Indeed!
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/learner-drivers-should-cycle-first
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"Learner drivers should cycle first"
(11 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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Most of them will have - as kids
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Most of them will have - as kids"
But probably not with suitable training and/or adult supervision on roads with traffic.
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Road space reallocations, cycleways and other supporting infrastructure development will address safety concerns while cycle training will improve confidence.
"
- new SG report.http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1679&replies=15#post-16839
Posted 13 years ago # -
Great idea! No motor vehicle licence until youcan demonstrate good road skills on a bike. Safer for the learner, safer for pedestrians, less insurance claims - everybody wins and hopefully after "graduating" to a gas-guzzler will have more empathy for cyclists.
Make it part of the driving test now.Posted 13 years ago # -
So obvious its crazy ! How do I go about getting accredited trainers/instructors for cycling proficiency testing ? Seriously my Cadet group have been discussing this,does it have to be the traffic police like it was in my yoooof ? My son did his at school 4 years ago. Perhaps the american drivers ed should be part of the curriculum for excellence ! Or the highway code given to all 16 year olds with an exam as part of the school term ?When we were young, we took great pleasure in quoting the highway code,but then of course the summers were longer and we never locked our doors.....maybe thats why we didnt have a tv !
Posted 13 years ago # -
love to see this idea be floated to disabled drivers who can use a gas pedal but not a rotating one...
Shot. Down. In. Flames.Posted 13 years ago # -
"love to see this idea be floated to disabled drivers"
Well apart from the 'there would have to be exceptions' proviso, there are a lot of ways for people with various disabilities to cycle (not just feet).
Inc. -
http://cyclinginfife.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/cycling-at-lochore-meadows
Posted 13 years ago # -
From Twitter
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Carlton ReidSave money. Save lives. Every large biz in UK should put drivers through AA's DriveTech programme.
"
Posted 13 years ago # -
How would a people-must-cycle-before-driving scheme work though? The only way I can see it working is to make poeple pass a compulsory cycling test before they are allowed to learn to drive.
I don't see how you could manage/enforce people having had to have had a certain level of experience on a bike.Posted 13 years ago # -
"How would a people-must-cycle-before-driving scheme work though?"
The "Learner drivers should cycle first" headline might be exaggerated shorthand. The article says -
"He wants the Department for Transport to include cycle-awareness in the driving test and for there to be a cycling component, too (similar to how London cabbies learn the 'knowledge' by travelling around the capital on scooters)."
So the thrust is a) "cycle-awareness" and b) a "cycling component" in the driving test.
Which isn't quite/necessarily the same as being able to cycle.
It is now widely agreed that children should do on-road Cycle Training when they are of primary school age.
But there are still some disagreements over whether that should be in school time and who organises/delivers/pays.
It used to, commonly, be the responsibility of the Police. Here (Lothian and Borders) a decision was made a few years ago to withdraw from CT and concentrate resources on 'young driver training'.
Of course it could be argued that good CT would reduce the need for ydt. Though I'm not suggesting that if all new drivers were experienced cyclists there would be no car related deaths/injuries in late teen/early twenty drivers!
Personally I would limit power/speed of vehicles legally available for under 25s.
But that's not going to happen...
Posted 13 years ago # -
It'd be tricky as they'd need to be mechanically capable of balancing/pedalling as well as/prior to then being emotionally/mentally capable of following an instructor through real streets and traffic for the education and testing. Perhaps (adjusted as applicable to avoid discrimination) passing a cycling proficiency/cyclist-empathy test wouldn't be mandatory but would result in significantly reduced insurance premiums (premia?), or maybe failure to pass such a test would only result in a partial driving-test-pass, possibly with some sort of penalty-status requiring the display of an appropriately leper-bell-like warning on the vehicle and an enforced requirement to stay at least 10mph beneath posted speed limits, or to not drive during local rush hours/at night/whatever. Like the power-limitation idea above it is, at best, deeply unlikely, except in dreams. Young males are already slightly subject to raised insurance costs and slight vehicle-power cost-penalties but not sufficiently discouragingly.
Seeing how cyclists are treated from a cyclist's POV would be the key thing but might not be available by not actually riding and just being the passenger on a tandem or trike or something else where they get to travel on a cycle and watch-but-not-have-to-control-the-cycle-at-the-same-time, plus tandems and trikes are generally less invisible than single-person two-wheelers, plus if (nonestablished) drivers knew to watch out for people who obviously looked like learner drivers (wearing regulation hats, tabards, plates and riding regulation test-centre-issue velocipedes) on their cycling-empathy training they'd probably just start offering the same misleading grudging breathing-space they occasionally offer L-plated vehicles under the present system.
Posted 13 years ago #
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