Weir and those ADIs who couldn’t accept change.
And speaking of wastes of money, the following comparison of phrases in the article is interesting:
A campaign was mounted by a group of driving instructors who claimed they, and their students, stood to lose thousands of pounds if the centres were axed.
Arbroath councillor David Fairweather helped the instructors’ group to set up meetings and stage a protest outside the test centre in the town last month.
I wonder how much that cost? As much as keeping two small test centres open instead of moving to a single purpose-built one? It’s just a case of the tail wagging the dog. ADIs are experts at that sometimes.
Of course, the main protagonists hail it as “a u-turn”.
Another Autoblog story – football stars top the league of “bad drivers”.
I’m not completely clear on why this is considered “news”. It’s more a statement of the obvious – and it has more than a few links with the previous story from Autoblog about young male drivers’ insurance premiums.
According to findings by insurance firm elephant.co.uk, 28.9 per cent of professional footballers – almost one in three – have flouted the rules of the road and paid the price with points, fines or worse still, bans.
OK, OK. So it’s from an insurance company engaged in promoting itself with one of those daft surveys, but it is still an interesting topic (for a few minutes, anyway).
All it requires is the application of a little logic:
There’s not much point going on, is there? Like I said, it’s just stating the bloody obvious.
I saw this story in Autoblog. There is a discrimination hearing next month at the European Court of Justice.
The final decision is expected on 1 March, and could see the gap closed between the prices male and female drivers pay for their insurance. The 17-22 age bracket is set to suffer the most, with prices for female drivers currently over £1,000 less than their male equivalents.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Personally, I find any form of discrimination abhorrent – positive discrimination especially so. I had a skinful of it when I was in the rat race.
Also interesting is this:
Spokesman for the AA, Ian Crowder, said that the traditional difference between the two genders was based on statistical evidence.
“It is not that women have fewer accidents, it is that men are more likely to take risks and have a catastrophic crash,” he said. “The typical one is where a young man is showing off to his mates or his girlfriend.”
He said The AA has already had two claims from male teenagers in excess of £5m this year for crashes where serious injury or fatalities involved.
Talk about conflicting information. This is the first time I’ve heard this used as a reason why male drivers’ insurance is high, and also the first time I’ve seen anyone officially admit women don’t have fewer accidents.
Well done to Darren, who passed first time with 2 driver faults this afternoon.
He could talk for England. A few weeks ago he was rabbiting away and making mistakes as a result. I went into a “bad mood” and refused to talk and it made a world of difference.
At one point he said “I’m not going to talk on my test” shortly before having to brake hard at a roundabout.
I replied: “Why don’t you practice now?”
Anyway, I warned him about it today. As soon as the examiner walked out he was into Motormouth Mode, making jokes. And then it turned out they both had a common interest in something (he told me after the test).
But, he’s a good driver and 2 faults is a great result.
Here’s an interesting article forwarded to me by a reader of the blog. It’s from WalesOnline .
Apparently, the lowest driving test pass rate (Rhyl) during 2009/10 was 38.4%, but the highest (Llandrindod Wells) was 73.3%. The figures have been uncovered by a Plaid Cymru politician – Chris Franks – whose argument appears to be that the people in North Wales can’t possibly be half as good as those in South Wales. He says:
While the DSA say that pass and fail rates among individual examiners are analysed, there must be an issue when pass rates vary so much – from under 40% to more than 70%.
I don’t believe that learner drivers in North Wales are any worse than those in Mid or South Wales, despite the figures.
He has a point. But the DSA is damned if it does, and damned if it doesn’t.
They have recently introduced a new statistical model to their monitoring of examiner performances. I wrote about it in this article, and then in this further article. People on the forums were wetting themselves over the prospect of something else to snipe at the DSA with.
As far as the average ADI is concerned, variable pass rates are bad. Trying to make them consistent is bad, but leaving them alone is also bad. Making the test harder is bad, but making it easier is bad, too.
Confusing, isn’t it?
If you want to understand the thought process of the typical ADI, look no further than the image above. And then just extend it to politicians.
This story caught my eye in the Belfast Telegraph. A 22 year old man was killed in a car crash on Sunday in Limavady.
He had only recently passed his driving test.His three teenage passengers sustained only minor injuries.
At the moment, enquiries are still continuing, so it would be wrong to speculate about the cause of this specific incident (and the Police are looking for another car which may have been involved). However, just looking at the basic details – new driver, car full of teenage mates… it’s exactly what the DSA on the mainland has been concerned about.
No one is saying that all new male drivers drive recklessly. But they are nowhere near as skilled as they think they are when they pass, and having three passengers with the same attitude in the car at the same time is bound to result in even greater impaired reaction on the part of the driver in the event of an emergency situation arising.
It really is a classic situation, though. Last year one of my 17-year old pupils passed his test, and was out driving within an hour. Later that afternoon I went round to pick up one of his friends for his lesson. I pulled up outside and the lad who’d passed earlier rolled up a few minutes later in his car with my next pupil and two other passengers from his school. And where had they been? McDonalds. You can set your watch by them, they’re so predictable.
At the moment, it seems that people are trying to dump responsibility for this problem at the feet of the driving instructor.
However, the problem lies with parents and society – not driving instructors. And even then, you have to ask if it is actually possible to change something – the often-unpleasant and surly attitude of the juvenile human male – which no one else has succeeded in changing in all of recorded history.
My diary is full at the moment – in fact, it has been for quite some time, so I’m not knocking it.
But one thing anyone entering this business needs to be aware of is how quickly things can change. A good example being today.
I started with 6½ hours booked.
I was on my first lesson this morning – a two hour one – when a text comes through. When we pulled up I had a glance and noticed it was from my next pupil – he wanted to drop the lesson down to an hour because he was going somewhere. He lives a long way out, and an hour isn’t enough to do anything useful, so I suggested we just postpone it until next week’s lesson. Then, 20 minutes before I set off for my third lesson another text came through – she can’t make it and wants to rearrange for a night in the week (which I can do). Then I went to my last one and it turned out his mum had forgotten to tell him (he is a special needs pupil). There’s no way I’m letting him drive if he’s not prepared, especially in the rain, so that one went as well.
To be fair, I don’t get many of these because I make it clear it’s my livelihood as well as their driving lessons, and they all understand. But every now and then one crops up.
Well done to Lee, who passed this afternoon with just 5 driver faults.
He had a stinker of a lesson last night – nothing went right at all. But today’s pre-test session went like a dream.
He’s given me a lot of material recently. Last night we had various excuses, like “I couldn’t see the road markings” as we approached a roundabout too fast, and “I don’t like driving at night” – when his job and availability means that 90% of all his lessons over the last 6 months have been… yes, at night.
But today was a classic. We were running through each of the manoeuvres as we took a route to the test centre. I pulled him over, and in front of us were two cars (both silver) parked very closely together – there was literally less than ¾ metre between them. I said “OK. I want you to do a parallel park behind that silver car”, to which he replied “which one… oh!”
I said “you’d need to be bloody good to get behind that other one!”