Much as they try to be tolerant, the residents of the Firs Estate have had enough of learner drivers stuttering, stalling and kangaroo hopping around their roads. The quiet grid of leafy streets and family homes has been identified as the most popular gathering place in Britain for trainee motorists. Now, locals have had enough and have set up a campaign group to threaten legal action against the local authority to tell the driving schools to go elsewhere. The estate in South Woodford, east London, received hundreds of learner drivers in one day. A recent survey counted 409 in a 12 hour period. The problem started nine years ago when the town became a test centre and has gradually got worse, with more than 100 accidents recorded since 2001. BSM, Kims, Bill Plant, Rudi’s and Eurodrive are just a few of the driving schools clogging up the streets. Learners line behind each other to practise reverse parking, parallel parking and three point turns, with often calamitous results. Parked cars, garden walls, lampposts and trees have all fallen foul of the inexperienced motorists at the wheel. Eddie Blackwell, leader of the campaign group, said several local people had suffered minor injuries while one man was knocked out after a learner driver hit him. More
(AD Remarks ~ New drivers do need to practice somewhere, and these residents were perhaps learning to drive themselves years ago, so there needs to be some tolerance. BUT the problem here is serious as the volumes of tuition cars seems very high, and it seems that instructors are not as professional as they should be if the massive number of crashes is to be believed!)
The AA has renewed its campaign for transparency over driving schools’ use of trainee instructors, as a new investigation reveals that up to 75,000 learners have in the last year been taught by an instructor they didn’t know was a trainee. In a survey of 2,000 young drivers, only 2 per cent believed they had been taught to drive by a trainee instructor. However, recent figures from the Driving Standards Agency show that trainees make up more than 14 per cent of all instructors. “This means around one in every ten pupils who thought their instructor was fully-qualified, were in fact taught by trainees. With 750,000 people learning to drive each year this suggests there are up to 75,000 learners a year who do not realise their instructor is also learning on the job,” says AA President Edmund King. In a recent AA/Populus survey, fewer than 0.5 per cent of AA members said that if they were given a transparent choice, for lessons charged at the same rate, they would choose a trainee. “Incredibly, driving schools are not obliged to give you a transparent choice. So many charge as if it’s a fully-qualified instructor but give you a trainee. There’s a canyon between what learners think they are paying for and what they get. The official pink badge trainees are required to display is clearly leaving learners none the wiser. Driving schools must be forced to come clean before more young learners are literally taken for a ride.” More
(AD Remarks ~ When you meet your instructor for the first time, they should show you their licence. You can then check the photograph for ID, and that the licence is current. It is the law to display, when giving paid tuition. There is currently problems with cowboy instructors, who don`t hold eith licence, so always be vigilant.)
BSM, a major motoring school, is using pink Fiat 500s because it claims their paintwork calms learner drivers. The company quotes research showing that pink has a relaxing effect on physical behaviour, reducing anxiety within minutes of exposure to the colour, helping to steady nerves. The pink Fiats will be located in London, Bristol, Manchester and the south-east. According to the Institute of Biosocial Research in Tacoma, Washington, USA, pink helps heart muscles relax, promoting slower and deeper breathing, leaving novices relaxed but alert. This apparently allows the learner to “be in a more receptive state of mind” so that they can absorb and respond to information from their instructor. ntwork calms learner drivers. More
(AD Comments ~ May be a calming car of girls, but many guys wouldn`t want to drive such a car. It might make them more nervous of being spotted, while out on the lesson!)
Young drivers might be less likely to crash after passing their test if their parents sit in on driving lessons. This is one conclusion that can be drawn from the Staffordshire Young Driver Coaching Programme (YDCP), which found that parents’ involvement in driving lessons also helped to cut out the age-old quarrels between learner drivers and the mums and dads who offer private practice. An evaluation of the project, which was carried out as part of the RoSPA/BNFL scholarship scheme, found that an accompanying resource pack also proved vital to producing better, safer drivers. Although the study, by Staffordshire County Council and the University of Keele, did not quantify long-term goals, such as reduced crash rates, it did highlight the kind of good practice – such as parents sitting in on lessons – that RoSPA hopes might enable those aims to be achieved. A quarter of all approved driving instructors (ADIs) in Staffordshire signed up to the scheme, which saw close to 20 families taking part. As well as parents recording progress in the learner’s training book, they also received guides about how to support the lessons conducted by the learner’s ADI. An evaluation of the resource pack’s effectiveness found that it improved the structure of private practice by giving parents a better understanding of their child’s progress with their instructor, while also updating their own knowledge of the Highway Code. This resulted in parents having more confidence to supervise learners and more efficient paid-for lessons – not to mention the guides being used to solve arguments in private practice! More
(AD Thoughts ~ This can be of great benefit for parents, who take their children out driving on the roads. After many years of driving, we use experience to safely handle the roads, but for a novice driver consistancy and knowledge needs to be built up, with solid practice. Watching lessons, would help parents to supervise that practice better. Also it may have been many years since parents passed their tests and may not understand, the current testing system.)
A driver crashed into a school when he was over-the-limit… on his first driving lesson. Learner George Howarth lost control of his instructor’s Nissan Micra going round a bend and embedded it into railings. The instructor tried to brake using his controls, but Howarth continued to accelerate onto the pavement. Howarth was one-and-a-half times the limit and blamed it on drinking the night before – even though the accident, in Gorton, Manchester, was at 4.30pm the following the afternoon. Mohammed Zahid from the Z-Plus driving school, said the instructor had been unaware Howarth, of Bickerdike Court, Longsight, had been drinking. He said: ‘He wasn’t aware. He’s a very good instructor and he doesn’t drink himself. We didn’t know.’ Jobless Howarth, 53, has since passed his test. But Manchester magistrates promptly banned him from driving for 16 months after he admitted drink-driving. More
(AD Comment ~ Shows that anyone supervising a learner, not just instructors, must be sure that they are fit and capable to drive.)
Following a successful pilot, the ‘Young Driver’ programme by Admiral Mulitcar and Seat UK is to be launched nationwide. The organisers believe that the programme, which is designed to help teach 11-16 year-olds how to drive carefully, will significantly reduce crashes and save lives. Young Driver teaches youngsters to drive dual-controlled cars in a safe and environment. Using 200 new SEAT Ibiza models and specially designed driving zones, the organisers say the experience has been a ‘massive hit’ with young drivers and parents. Lessons start at £29. Young Driver operates with approved driving instructors (ADIs) and sessions are available to children over 1.5 metres (4’ 11”) tall, between the ages of 11 and 16. The scheme is offered in 30 or 60-minute lessons during weekends and school holidays. After the first lesson, participants are given a Drive Diary filled in by their instructor. This allows pupils, parents and instructors to chart individual progress and focus on new skills. More
(AD Suggests ~ Good early education in road safety and driver attitude, can only improve the roads for the future.)
Learner drivers are being targeted for intimidation by road rage ‘idiots’ according to the AA, whose driving instructors have reported a catalogue of serious incidents across the UK. AA Driving School is calling for more consideration towards learners, after a national panel of instructors pointed to examples of hostile, bullying and reckless behaviour towards pupils. Tailgating and aggressive or dangerous overtaking are the most common transgressions, followed by verbal abuse, rude hand gestures, blowing the horn – and even car-ramming, racial abuse and threats of physical violence. “Most drivers are patient and courteous and will give way, allow extra time and space and even applaud a successful manoeuvre,” says Simon Douglas, Director of AA Driving School. “But an idiotic few see the L-plate as their own licence to harass learners with actions that are cowardly, bullying and sometimes downright dangerous. “It’s a tiny minority who cause problems and it shouldn’t put people off learning to drive, as this is an important skill for life. Our instructors teach pupils to anticipate poor drivers and understand situations that might wind them up. And, where possible, they use offenders’ behaviour as a lesson in how not to drive. But, on behalf of all learners, we ask drivers to show more consideration and respect. After all, we were all learners once.” Instructors have reported serious incidents to police and, where they involve commercial drivers, to their employers. Perpetrators have included members of the public as well as the drivers of buses, taxis, commercial vans and, in one case, an NHS vehicle with patients on board. More
(AD Suggests ~ Most learners will have similar stories, but it shows how a few minority of drivers need to be more responsible on the roads.)
Ninety-seven per cent of AA members say learner drivers should have the right to be told if their driving instructor is learning on the job, according to a new survey. The AA is demanding government action to force driving schools to come clean when they use trainee instructors to teach young people to drive. The call comes as an AA/Populus survey reveals serious concerns among motorists over the safety of drivers taught by trainee instructors and overwhelming rejection of the practice of driving schools charging full price for lessons with a trainee. Up to 7000 trainees – one in eight of all driving instructors – are believed to be working for driving schools across the UK. Driving schools can place a learner with a trainee instructor and charge full lesson rates, without telling the pupil or their parents that the instructor is not fully-qualified. The only legal requirement to disclose that an instructor is learning on the job is for the trainee to display an official pink badge in the windscreen. More
(AD Suggests ~ We only have fully qualified and very experienced instructors to provide driving tuition. The trainee licence is good for new instructors to get experience teaching before the final teaching exam, but learners need to be made aware that they are being taught by a trainee and should pay a reduced lesson rate.)
Increasing numbers of teenage learner drivers are turning to the “school of mum and dad” as they find professional lessons too expensive, evidence suggests. But some of those getting tuition from family or friends find the experience “bad”, a survey by price comparison site uSwitch.com showed. The poll found that 12% of learners are taught solely by amateur drivers while 13% mix-and-match their tutors. More
(AD Suggests ~ Private practice is a great help to many, to improve road experience and lower the ammount of professional tuition, but does not want to take the place of an instructor completely. Friends/family may have the best intentions at heart, but they might not give the correct education a learner would require to drive safely.)
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