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Old 20-03-17, 08:32 AM   #21
L3nny
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Default Re: N.I.P

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I don't know of anybody who has actually been thrown off one of these courses for being an argumentative provocative git but I'm sure going to try if I'm ever lucky enough to be invited onto one....
It's just not worth it, a couple of people on the course I was on tried to engage in logical, reasonable, discussion and it was just ignored. All it did was keep you there longer than you needed to be. The "instructors" standard response to everything was "I'm not going to argue with you".
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Old 20-03-17, 09:10 AM   #22
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Default Re: N.I.P

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It's just not worth it, a couple of people on the course I was on tried to engage in logical, reasonable, discussion and it was just ignored. All it did was keep you there longer than you needed to be. The "instructors" standard response to everything was "I'm not going to argue with you".
This would seem to be true. It's their job to try to persuade you to drive within the speed limits. If they succeed, job done. If they don't - well next time you're caught, it's points and fine. I can't imagine them giving two monkeys either way, and at no point does their job description involve arguing with the "students".
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Old 20-03-17, 11:09 AM   #23
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Default Re: N.I.P

you will be surprised by some of the answers your group will give to any questions asked,and possibly realise just how many Richard heads are out there on the roads.and hey you might just learn something yourself.!!
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Old 20-03-17, 12:26 PM   #24
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Well, I'll have to wait another week to find out. See Gripe of the day!
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Old 20-03-17, 02:35 PM   #25
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Default Re: N.I.P

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Originally Posted by L3nny View Post
It's just not worth it, a couple of people on the course I was on tried to engage in logical, reasonable, discussion and it was just ignored. All it did was keep you there longer than you needed to be. The "instructors" standard response to everything was "I'm not going to argue with you".
Despite all my bravado and tongue in cheek comments I do understand where these courses are coming from and if it were not for the blatant financial motivation behind them I would be a whole lot less scathing....

Many years ago police officers had what was called discretion. If you were driving like the proverbial they had the option of stopping you and encouraging you to change your ways. This could be done in several ways including a quiet word, a fixed penalty ticket, or summonsing you to court, and the choice often revolved around what exactly you had been doing, how you had been doing it, and your reaction to be asked to explain it.....

Then came along auditing and officers were asked to account and justify their time. "Words of advice" believe it or not were actually one of the activities recorded and some bright spark up at Headquarters spotted an opportunity, if not to improve road safety at least to get themselves promoted up the next rung.....

Overnight officers were told that all offenders were to be reported regardless of the circumstances. The report went to a specific department where somebody would decide how to proceed, conditional fixed penalties were sent to some, others sent to court, and a few received invitations to attend a very profitable "telling off" course. Unfortunately it seemed officers didn't particularly want to play the game and the opportunities to offer these courses were few and far between (Traffic officers are notoriously lazy and the thought of actually putting pen to paper for a trivial offence, let alone having to explain it to the member of public right in front of you wasn't that popular)... so they decided to lower all the thresholds on the camera systems so instead of getting clocked at 10%+2 (the guidelines at the time) it suddenly became a fair bit less.....

Eureka! You now had a major contribution to road safety and making a very tidy profit as well thank you very much.....
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Old 20-03-17, 03:15 PM   #26
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Default Re: N.I.P

Totally agree on that last point. Having to go on a naughty boy course because I went through a green light at 33.5 mph sucked. 5 hours with travel time and £90 lighter and I was not a happy bunny. One of the instructors thought to 60 on a NSL road was too fast.
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Old 22-03-17, 12:47 PM   #27
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I don't disagree that many road users need further education and some of the stuff they teach you in the class could be useful to some people.
I have been to a few IAM sessions and while their methods aren't great either they are miles ahead of what they teach in these classes. The should be treated as a chance to teach some advanced driving techniques not just read the highway code and shout at people.
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Old 28-03-17, 11:24 AM   #28
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Well, course done and it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it might have been. It was delivered with good humour, and a lack of condescension.

There were two people delivering it. Both were pleasant but the one chap who did the majority of it, a retired copper and ex traffic officer from south Wales, was very engaging, and very knowledgeable about advanced driving and observation. Most of the second half of the morning was on this topic, and was actually quite interesting.

During the course of the morning he made a comment about the ability of a traffic officer to make a judgement based on behaviour and driving style, as opposed to a speed camera which just detects whether or not you were travelling "too fast". I had a chat with him at the end of the morning and his view was that there needs to be more traffic officers on the road. He was not that pleased that traffic officers have been replaced by speed cameras.
When I said to him that I had been snapped at a lower speed than I had travelled on the bike safe course a couple of years back, he was extremely sympathetic and said he would have found it quite galling to have had it happen to him!

Ah well course done. It was a useful refresher and I learned a few bits and bobs. They made the point quite strongly that unless you are actually asked by your insurance company about whether you have done a speed awareness course, you do not have to tell them.
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Old 28-03-17, 08:57 PM   #29
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Default Re: N.I.P

Mine asked. I admitted I had and said that as a result I was much more aware of why speeding was dangerous and they should therefore give me a discount as I would now be a safer driver. They did as well.
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Old 28-03-17, 09:25 PM   #30
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Mine asked. I admitted I had and said that as a result I was much more aware of why speeding was dangerous and they should therefore give me a discount as I would now be a safer driver. They did as well.
I'll have a good look at my renewal when it comes time, and if they ask I'll try that one with them.
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