Driver speed awareness training

I've done my time (a whole two and a half hours of it[1]), and to be
honest it wasn't that bad. I can think of worse ways of avoiding 3
points.

I learnt a few things I didn't know (or hadn't thought about), but the
real shocker was discovering how few of the 20 people in the room
actually knew what the speed limits were in their cars/motorbikes. 2.
The vast majority thought that the speed limit on both single
carriageways and dual carriageways was 40. It's amazing they went fast
enough to get caught.

[1] Apparently each area has its own way of running such systems, and
one authority (dunno where) does a day and a half driving course instead
of the 3 points which is a bit more of an imposition.

 

I've done my time (a whole two and a half hours of it[1]), and to be

Is this something you have to tell the insurance folks about?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Gyp

Which neatly explains the spreading plague of ignorant fuckwits
trundling along at 40MPH in an NSL at the head of a huge queue.

 

Not unless they ask.

They made it clear on the course, that attending wiped the record of the
offence and there was thus not a speeding conviction, and didn't need to
be declared to the insurance etc.

If however they ask "have you been on a speed awareness course in lieu
of a conviction?", you should of course reply yes.

 

I'd happily do a week-long residential course to avoid three points
right now.

 

<shrug> I find them relatively easy to overtake, so it doesn't bother
me too much.

 

If you're near the front of the queue, yes. If you have a whole queue in
front of you, and need to get by an entire line of traffic, it's a
different matter.

That said, when I was commuting by car from Hastings to Maidenhead a
couple of years ago, part of the journey took in about 12 miles of
almost dead straight road from Sedlescombe to Hawkhurst. My best effort
was overtaking 12 cars in one shot. Go me.

 

When we moved, I sent my licence off for the address to be updated.
It came back clean.

Elly's didn't - but her licence came back within a week, whereas mine
required a phone call to chivvy the Laundering Section. Our offences
were within a month of each other. She wasn't impressed.

 

Pfft. I've done more than that with a bike on a trailer behind the
car. They're all fuckwits and to 90% of drivers, A-road overtaking is
a lost art.

 

Mine won't be clean for almost four years but if I keep my head down til
June next year I'll be down to three points. Which would be nice.

 

Nooo, don't keep your head down, keep sat up. It'll increase your
awareness of the speed and help you keep your licence

 

Will you stop posting when they ban you?

 

With all that extra time on my hands? What do you think.

Though I did stop posting when I had a period without a bike, between
1998 and 2001, so there is precedent.

 

Sounds like my exploits in the Highlands - overtaking 8-9 cars+caravans
before having to duck in for an oncoming car.

And this was in an XM. The most amazing thing is that it didn't break
down while I was doing it..

Phil

 

That's nothing. You should try overtaking an IAM organized ride.

 

It can be, but there's usually enough gaps that you can do a few, duck
in, do a few more, etc.

 

In the heyday of illegal CB radio (1980/81 for me) we used to have
great fun, five or six cars travelling together, interested only in
making progress. We'd stick the fastest car/driver combination on the
Front Door and his passenger would call breaks in oncoming traffic to
the rest of us.

Freaky fun could be had, overtaking a couple of cars towing caravans,
round the outside of a blind bend - the expressions on the faces of
the drivers were always amusing. 'Course, there wasn't nearly as much
traffic on the road in those days ....

 

Nice!

 

Heh.

I've overtaken HOG (or simliar) rides over here many times. In a car.

 

On a bike, yes. I was talking in the context of being in a car - the
idea of being stuck behind traffic while riding a bike is so absurd I
didn't think anyone was talking about two wheels.