Speed Awareness course - longish and dull

A couple of months ago, I got a nasty letter in the post from Thames
Valley Police, saying that I'd been spotted doing 96 on the M40 and they
were going to do me for it, but because they liked me, they'd only do me a
_little_ bit provided I did a Speed Awareness course.

Well, yesterday I did that thing.

The course was run by Drivetech, who apparently do a lot of advanced
training for various corporations eager to keep their sales reps intact.
They have two sites at the moment; I opted for Crowthorne. It's actually
on the same site as the TRL.

After a brief introduction, we had some computer stuff: a questionnaire
aimed at discovering our habits; a hazard awareness thing which I guess is
rather like the one in the current driving test; a couple more things to
see how fast we like to ride/drive and also how close we'll ride/drive to
other vehicles.

(This information is partly as feedback for the attendees, but it's also
being used for some research being done by a guy at Reading. All
annonymous.)

We each got an individual summary and assesment afterwards. According to
mine, I'm mostly pretty average, but like to drive much faster than
"average" and my hazard awareness is excellent.

Some of the video stuff - particularly on speed and tailgating - I found a
bit difficult. Not technically, but the clips didn't make it easy to
judge speed and distance.

A few of the questions were a bit iffy, too. Like "If provoked would you
react with physical violence." (I paraphrase.) Well, almost *anyone*
would react violently if provoked enough, so that's a bit dumb. Several
other dodgy questions, especially where they're trying to ascertain your
emotional state whilst riding/driving etc.

Anyhow: after the computer stuff there was a lecture/presentation.
Various accident figures and a load of stuff about how stopping distances
are affected by speed. Nothing terribly interesting in there, but then
I'm reasonably familiar with a lot of the figures.

A short break, then the final part: an assessed ride. For the car
drivers, (I was the only motorcyclist there), they used Drivetech's own
vehicles, but us bikers have to provide our own transport, which is fair
enough. It did mean my tax-disc left my wallet for the first time in
four years.

The assessed ride was OK. The instructor wasn't anal about speed limits
and offerred to take us out westwards, so I wouldn't have so far to go
home which was nice of him.

Not a cheap experience - £100 for the course, plus £60 for the fixed
penalty, plus 160 miles; so call it about £200, plus a day off work. I
_might_ have gotten away with less than that in court, but I'd be a little
surprised. And this way I guarantee it's only 3 points, so my insurance
won't suffer too much - if at all.


Any other thoughts on it? Well, I wasn't convinced by their spiel on the
wonders of speed^W Road Safety Cameras but I kept my mouth shut. I was a
bit surprised at some of the other people on the course: a couple others
who'd been done on motorways, like me, but most of them were for 50ish in
a 30 limit, which I found a little alarming.

Not a painful experience, and almost certainly better than the alternative.

 

Why bother, it will be well out of date?

 

Thought you was supposed to do the course instead of a fine and points?

 

Rocket wrote

*Less* fine and points is how I read it.

 

Round here it works that way for <40 in a 30. Apparently.

I don't know about other limits.

--
John

SV650
Black it is
and naked

 

I got the impression that Thames Valley do it differently: there's no
escaping a fixed penalty but if you were going too fast for that, but no
so fast that you're in automatic ban/dangerous driving territory you get
the chance of the course.

 

*Lower* fine and *fewer* points, is how we'd put it in English.

 

Verdigris wrote

I am not sure about the necessity for emphasis on "fewer."