Forget Top Gear. This is about real driving (From Worcester News)

Forget Top Gear. This is about real driving

9:46am Friday 30th July 2010 in

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MIRROR, signal, manoeuvre – and you’re pretty much there, apart from those nerves. That’s how my rose-tinted glimpse back at my driving test, passed first time I might add, appeared when I signed up for a course aimed at drivers who want to go that extra mile.

The Worcestershire Group of Advanced Motorists invited me to get behind the wheel of my own car, and learn how to be a better driver. Part of the hook for me was the fact that police drivers use many of the techniques taught through the advanced driver course textbooks.

But I put aside any visions of DCI Gene Hunt-style J-turns in the first five minutes of my ‘observed run’ with the supremely patient David Eastwood, a group member for 22 years. “It’s about having a system,”

he said rather simply.

And he’s right, but the system I was using eight years after passing my driving test bore little resemblance to the one he was teaching me. Success also depends on leaving your ego at the door, because it will just weigh you down. Mr Eastwood was gentle with me, pointing out there were differences in how I would have been taught for my driving test.

But I also knew that bad habits have crept in – clearly too many episodes of Top Gear.

Called the Skill For Life course, applicant drivers use their own vehicle for weekly observed runs, each lasting an hour-and-a-half, with drivers having a total of between six and 12 sessions – sometimes more – before they go in for their test.

The on-road guidance is given by qualified volunteer observers, free of charge, like Mr Eastwood, who want to see the roads populated with safer more proficient drivers, particularly young drivers.

Once ready, the applicant then takes the test, accredited by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). The system is basic, and the same one taught to class one police response drivers.

Mr Eastwood, who is a driver examiner and former instructor, says the skills taught through the course benefit every driver aged 18 and over. “The learner test doesn’t take in too much motorway and also country roads driving.

“Those are the two areas where I think drivers get themselves into the most trouble, and also they are usually not tested on those areas.

“The advanced driver’s test isn’t harder than the standard learnt test, it’s just different.”

He said the IAM was now focusing on getting younger drivers through its course, as “youngsters are the future of IAM”. But he says youngsters are good at picking up the teachings... and it’s the old dogs who struggle with new tricks.

“People in their 40s or 50s have the hardest time,” he said. “Anyone under 30 we class as a young driver.”

You start with a cockpit drill, checking tyre tread depth, oil levels, engine lights even down to whether your passenger’s headrest is in the correct position.

Once driving, the key is observing, using that information to choose how fast to go, and selecting the correct gear which gives you the most control in slowing down or accelerating.

Turning a corner, you check your mirrors to signal, then brake and then select your gear, all before you start turning the wheel. I had been doing all of those at the same time and wondering why I have to replace my front tyres once every five months. For example, getting in your yellow Citroen Saxo, right hand at the noon position on the steering wheel, left hand resting on the gear knob, and turning the stereo volume up to 11 isn’t going to cut it.

My first few sessions were spent touring and making mistakes, with Mr Eastwood telling me how to drive to the road. It sounds simple and obvious, but you are learning very simply to ‘read’ the road.

At first, I felt like a nervous 17- year-old again, at others like some doddering old codger driving too slowly around bends.

But then we drove out on the country lanes to the east and north of Worcester, where I learnt how to ease the car through bends, braking gradually in and then accelerating smoothly out.

You are taking in information through your eyes, assessing where you’re going – what the road signs are telling you, where the hazards are and adjusting speed and gear to suit. It is about stepping up a level, paying attention to what is around you. One thing I started to see was how ridiculously cluttered the roads around Worcestershire are with signs. Some of these are not correct, such as the one indicating there is a pedestrian crossing at the brow of the hill on the A4440 in Parsonage Way, Warndon Villages.

There is no crossing, but walkers do use that point to cross.

Then there’s the 20mph speed limit in Pershore town centre which is questionable because it is not self-enforcing as it has no speed bumps to slow the traffic. Another happy effect of using my head to drive, rather than my right foot, is learning to anticipate other drivers’ howlers, like lane swappers who signal only when they are halfway across your bonnet.

However, another lesson is learnt when Mr Eastwood tells me that I should only signal when I have something to signal to, or when I deem it could help another driver – “it shows you have thought about your decision.”

● See a report of how the test goes in a future edition of your Worcester News.

● The Skill For Life pack including textbook, newsletters and ‘observed runs’ costs £139. Drivers under 26 receive a discount of £20 from the Worcestershire group. For those unsure about whether to take the full course, single session onehour assessment runs are offered by the group for £25 – refundable if you then join. For more information about all courses, call 07505 224355, e-mail worcester@groups.iam. org.uk or visit iam.org.uk/ groups/worcester.