CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Driving lessons as part of curriculum?

(11 posts)

  1. LaidBack
    Member

    I see 'a certain evening paper' had a poll on this.

    Should youngsters be made to take part in early driving lessons by the age of 17?

      50% - Yes - anything to improve road safety
      36% - No - but shoud be an option
      14% - No - you learn all you need in driving lessons

    So 86% positive with idea as long as not compulsory.

    What does the panel think?

    Will children in the future drive and cycle more anyway?
    Is this a good opportunity to raise bike awareness?
    Are driving and cycling mutually exclusive or two sides of the same coin etc?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  2. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I think a better question would be: "Should cycling form part of driving lessons?"

    Posted 14 years ago #

  3. LaidBack
    Member

    It obviously doesn't at moment judging by some of the antics driving schools get up to!

    Posted 14 years ago #

  4. SRD
    Moderator

    In my bit of canada we had driving lessons organised through schools - but not part of the curriculum - and they were very safety oriented.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  5. Kim
    Member

    The big draw back with this sort of thing is that it tends to cement the idea the driving is the only form of transport they should aspire to. There needs to be a more catholic (note the small c) approach looking at all aspects of road safety.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  6. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I had visions there of priests taking driving lessons...

    But yes, that's the biggest problem. I remember well as a young boy that all I wanted to do was be able to drive. I used to cycle everywhere, but never really appreciated it at that point...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  7. LaidBack
    Member

    I remember well as a young boy that all I wanted to do was be able to drive.

    So in a way the fact that every young person expects to drive does bode well for cycling.

    That's why I'm an optimist.
    More driving = gridlock = faster cycling.

    (by faster I mean bikes spend more time moving - average city speeds being the same as the 1900s)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  8. chdot
    Admin

    That's pessimism.

    We want less driving and more room for cycling.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  9. Claggy Cog
    Member

    How about cycling being part of the curriculum as it used to be....Owning a car should be considered a luxury and therefore learning to drive should not become part of school curricula. Who is going to fund this in any case. I, as a tax payer, most certainly would not any part of my taxes funding this. As the roads are already so congested and the levels of pollution already horrific why should youngsters be encouraged to add to it. You should have to pay for lessons as you do if you want to learn to drive. Teaching about environmental damage and helping the environment should be the priority.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  10. LaidBack
    Member

    Liz

    In the city it should be a 'road use' lesson and also introduce them to things like how to get best value from transport and move around without putting themselves, their parents and the planet into debt.

    This should be easy to do in Edinburgh (or other cities). We have the car club too which I think is a good thing.

    But outside the cities?

    Rural children often learn to drive early. Their nearest town might be 20 miles away... How would you promote the idea of cycling to them? Local journeys I suppose.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  11. Kim
    Member

    Get children to ride on the roads is a much better way of teaching them traffic awareness than putting driving lessons on the school curricula. I speak as a former fully qualified DOT ADI! There is a real problem with parents insisting on children only riding on the pavements. They need to develop a traffic sense before they take a car on the road.

    Posted 14 years ago #

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