🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec23.164034.10429@praxis.co.uk> martin@praxis.co.uk (Martin Croxford) writes:
>
>The "hogging" problem (and the "speed inappropriate for conditions"
>problem) will only be solved by education. A friend recently
>told me, eight weeks after passing his test, that the 2nd lane is the
>cruiser lane, the 1st lane is the slow lane and the 3rd lane is the fast
>lane. This would be funny if it wasn't so dangerous. Changing tack
>slightly, I advocate a two-tier driving test, with the current test the
>basis for the first tier, and a system that limits performance to driving
>experience, for example two years experience required to drive a 1600cc
>car. I'd also like to see the introduction of re-testing and the showing of
>accident video nasties during driving training (and possibly on TV). I
>don't believe that stiffer sentences by themselves will help - people
>(and I include myself in all this) need to be persuaded that their
>driving needs to be improved and need to be told how to do it. There are
>a thousand and one problems with these measures, but the current average
>driving ability must be improved somehow. 
>
>--
>Martin Croxford
>martin@praxis.co.uk

If its any comfort, your friend's answer would have meant an almost
certain fail, if he'd been asked about the appropriate use of lanes on
motorways in his test.

I think it would be useful to include motorway driving in the current
test, as is already done in lots of other countries.  I still remember
the EXTREME terror I felt when driving on a motorway for the first
time - and I'd deliberately got my husband to go with me on a quiet
evening, so that I'd have someone to talk me through things if I did
start doing anything dumb.

I'm not so sure if a "power-limit" would help.  When I passed my test,
we had a Morris Minor.  Four months later we sold it and got a Triumph
Vitesse (2L, 6 cylinder, loads of vrooming noises).  I'm sure the
Vitesse has made me a better driver.  The Minor was so easy to drive,
and so forgiving of mistakes, that it was easy just to mooch along
without paying proper attention.  I've never ever done that in the
Vitesse - it just won't let me.  

Alison