Learning to Drive by Cutting Corners?

13/06/2011
DOAADI
ADI, DSA

This is a very old article. DSA is now DVSA.

Here’s an interesting article from Tiger.co.uk (site no longer exists), reviewing the cost of getting on the road for new drivers.

It points out the following:

The Driving Standards Agency suggest that it is very unlikely that anyone except an approved driving instructor will have the knowledge and experience necessary to teach learner drivers properly. Research conducted by the agency shows that the average number of professional lessons required to pass a test is 47, along with 20 hours of private practice with someone who has held their driving licence for at least 3 years and is over the age of 21.

According to the AA driving school the average cost of a driving lesson in the UK currently is £24, which makes the prospect of having to afford 47 quite expensive; particularly among a group who are already being hit by increased education fees and a pressurised job market.

Tiger (now defunct)

It goes on to say that there is a “worrying trend” to ignore the DSA’s advice and to try to learn without “professional” help in order to save money.

Tiger then summarises typical costs involved in going from novice to on-the-road (likely to be higher for some males, and assuming first time passes):

  • provisional licence – £50
  • lessons – £1,128
  • learner insurance – £256
  • test fees – £106
  • used car – £1,350
  • road tax – £130
  • insurance – £2,431

This amounts to £5,451, of which driving lessons represent 20% of the overall outlay.

What the article fails to mention, though, is that if someone is given poor training then they won’t usually pass. Some will, but most won’t – so they end up having to take lessons anyway, make multiple attempts at the test, and the overall cost usually ends up higher than if they’d done it properly in the first place.

And there is something else that Tiger (and the DSA, and the AA) has missed. Not all instructors are equal – in more ways than one.

I’ve just picked up a new pupil. When I enquired about her driving experience, she told me she’d had 14 hours with an instructor, but she wasn’t happy with how well she was progressing so she wanted a new trainer. She told me she hadn’t done any of the manoeuvres, and had just driven around on lessons. I concluded that she could probably drive quite well, so I’d begin introducing a couple of manoeuvres once I’d checked out her driving.

On her first lesson she couldn’t even get the car moving without stalling. She’d never had the clutch explained to her, never done any clutch control exercises, and – it turned out from the look of terror on her face when I moved out on to a main road – never driven on proper roads!

When I questioned her on this, it seems that her instructor often turned up late, picked her up and drove her to a location, let her drive for an hour, then drove her back home – usually finishing early. She was paying for 2 hour lessons, but getting little more than 1 hour of driving much of the time. Seven lessons of this – and around £300 of her money – she’d gotten wise. But many don’t.

The thing is, there is nothing wrong with her driving. In one 2 hour lesson I got her doing a turn in the road to the point where all she has to do is practice it, discovered that she is a natural reverse steerer for the corner reverse exercise, and introduced the parallel park. On her second lesson, which was just an hour, we did clutch control exercises on a hill and she was able to drive in slow traffic and move off at junctions without stalling.

After 14 hours, she should have already covered most of that, and definitely how to move off properly, because she was easily capable of learning it. Instead, she’d been taught to find the bite before/without gas and work the rest out for herself (she doesn’t know if she’d been using diesel or not, but I have my suspicions).

So Tiger (and the DSA, and the AA) need to be careful not to gloss over these sorts of problems. They’re far more common than many would like to believe. Not all “professionals” are professional, and some parents are capable of doing an infinitely better than some instructors.

HDR Photos + Panasonic Lumix TZ9

13/06/2011
DOAADI
Computers & Tech

I’ve mentioned my new camera a couple of times – it’s the Panasonic Lumix TZ9, with a nice high ISO range (for a small camera) that’s great for indoor pix at gigs.

One other feature it has is the ability to take bracketed images so you can generate HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. I’ve always wanted a go at that, and I’d planned to get a decent dSLR at some point so I could experiment further.

Now, let’s not beat about the bush here. Proper dSLRs have dynamic range settings from 3eV upwards, and that allows for some stunning images. The TZ9 only has a 1eV range, and at £150 it is hardly trying to compete with the big boys.

One thing I have discovered is that you definitely need to use a tripod, as the three individual photos are taken over about 1.5 seconds. While I was out his evening I stole a quick chance to get some pictures when I noticed the sun behind a pupil’s neighbour’s house.The bracketed images

 These are three bracketed images taken at +1eV, 0eV, and -1eV. I took these at ISO 400, f/6.3, and 1/30 sec exposure. The sun was partially obscured by clouds just to the right of that house on the right – I was trying to get a situation where you’d normally get under-exposure in the foreground, or over-exposure of the background.

This is the HDR image I produced from these:HDR image

 This is just a first try, but I was impressed by the detail of the foreground and those trees in the background, as well as on the house brickwork – even though the sun is just over there.

I need to play with this some more when I get a chance.

Which Test Centre is Easiest?

12/06/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests

Note that this is an old article, and the test centres in Nottingham have changed. We now (in 2022, and since 2018) have Colwick, Chilwell, and Watnall. Chalfont Drive closed down several years ago.

A reader asked this interesting question about test centres. It is also a common search term used to find the blog.

In Nottingham we have two test centres – Colwick MPTC and Chalfont Drive. Colwick replaced the original Gedling and West Bridgford centres, and it was the first one to include the bay parking exercise.

The commencement of tests at Colwick was precisely the time when the rumour started that Chalfont Drive test centre was easier, and that rumour persists to this day. But why?

The bay park really was at the heart of the matter. It caught many instructors out – they didn’t know how to teach it – and there was a mass exodus to Chalfont to avoid having to do so. The waiting times there increased dramatically – at one point it was over 8 weeks compared with less than a fortnight at Colwick. People might not believe this, but it is true.

Another “problem” with Colwick was the test centre itself. The entrance is a long driveway with a sharp dog-leg bend. Traffic is single file on this bend, and there is a priority Give Way in favour of those leaving the centre. In the first few months it was so bad that the centre manager had to send out a letter explaining to instructors how to use it! More than one had taught their pupils to keep left, resulting in close – very close – encounters with the fence. On one occasion not long after it opened, tests had to be cancelled because a learner got their car lodged on the gates!

Colwick MPTC is also slap in the middle of an industrial estate, and during the day there are quite a few lorries driving around it.

A lot of ADIs also opposed Colwick just on principle. It was the old story of resentment towards change. Gedling and West Bridgford were in nightmare locations – in busy town centres with almost no parking and, just before their closure, council-bred traffic wardens camping outside just to slap tickets on learner cars.But people were familiar with them, and whinged openly about the extra mileage (Colwick is 3.5 miles from West Bridgford and 2.9 miles from Gedling).

Putting all this together – resenting change and trying to justify it, not being able to handle bay park, lorries, or the nasty entrance – ADIs had to sell their new-found preference for Chalfont to their pupils. And that’s where the rumours started.

Well, let’s take a look at the facts. This link [out of date, so removed] provides some actual data concerning pass rates at both test centres (and all others in the UK). At the time of writing Colwick actually has a higher pass rate than Chalfont, but the difference is statistically insignificant and for all practical purposes Colwick has the same pass rate as Chalfont.

Do they do bay parking at Chalfont Drive test centre?

Short answer, “no”. However, it is still on the syllabus and if Chalfont examiners suddenly had somewhere to do it, then they could ask a candidate to do it on their test – and technically they wouldn’t have to give anyone advanced warning.

A good ADI will teach his pupils how to bay park because they’re going to have to do it once they pass their tests. A good learner won’t be trying to choose which test centre to do their test at based on avoiding the bay park.

To be honest, the bay park is probably the easiest manoeuvre of the lot! The only people who think otherwise are those who can’t teach it, and those who are hung up about anything to do with “parking” and having other cars next to them.

Learn how to do it, then it doesn’t matter whether Chalfont does it or not.

Note that this is an old article, and the test centres in Nottingham have changed. We now (in 2022, and since 2018) have Colwick, Chilwell, and Watnall. Chalfont Drive closed down several years ago.

Test Pass: 11/6/2011

11/06/2011
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Tick!Well done to Bhaira, who passed today with 5 driver faults. Well-deserved, and will fit in nicely with the need to travel to different hospitals now you’ve graduated.

I totted up my actual figures, and this now makes it 23 passes out of 28 tests since December 29. That’s a pass rate of 82%. My figures weren’t bad anyway, but two long runs of passes this year made me sit up and take notice.

It’s Official: UK is on Drought Alert. Already!

10/06/2011
DOAADI
General

Can you believe it?

The 2011 DroughtAfter all that snow (snow is made from water, if I remember correctly), it has been on the radio all day that we are officially in a drought. The story is also covered in the Grauniad, and the Farmers Weekly, to name but two. Farmers are already saying that crop yields will be down as a result.

As you can see from the photo on the left, Nottingham’s Old Market Square is littered with the sun-dried skeletons of Staffordshire Bull Terriers and skateboarders – many of which appear to have sprouted horns as a consequence of the arid conditions. The Acacias and Baobabs which normally line the Square are looking very much the worse for wear.

The funniest part on the radio was the “expert” they interviewed:

Due to the lack of rain the amount of water held in the soil is very low. Wheat draws water from the soil. Wheat needs water to develop properly.

And I always thought the Grain Fairy was responsible.

The real problem now is that we either hope for the crappest summer on record, or we get ready for ridiculous price hikes later this year – probably on grain harvested last year.

And to make matters even worse, here in the East Midlands it has absolutely tossed it down with rain at least three times today. Of course, we all know that heavy rain is also bad for wheat, because it makes it fall over or start germinating when still out in the fields.

I think we’d just better get ready to be ripped off later in the year, because nothing is going to get us out of this.

Test Pass: 8/6/2011

08/06/2011
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Tick!Well done to Naomi, who passed today with 5 driver faults.

This was a brilliant result considering that she hates driving, and after her first attempt was scuppered by nerves, she really put in a super performance on this one. She said that she felt even worse this time, but that the adrenalin kept her focused.

Because of what happened last time, I sat in on this test to give moral support. It was obvious to start with that the nerves were fighting for control, but they lost the battle as the test progressed. There were a few hairy moments – like trying (and, incredibly, succeeding – albeit with a smell of burning clutch) to do a hill start on probably the steepest hill in Nottingham in 2nd gear (the examiner joked about it at the end); and then where that idiot builder on the same hill was blocking the road, appeared to be having trouble getting up it himself, then waved us through (but you’d have had to go on the pavement to do so), then decided not to let you go after all. But you dealt with it all perfectly.

So that’s ALL those who have taken a test this year now passed. And the current run of consecutive passes continues.

Driving Tests Rigged… Quotas?

07/06/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DVSA

A reader sent me this link to a story in This Is Croydon Today.

To start with, it’s yet another freedom of information (FOI) muck-raking exercise by a second-rate journalist in a third-rate newspaper (The Croydon Advertiser). It appears to be a case of monkey-see-monkey-do, as they have copied exactly what a load of other cheap local rags have done and looked to see if anyone in the area has taken a large number of tests before finally passing (they found one: 23 attempts).

In the absence of anything else worth writing about along these lines, they have then made an apparent attempt to suggest that DVSA is trying to fulfil quotas by suggesting that learners are more likely to fail at the end of the month than at the beginning. The hack responsible bases this, and all his other claims, on test results for a single 3-month period covering October-December 2010. But then they go on to say:

Pass rates at both centres were highest in the middle of the month (between the 11th and 20th) and lowest at the end (on or after the 21st), with a five per cent gap in success at the Croydon test centre, in Canterbury Road, Broad Green.

Well, excuse me a minute. If they are highest in the middle, that suggests they are lower at the beginning as well as the end. Not just the end, as the article suggests.

AbacusThere are lies, damned lies, and reporters who haven’t got a clue about statistics – but who still go ahead and try to interpret them. This unnamed reporter is a prime example.

I wrote in this article (September 2010) that examiners DO NOT have quotas to fulfil. However, whether or not individual examiners set themselves quotas so they don’t deviate from the local average is another matter entirely. I’m sure some of them do it, but it doesn’t affect the overall situation that much.

As I’ve said before, if an examiner is doing their job properly then they will have a pass rate that is close to the average without having to try to fudge it. If they ARE fudging it, then the internal system the DVSA is using will eventually sniff it out because they clearly AREN’T doing their jobs properly. The way for that to happen is if people appeal when they disagree with a result.

But having said that, the reasons for failure are pretty straightforward. Yes, there are hard routes and easier ones, but pupils manage to screw up big time on the easy ones often enough, so it stands to reason they will screw up even more on the harder ones. I can honestly say I have never disagreed with a result, and only a handful of my hundreds of pupils have – and even then, I didn’t: they made a genuine mistake and failed for it.

These idiots who don’t understand statistics seem to expect the pass rate to be 100% all of the time. One single fail and they’re over it like a rash.

The only thing I would say is that some examiners play it by the book, whereas others use a bit of commonsense. So a pupil who brushes the kerb when turning left might get automatically failed by the rigid examiner, no matter how good the rest of the drive was. The sensible examiner might reason that the rest of the drive was good so he’ll overlook that particular fault.

Do driving examiners fail people deliberately?

The short answer is NO. They do not. They are not told to fail people as part of any quota.

However, there are corrupt people in all walks of life, and as I explained above, it is possible that some examiners – a tiny percentage – fiddle their pass rates in order to avoid being “told off” by their managers.

Do examiners “fix” test results?

No.