C.A.R.D.S - coming next year?

As I will relinquish most of my involvement with running 2 classic race series after the end of this season, after a 20 year stint, I thought I might turn my hand to promoting better driving standards on the road!

I have no formal qualifications in this area, but am deeply concerned at the poor standards of driving throughout some parts of NZ.

With social media and websites reaching a fair audience, our roading masters seem so hooked on two or three safety aspects, yet totally ignore the obvious - driver education for those who already hold a licence.

I thought the acronym "Campaign for Awareness of Raising Driving Standards" (or something similar) might be a starting point. I'm NOT a self styled, publicity seeking promoter of dubious books; not a former traffic officer; not a budding or failed politician and nor am I looking for a one man band approach. It needs you guys.

Many regular posters on here, both amateur and professional drivers share my frustration with what we have to put up with every day, but all we get is being pinged for doing 5kph over the limit at holiday time and absolutely zero pro-active raising of driving standards.

Bear in mind this is only at the thinking stage, if anyone can see the point or a future - or can't, just post on here and I'll have a think about it. I am not the sort to sit around twiddling my thumbs, as anyone who knows me will confirm, but every day, we witness such terrible or inconsiderate or just dumb driving standards, yet no-one is doing a thing about it, least of all, those who should.

I am not anti Police, far from it, but they are not pushed into educating errant driving with a well worded warning, they are given totally different priorities and yes, the quota system does exist, in one form or another.

Like ya thinking. Have been busy dealing with "basic" driver behaviour for a bit now and pretty much, the level of driving out there is shit. I see (and deal with it) every day, tailgating, not indicating, turning into the wrong lane, straight lining roundabouts, running lights etc etc etc but there's only so much I can do. Most I speak with don't even know what they have done wrong!
Where I see the problem is many drivers no longer drive for the enjoyment. They drive to get from one place to another only so therefore they have no interest in improving their driving skill.

Have you looked at IAM ? Still low profile here but growing, mostly on bikes presently but car driving is biggest deal in UK.
I've gone through IAM system on bike and found it the single most valuable thing for riding I've done, despite doing all other courses I can.
You could go through IAM system then go on to train up as an observer yourself to help others. That's what I'm currently doing - giving back.

Good point Tamarillo, but that relies on people accepting that their driving needs a look at. #2 berg has hit the nail on the head on all counts, but the most telling phrase is "Most don't even know what they have done wrong". It is precisely that sector that we need to target.

Anyone who opts for IAM is already well on the way upwards anyway.

I was forced into doing a defensive driving course when I first arrived in 1983, and had a company car, but it didn't really address the main issues.

I also made a start with Prodrive, going to the launch as club rep, but once Toyota pulled the financial plug and then Ian Snellgrove passed away, it folded, yet was hugely successful - and that came from a racer who was hospitalised after a bad race crash and found out why so many (particularly youngsters) ended up broken. They didn't understand the basics of car control.

I learned heaps from 2 BMW/Mini days at Pukekohe, with Mike Eady - particularly about ABS and what you could do - so I have had to change my theoretical braking habits in an emergency stop situation in two vehicles, but revert to cadence braking in the classics!

I wonder how many of today's drivers even know about cadence braking or what ABS really means - or even know if they have ABS?

There is just so much that could be done but as berg identifies, it will need for them to be tapped on the shoulder, as they are just totally ignorant of what they are doing wrong - or could do so much better.

With one skidpan already at Hampton Downs, and I believe another to be built on site, at least south of Auckland, North of Hamilton has a potential facility to at least teach some of the car control basics in the correct environment.

socram,I have always liked the idea of having a seperate "Open Road Level" and a "City Only" license, with the appropriate defensive driver training (and 5-10yr re-sitting) in order to prove simple COMPETENCE in order to drive at 100kph-ish speeds at least .
However sadly I feel that #berg has it spot-on in his last paragraph re the general interest in actual driving nowdays, and seemingly any Govt. of the day now just looks at both dumbing down and revenue, the fact your idea WOULD improve standards is of no interest to them I feel, so getting either funding from them, or enough interest from Joe Motorist may be a battle.

I passed the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) test over 40 years ago and still aim to drive to their high standards. I remained a member for many years but lost touch with them some time ago when newsletters failed to appear. They must have had opportunities to offer their highly qualified opinions when road safety issues came up in the news but never was a word heard from them and now, unfortunately, they seem to be a very secret society.

The internet holds few secrets http://iam.org.nz
Tis true that in NZ they're not vocal like in UK, but in UK they have paid people to deal with it. With limited resources it sticks to building members here.