Driver training

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socram, Jan 1, 1:33am
I'm doing the old farts free AA driver assessment some time in 2020 and still on my bucket list, is a training session on the Hampton Downs skid pan.

Front engined, rear wheel drive cars, most of us have a reasonable idea as to how they will behave, but FWD and 4WD is a different methodology.

Equally, I was shocked to learn back in 2003, that I didn't really know how to do an emergency stop in an ABS equipped car, having learned cadence braking many moons ago.

I really didn't understand that you had to stamp on the pedal but could still steer around an obstacle.

So, does the current driving test/training cover the difference between an emergency stop with and without ABS? Does the average driver even know what they have got, especially if driving an older car?

I had a 1998 model of one sports car - no ABS, then also bought a 2004 example, which did have ABS and owned them both at the same time.
mrfxit, Jan 1, 2:35am
It's been proven in many tests that a hard stomp on an ABS system, will stop faster then a professional driver using non ABS brakes.
Testes are normally done with the same car that has options of ABS or not & same driver
mrfxit, Jan 1, 2:37am
*cough* . . yea

Dammit
tweake, Jan 1, 2:43am
tho a lot of that is simply due to not looking ahead, not taking notice of the situation around you.
carkitter, Jan 1, 2:47am
I'll go you one better, I'd say 99% of new car buyers have no idea how to utilise Brake Assist, Radar Cruise Control, Lane Change Assist and all the other active safety systems currently in vogue. These things should be on all driving instructor cars so drivers realise what their missing when their parents recommend them a 1995 Nissan Pulsar as a first car.
mechnificent, Jan 1, 2:49am
Oh yeah, careless people alright. and again. nothing like having a few close calls on a bike to have you keeping your wits about you.
mechnificent, Jan 1, 2:50am
We all feel more vulnerable on a bike.
marte, Jan 1, 3:50am
Riding a motorbike really shows up how many people drive cars badly. It's a constant 110% effort watching out for other people & evading what they are going to do a long time before they do it.
I could guarantee that without proactive evasion, I would get hit at least twice while riding across Christchurch. 5 times if I rode back, and only one of those drivers would have a clue of what they had done.
Pulling out without indicating, doing a 'U' turn ( from either side of the road! ) Or simply not indicating & then changing lanes on you were the most common things. Then braking & stopping for no reason.
That's the reason why I don't ride a motorbike any more.

People driving during the day in cars with their headlights on don't help, either. Expressly when they only have one headlight
mechnificent, Jan 1, 3:57am
Ha. That's me too mate. I got off the road years ago and only ride in the dirt or country roads these days. But even the country roads are dangerous. It's absolutely amazing how many sets of car tracks you see so far on the wrong side of the road, that even a bike would only squeeze past.
mechnificent, Jan 1, 3:59am
And I mean squeeze between a bank or drop-off.
mechnificent, Jan 1, 4:01am
And, having been driven by customers, I can tell you that the worst offenders are the really slow drivers. and they are sitting there with their heads turned talking to me as we go around a corner on the wrong side of the road. I suggest to them that the number one rule of dirt roads is keep hard left, and they explain how they only go slow. which I can bloody well see. I 'm scared shitless sometimes. haha.
apollo11, Jan 1, 4:04am
Morning drivers are worse, sometimes half asleep still, thinking about the day ahead.
mechnificent, Jan 1, 4:07am
Get more sleep then.
tweake, Jan 1, 4:56am
really easy to see where the idiots live by the tracks in the gravel. a single pair of tire tracks in the middle of the road says it all.
just lazy driving.
and anyone coming the other way is "driving to fast" and they get really angry at them.
mechnificent, Jan 1, 4:59am
Ha. exactly so. Cause they're a safe slow(incomptent) driver.
mechnificent, Jan 1, 5:16am
One good thing about twerps driving in the middle is, they push the metal to the sides, and people that keep left can have their tyres on the nice deep gravel where there are no pot-holes. And of course we don't need to swerve when someone does come around the corner. Leave that to them.
apollo11, Jan 1, 6:03am
I'll sleep in once I'm dead.
socram, Jan 1, 6:05am
The AA assessment isn't advanced driver training. Merely to see whether or not at 74 you should or shouldn't still be let loose on the road! Most of us haven't had a professional critique of our driving on the public road and in modern traffic conditions, so yes, some practical retest every ten years makes a lot of sense.

That would therefore net those who never took a NZ practical test or had dubious overseas licences.

Just a small query. We get loads of driving school cars around here, but are they fitted with dual controls (pedals)? If not, why not? They don't seem to advertise the fact.
mechnificent, Jan 1, 6:15am
Not if I can help it. We'll be neighbors !
smallwoods, Oct 4, 4:41am
Happened in 1970/s as well.
I drove my old Landrover down the Taupo highway to Napier City Council building and saw the driving tester.
We walked out into the car park and he went towards the first car.
I said not mine, mine is the Landy.
He asked did I drive it down, to which I said yes.
He said you pass then and turned back inside and wrote out my license.