It starts with the family values. If people don't respect themselves, it goes on from there, BobQuote:
Originally Posted by Kev the Fridgy
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It starts with the family values. If people don't respect themselves, it goes on from there, BobQuote:
Originally Posted by Kev the Fridgy
That is largely rubbish. Even the GTHO by todays standards is hardly extreme high performance car. The reason there were more fatalities is cars like the GTHO is they handled like trucks, lsot traction easily and could not brake and those that have driven them hard if honest will admit. They also had no driver aids, air bags etc Hence in a bad accident had higher fatality and injury rates. I grew up around these cars and even a standard low level car will have as good if not better performance than a lot of these Muscle Cars. I own a SS Torana and I tell you what my daughters BMW 323 would flog it. Look at the real facts, in relation to cars, population etc the stats have shown a marked decrease in injury and fatality rates per registered vehicle numbers and drivers and yet the cars have actually got much better performance. Take the ABS, traction control, air bags etc out and watch the fatalities increase dramatically. The accidents still happen, people just don not lose their lives as often. The single biggest killer is still people not wearing seat belts.Quote:
Originally Posted by isuzurover
If you look at those statistics, coming from 1970 where there were about 3798 deaths in a population of 12.5 million, compared to the latest of around 1464 in 21 million. That's how many die in China on the roads in 5 or 6 days.
I'm not saying that those 1464 are not in any way unimportant, but they are statistically a very small number. I think we very much are getting down towards the "**** happens" kind of number of deaths, where it is incredibly difficult to influence it downwards any further, and there are greater fish to fry.
If life is so precious, then concentrate on the bigger numbers. Like the 15000 or so who died from smoking related disease in 2003.
May be a controversial point of view, but if we are so desperate to legislate to save lives, let's make it count.
Good God, you hit a few nails on the head there. This biggest problem I've had constantly is when parents have tried teaching their kids and then I've spent extra time undoing the damage.Quote:
Originally Posted by tony66_au
There's no way virtually anyone who's had a licence for more than about the last five or ten years really knows what the test involves or what the finer points are. The idiotic things I've had students tell me that their parents had taught them has been a real eye-opener. No wonder there are so many bad drivers on the road - because so many don't know what to do in the first place. And I'll most humbly admit that my driving was pretty bad until I trained for this job.
An interesting situation up here is that almost all of my Aboriginal students don't have an I-own-the-road attitude, and have also been driving since they were around 8 or 10 years old. As a result, technically they're usually excellent and only have a few bad habits, such as taking off the handbrake first. So, I just have to work on that as well as teaching them what they certainly don't know, which is safe driving in town and road rules.
But my non-Aboriginal students have usually started driving late, sometimes with me, sometimes with Dad, and are way, way behind in the actual driving of a car, which just goes to show how many hours you really need. Then I've got to try and undo all the damage Dad has done with his teaching that dates from about 1925, and then there's either a lot of overconfidence, (for boys), or too much underconfidence, (for girls). My kids will be learning as soon as they can reach the pedals.
What almost everybody has in common is being in a big hurry for their licence, however nobody uses my car for a test unless I've booked it, and I don't book it until I'm sure they're up to the standard. This can cause some whining. But I'm more interested in good teaching than cutting corners. It's this being in a hurry that causes the most problems. People hit the road before they're ready since driving isn't seen as an important skill worth cultivating.
The test itself is a piece of cake and anyone can pass it if they just learn all the little things I drone on about. Whether you bump a curb while parking isn't the point - it's whether you know where your car is, and whether you're really in control of it at all times that's important.
The test doesn't cover highway driving or dirt roads, both of which you'll spend a lot of time on up here. After a few horrendous crashes in the area, I now teach a lot of that driving to give my students a better chance of surviving by learning from someone with the experience instead of figuring it out for themselves through a series of near-misses - which is how I learned.
One thing that I have been noticing over the last few years, when visiting shopping centres and crowded car parks is the number of cars that cannot park straight between the lines.The flow on effect is the next one has to park a bit over to the side and so on . This may seem inconsequential, but to my way of thinking it means that that person has no pride about how they drive, or park their car and no consideration for others around them.
That is the crux of the problem, they are in their own little bubble and when someone comes near that bubble they want to challenge them and win a battle, without proper control of their weapons.
Does that make sense ??
I've had a few beers :angel:
we can tell :p:D
:tease:Thanks for your support Lou.:tease:Quote:
Originally Posted by dullbird
I'm just trying to say it's all about attitude and thinking about the people around you.
Peace and Love Everyone :arms::arms::arms:
Yep. Makes sense. I deal with that every workday at the train station.Quote:
Originally Posted by Debacle
(Sometimes I'm a complete bastard and park inches from their drivers door.)
Have you noticed, though, the car parking spaces are getting smaller.
:eek: Ok I'll bite...........Quote:
Originally Posted by Tombie
You are partially correct.
Im 46 and im probably the exception to the rule because I have been for most of my working life a professional driver, I watch other drivers closely and I have seen Instructors do godawful things in their cars that they should be slapped around for, I have also gone and "Spoken" to a few really bad ones but like any industry there are burnt out instructors.
Heres the thing though,
When I started training youngsters there was no formal training or certification and all you needed was a car and voila! you were in business.
I worked for a guy who had 5 cars and started out doing weekends to pay a few bills starting at 6am and often finishing well after 9pm and then going back to work Monday morning for my normal job.
My training was in the form of some cheat sheets his missus had typed up to show how the flow of a lesson should go and they were pretty good for what they were and helped me figure it out.
I took it on myself to read the learners book and away we went with the first 5 or so lessons being an awful stuffup thinking back :wasntme:
There are still instructors out there who started back then who havent re educated and merely got the required police checks as they came in and still teach kids how to pass the test and this is where my next bit comes in.
Not all instructors teach the same things.
Some teach how to pass the test, Some actually teach how to drive and some teach a system of car control derived from police training methods.
I started out doing the first 2 and ended up doing all 3 based on the System of car control, Do I practice what I preach?
Sure but I have always driven this way.
Do I speed occasionally and do naughty stuff?
Allegedly :angel:
But I also enjoy motorsports and fanging about on dirt sideways where the driving rules are a bit different.....
Are there crappy driver trainers?
Absoflogginglutely, miserable old farts and crabby sour girls who shouldn't be doing what they do and not a week goes past when someone doesn't tell me a story about their experiences with Learner instructors.
I feel bad for em, really I do.
And im still tempted to go back to teaching kids to drive and all it would take is 30 Thousand bucks and a months retraining/catchup.
And then I look at how kids have changed in the last 5 years and wonder if $50 an hour is worth the hassle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tombie
Re the Auto/Manual certification?
Thats a bad bad thing to get rid of the classifications.
For starters some people can not drive a manual, it is medically impossible for them to perform the required actions and remain safe and concentrated on the task at hand.
I have trained drivers like this in the past and it was only in the last 5 years that I was shown why and its as simple as a crossed wire in their brains.
It isnt a skill to be taken for granted either as a lot of people forget or become very nervous when they have to drive a manual after a long period of driving auto's and sometimes circumstances change where this makes them dangerous in a manual car.
The past 10 years has yielded a lot of information in relation to medical issues and operating a motor vehicle and the amount of glitches now proven medical facts is astounding.
Heres a simple test I used to perform, Park at right angles in a driveway on a main road as if you were wanting to turn left say from a side street or private driveway.
Have your passenger watch oncoming traffic from the left and you, the driver call the colour of the cars as you see them approach from the right..
Just the colour and call it as soon as you see it.
9/10 people dont see silver or silver grey cars until they are much much closer than other colours and a lot of people dont see that colour car until its way too close.
Because we dont see that colour as well as others.
And thats just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to genuine medical reasons why stuff happens when we drive.
Then try the above test for real while watching traffic coming from both directions as if you were wanting to turn right.
And it isnt until a smart trainer who trains trainers puts you through these lil tests that you realise how much you dont know about driving and especially how many baaad habits you have formed and how many downright dangerous actions you perform driving a vehicle.
I thought when I retrained that id be better than most because of the miles traveled and my semi experience and previous training but I was as bad as the rest and I just had more ego to swallow :D
Booze limits on drivers, My 18 year old son was whinging about this 00 requirement, Until I pointed out to him that anyone who drives a passenger vehicle for hire also has a 00 BAC as do any heavy vehicle drivers.
Agreed we need uniformity in testing and the rules are slowly getting there on a national basis.
Tony