Robbo wrote:... but it wont solve the problem, There will still be all the other idiots who cause accidents by selfishly and very knowingly drive dangerously. Regardless of how much training they've had..... attitudes need to be changed aswell as knowledge.
Well, yes, but it's beside the point. Nobody will ever eliminate dickkheads, this is not a reason for not trying. We simply do not throw enough resources at dickkhead elimination, and instead (as others have pointed out) the motor-insurance-premium-payer and the taxpayer between them end up paying a multi-billion pound bill.
carl_spackler wrote:Agree with your sentiment. I personally would never claim my driving to be any more than relatively decent, and I think the mentality of thinking you're a great driver can often lead to being a poor one, as it can contribute to overconfidence and a too casual attitude.
This is not the way I look at it. I would never claim to be a great driver, because for one thing, having been trained in advanced driving and spending every mile on the road putting what you've learned into practice only highlights to you how hazardous the roads are, and how easy it is to come to grief even if technically you have done nothing wrong. I would however strongly claim to be a better driver than most, simply because as a result of advanced driving training and actively trying to put those techniques into place every journey means that I know I am consciously actively looking for things which I know most other road users are not, and I am actively trying to concentrate not just on the few yards of tarmac ahead of me but the whole of the environment, which again I know most other drivers are not.
This does not make me "a great driver" but it does make me better than any driver who is not doing these things, which is, sadly, the majority. OTOH, any driver who did the same training, and wanted to learn and put into practice exactly the same techniques, could do so. So to me, being a driver as good as I am is
not because there is anything special about me, anybody could potentially do it, they (a) just need to want to do it and (b) be properly trained in how to do it.
As an example yesterday evening I was outside a bus lane, and at the end of the bus lane I started to drift over to the left hand lane. From the other direction there was a motorcycle which was on the centre white line, wanting to turn right, into a minor road on my left. As I moved out of the right hand lane I realised that an idiot ( a young lass driving a BMW saloon as it turned out) had decided to put her foot down and pull around me, heading for the right turn lane at the approaching lights. This meant she was straddling the white line, was accelerating, and was going to take the motorcyclist out. So I decided to brake as sharply as I dare without actually standing on the brakes, with no time to check whether the vehicle behind was too close as I felt I had no choice but to give the poor basstard on the bike a chance, he shot forward in front of me and the silly bitch in the Beemer missed his back end by inches as she sailed past.
The person behind me was thankfully paying attention and stopped behind me no problem. I had weighed up the alternatives though and preferred the prospect of a bent back bumper to a mangled motorcyclist.
Miss deBeemer then came to a halt about 30 yards down the road in the right turn queue. I slowly drove forward and wound my window down and had a chat. She was oblivious. She had no idea there had ever been a motorcyclist even in existence and was having none of it at all.
I would suggest that any of the people on this thread that take their driving seriously could have equally detected and thus avoided this accident-waiting-to-happen. It is only a question of paying attention to what is happening around you and driving on the basis that there are thousands of idiots all around you so you need to keep an eye out for them.
She could have done an advanced course and if she had been paying attention to the road ahead, and actively thinking about what she was doing, we would never have had this situation. In her case, as she wasn't an archetypal boy racer dickkhead, it is a prime example of a driver not up to the job, but who
could have been easily trained to be up to the job. That would only leave the issue of whether she had the personal commitment to try to keep up to those standards, but there is no reason in principle why she shouldn't, and certainly could if she wanted to. If somebody showed her a video of what she had nearly done I expect she'd be mortified.
I actually agree with you but It's an unfair generalisation. 
