At a recent meeting, we had quite a pleasing number of new people attending for the first time. As it was only the second meeting of a new series, Mike Moorby
gave a talk on driver attitudes and things affecting them and then handed over to me to talk about the System of Car control which is the basis of advanced driving but not by any means the complete
article.
As usual, I encouraged audience participation and questions and one of the new attendees made contributions and showed an interest. This is always pleasing to any lecturer as it shows that at least
one of the class is awake!!
I completed my talk and after further questions we moved on to coffee and cakes when we generally chat with all the people present and offer driving health checks to new people. These are always a
useful way of giving a brief driving assessment and then a demonstration drive. If the person doesn't sign up for the full course, at least they will have picked up something useful from the demo
drive.
Most however sign up and get the benefit of safer driving, reduced wear and tear on their vehicle and improved fuel consumption. I was pleased to see that one of our observers was talking to my
questioner on the system and knowing our man as I do, expected to gain a new member. However when I questioned him he said that the person had said that they thought they may have a problem with our
method of gear changing (block changes) and considered themselves a good enough driver anyway. They would not be returning!
This is not an uncommon problem, in my 30 odd years as a driving instructor, both with the police and after I retired working with company car drivers, I found many drivers to have this negative
attitude. I never did work out whether it was because they genuinely thought their driving was beyond reproach or they were just frightened to find out that it wasn't. I suspect it was more of the
latter.
All truly good drivers have become that way by constant reassessment of their driving. If you don't have any further training after the driving test, how can they reassess anything? As a police
instructor, my driving was regularly assessed by my fellow instructors and theirs by me, so it was a process of continuous learning.
After many years of searching, I can confirm that the perfect driver does not exist; we can all learn something if only we keep our minds open. A closed mind just perpetuates all the bad habits that
have been picked up since the driving test and makes a serious accident more likely.
An advanced driving course such as we provide makes you 50% less likely to have an accident, very useful here in Cyprus and you may be assured that your assessor and examiner will have had their
driving looked at recently!
Barry Faulkner
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