Bigpower

has any body ever done an advanced road driving coarse of any description? hazard perception , dictation while driving.

watched a police training programme once and tried it myself at 40mph in 40 limit thats an eye opener ended up driving slower to dictate all the hazards !!

im not trying to be boring i personally think its an area which is over looked


jason


im sure they dont crash test vxr's at 150mph into roe deer and tractors!!!!

The nearest I have got to this is reading the Police Drivers Handbook - Roadcraft (an excellent book and well worth the read by the way).

We have our very own PC185 here that has been through this training .... he might want to ellaborate if he isnt eating donuts

or doing donuts

You could always get a motorbike. It sharpens hazard perception like you wouldn't believe, or you don't last very long.

Andy Walsh runs these courses iirc. at 1st Lotus. Excellent guy.

Roadcraft was written in the 60's IIRC.
A lot of it's values remain accurate, but it makes you smile when the good book says "you will never cross your hands whilst steering", and then as soon as you do bandit pursuit training (Or whatever politically correct term it's been given in the last dozen or so years), it's whatever works, and retains control.
It is amazing how much on the road is taken for granted (I am a big time offender with this) especially doing the same routes all the time.
A good way of seeing hazards, or reading roads is to think through a "commentary" either out loud if you are alone, or in your head if you've company.
Each change in circumstance or new hazard gets a mention along with your speed, gear, road position and intended next move. It's harder than it sounds, but forces you to read the road more fully.
(And no, i am not a traffic officer!)
Any driver training, be it track, drift or advanced road will up your game and car control. It's just remembering where and when that makes that final difference. (I think the whole point behind this site )

Fair play Bert,

Spot on! (Is this a time when you'd prefer I didn't mention that time in your old SRi, when you were shouting 'Yield!' to the car in front :lol: )

Very funny Dunk, you're car has just been added to the 10 Most wanted in UK

Like Dunk said, the police's system of car control is based on the book "RoadCraft - The Essential Police Drivers Handbook" which is available to buy and is a good read.



I also believe the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) use the same system as passing my standard driving test allowed me become a member without going for a check drive with them.

In a nutshell, it works on a system of car control



You take information, Use information and give information to identify your hazards. Once identified you adjust your position, speed get your gear and then use your accelerator to maintain your speed and stability through the hazard.

When you start with this system is seems a bit alien, but once you have mastered it, it helps you deal with more hazards, faster and at higher speeds ,which means your overall drive is going to be safer, which is the main aim.

You have probably seen on police programs where they do the commentary whilst driving. This enables the driver to talk through exactly what they are thinking about, in relation to hazards. I found this video which enables you to see the sort of hazards we look for (starts about 2:30), but the follow on would be to say exactly what you are doing with the car controls

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mC3C-d8LlGY

Once this is mastered, you can then slowly build the speeds up and start to make more progress, by overtaking, reading bends and overall provide a smoother faster and safer drive. Just because the police, fire and ambulance have an exemption to the speed limits for a police purpose, it doesn't mean we are exempt from prosecution if it all goes wrong.

The driving courses are split. When you join the police, you complete your probationary period and then do a standard driving course. This is about 3/4 weeks and will allow you to drive a standard response car on blues/twos. THings like the Ford Focus's, Mondeo 1.8 area cars and vans.

If you join a specialist department, like i did 2 years ago (Armed Response & Traffic) then you go on an advanced driving course, which is 4 weeks and allows you to drive any vehicle including plain cars. I mainly use the Ford ST220's and Volvo V70 T5's.

Once completed this course, there is another week on the TPAC course (Tactical Pursuit and Containment) which includes the stinger device aswell.

There are so many other topics we cover on the driving courses; red-mist, driver behaviour, fatigue, road reading, skidding, etc

If you wish to do some form of advanced driving its worth looking into IAM or ROSPA and you also get discount off insurance with some insurance companies too.

thankyou for your comments and weath of information i will purchase a copy of said book and have a read

if it enables me to have another 22years major accident free, and a points free licence i will be more than happy

cheers guys will see you tommorrow evening.


jason

If you're of the mind set that can absorb information, accept and make changes then yes do an Advance driving course of some description. Just remember that once the course has ended don't slip back into any old habits.
Continually practice what you have learnt and drive like you're on your test.
When you've got a friend in the car point out to them a hazard that is about to happen or could happen and you'll be amazed at how often they say "I didn't even see that" or "How did you know he was going to do that".

When you're next out driving ask yourself this question..
Could I pass the driving test today?

There is nothing from stopping anybody from having a refresher lesson.. Except pride.....As my mother always said "Pride comes before a fall"

pc185 wrote:I also believe the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) use the same system as passing my standard driving test allowed me become a member without going for a check drive with them.

:lol: I once had a demonstration drive with an IAM member,there were 3 of us in the car and by the end of it we all felt carsick! :lol: ...
...he braked really hard into speed limit zones and accelerated really hard up to the next speed limit,he also weaved around in the lane to 'give a better angle to see round bends',it was like being in a little boat on a stormy sea!

I didn't really learn much from that...
...I leaned more from my 2 week HGV class one course,those of you familiar with Mill road in Cambridge will know it is not the sort of road for an articulated lorry with a learner driver!...talk about make you aware of hazards!

Sorry,going off topic! :oops: