I had to attend one of these on Monday evening, and found it both helpful and interesting. What I especially appreciated was when the older instructor asked at the outset if there were any cyclists in the room.

Out of 20 participants, I was the only one, but it meant that I got asked a number of times – in a respectful, almost deferential way – how I wished cars to behave around me when I was on my bike.

Over the whole course, bikes were spoken about as something that needed to be accommodated as if they belonged on the road, and were not there as some sort of obstacle to be overcome.

If only more people had have attended!

Kudos to the folk running these things, and to HM’s government for giving me the option over points.

Ignore SaxonRiders thoughful post, he has clearly been speeding. Burn him 😀

Not that it is any excuse, I know, but I got caught at 36 in a 30 zone I thought was 40. It was the industrial end of Newport Road in Cardiff. 😳

Fair play to him though, getting a speeding ticket on his bike 😀

on the flipside..

ive been on one of these in the past too..

instructor asked the same question.. i kept quiet to see what people would say..

There was then a lot of anti-cyclist chatter and some of the other atendees seemed fairly angered by cyclists… the instructor glossed over most of it and very little of the positiveness seen in the course above occured.. im guessing because there where no identified ‘cyclists’

It was still a good course overall though and i think the vast majority of other road users whether they speed or not would benefit from going on one.

I did one of these a few years ago (80 in a 70, though we’re not playing top trumps)and thought it a very worthwhile course.
Initially there were a few sneery types in there but by the end everyone in attendance seemed to be very much engaged.
I think they do a good job and, as you say, more people should go on these.

Barely any mention of cyclists in the speed awareness course I did a couple of years ago & while I can’t remember the exact comments & questions, but when I bought up the ‘cyclist view’ several times it was pretty quickly brushed off & glossed over.

I guess it heavily depends on the particular trainer person at the different venues.

We were asked if we knew what Smidsy was, I seemed to be the only cyclist and was given an opportunity to respond to another cycling related question. It all helps!

cycling and cyclists in traffic should be a bigger part of the original driving test. I think it should be mandatory for drivers in and near london.

but … its still good to hear good vibes. cyclists are humans after all 😉

on the flipside..

I did a “What’s Driving Us?” course (for red light jumpers (Hi!) and mobile phone whilst drivingers) and the only mention of cyclists was “ooh, don’t undertake lorries”. I nearly said something, but the whole course was absolute bollocks and I just wanted to get out of there.

I attended one in January and Identified myself as a cyclist when we were all asked, there were quite a few anti-cyclist attitudes in the room TBH, and I ended up having to explain to one (frankly stupid) woman that use of cycle paths isn’t actually compulsory…

Cycle safety was touched on, but wasn’t a major focus of the course really…

Overall I found it a good course, and I have changed my driving habits as a result of attending it…
More people should probably go on it, whether they’ve been caught speeding or not…

On the one I did, one woman told us the tale of how she’d knocked over a cyclist. She thought it was hilarious.

The one I did, the general view on cyclists was they all jump red lights and break the law and therefore have no place on the roads. We had all earlier admitted that we had been speeding but that somehow seemed to be different kind of more acceptable law breaking to them.

Thought the course was generally good but this was at the end and it seemed like everyone had taken on that speeding was bad and could kill pedestrians, but cyclists were just kind of different left at that

We had to do the CPC course at work (total waste of time) run by AA drive tech, who i believe do a lot of these speed/driver improvement courses.
Anyway whilst suffering another session the instructor brought up the subject of bikes on the road. One of my colleagues, who knows i ride did the “oh yeh.. bloody pain, riding two abreast holding us up..should be banned” thing

The instructor agreed, “bikes aren’t allowed to be two abreast, I was held up the other day by a group.. really annoying. They shouldn’t be allowed on the road”

this allowed me an opportunity to express my surprise at the attitude of an instructor and suggest that perhaps in a training enviroment the attitude wasn’t appropriate….

I’ve done the speed awareness too (38 in a 30 that I thought was a 40…) and I was the only cyclist there. Similar to most, a couple of people said how annoying cyclists were because of riding two abreast, etc. I was ready to speak up but the instructors did a good job of closing it down by pointing out that they were wrong.

The discussion about saccadic vision focussed on cyclists and motorbikes a fair bit though.

FWIW, I thought it was a good course and most people there at least seemed to have learned something.

I believe the Lancashire one has Lewis Balyckyi’s smashed bike in the foyer and uses elements of the incident as part of the course.

http://www.wastedlives.co.uk/page/123/Lewis-Balyckyi.htm

We had to do the CPC course at work (total waste of time) run by AA drive tech, who i believe do a lot of these speed/driver improvement courses.
Anyway whilst suffering another session the instructor brought up the subject of bikes on the road. One of my colleagues, who knows i ride did the “oh yeh.. bloody pain, riding two abreast holding us up..should be banned” thing

The instructor agreed, “bikes aren’t allowed to be two abreast, I was held up the other day by a group.. really annoying. They shouldn’t be allowed on the road”

this allowed me an opportunity to express my surprise at the attitude of an instructor and suggest that perhaps in a training enviroment the attitude wasn’t appropriate….

IIRC Edmund King, AA President is a keen cyclist. If this was recent, maybe worth dropping him a line with a formal complaint a) the instructor was not correcting ignorant and dangerous views and b) held them himself, which brings the brand into disrepute, and suggests the trainer needs re-training himself

I did one last year and was the only motorcyclist and cyclist amongst 20-odd other offenders (34 in a 30 in an unfamiliar area). Most of us seemed to get a lot out of it, I certainly did and am now loads calmer when I’m driving although that might have something to do with the amount of cycling I’m doing compared to when I was caught! There was one chumpy blowhard there who lives local to us who everybody thought was a chumpy blowhard as soon as he opened his stupid chumpy blowhard gob. He’s still a chumpy blowhard, the big, fat, red-faced chumpy blowhard.

If the content of these course is really beneficial, then it ought to be integrated into the theory/practical tests, thereby stopping the misinformed/bad attitudes before they can do damage.

i think its a shame theyre only available to ‘slightly over’ offenders, im sure theyd be really beneficial to the ‘silly speed’ drivers too.

not saying that they should still have the option of course vs fine/points, but maybe a smaller fine plus same points if they agree to the course.

If the content of these course is really beneficial, then it ought to be integrated into the theory/practical tests

I think most of it is, they do refer back to the HWC a fair bit. The other thing they try to do is get people to examine their motives and though processes a bit, makes you realise how stupid speeding generally is…

cookeaa – Member
If the content of these course is really beneficial, then it ought to be integrated into the theory/practical tests
I think most of it is, they do refer back to the HWC a fair bit. The other thing they try to do is get people to examine their motives and though processes a bit, makes you realise how stupid speeding generally is…

Agree with all of this.

The instructor agreed, “bikes aren’t allowed to be two abreast, I was held up the other day by a group.. really annoying. They shouldn’t be allowed on the road

I just did the AA Drivetech course and this came up but thankfully they did advise cyclists could ride 2 abreast. Few groans when the topic of cyclists came up but the instructors did a good job imo. I recall they advised that if you were behind a cyclist, imagine they were a cyclist you knew.

Anyway, I thought it was a good course and I certainly benefitted

I had a speed awareness course in Newport, I think it must have been the same course leader as we had the same question.
I also was the only cyclist and had the same level of input to the proceedings. He must have said ” a cofins length, not a coffin width” 6 times.

2 years ago we had a CPC course at work for those of that have to drive for our job.
At first all went well until we go to the hazard awareness bit that included various slides of traffic situations where you have to note the possible dangers.
One such slide was at a roundabout where I noticed a blue National cycle network sign in the top right of the picture crossing said roundabout. So I said you need to be aware of cyclists crossing.
His reply was “Oh don’t worry about them just carry on” !!!
2 seconds later our Op’s director jumped to his feet and said “if that’s your opinion you can stop right now & I’m phoning your boss to have you removed from further training”
Fair play he had the course stopped & followed it through. Turns out or Op’s director is a keen cyclist both MTB & Road 🙂

‘Only’ doing 36 mph in a 30 mph…having attended the course you will know that if you’d hit someone at 36 mph as apposed to 30 mph the chances of killing them would have been much greater!

I had to attend one last month, I went with a right bad attitude but came out converted…I think it should be mandatory for all drivers to attend one before a test and then once every 5 or 10 years would make the roads a safer place.

My MPG has shot up since attending too!

nwill1 – Member
‘Only’ doing 36 mph in a 30 mph…having attended the course you will know that if you’d hit someone at 36 mph as apposed to 30 mph the chances of killing them would have been much greater!

I had to attend one last month, I went with a right bad attitude but came out converted…I think it should be mandatory for all drivers to attend one before a test and then once every 5 or 10 years would make the roads a safer place.
My MPG has shot up since attending too!

Agree with that totally.

The thing I really notice now, especially with a speed limiter fitted to the car is just how many people break the 30 limit…

Enter a 30 zone from a 40/50/NSL section slow to thirty and 98% of the time the car in front will be pulling away while the one behind gets closer, as soon as the limit increases or they meet the back of the next queue you’ll catch back up, so what does anybody actually gain doing 35 in a 30? Normally just the increased chance of points and a fine.

30 “feels slow” but it’s meant to, slow means more reaction time in built up areas and less chance of ruining your day with a shunt or worse…

‘Only’ doing 36 mph in a 30 mph…having attended the course you will know that if you’d hit someone at 36 mph as apposed to 30 mph the chances of killing them would have been much greater!

If you read the OP he thought it was a 40, so he was not flouting the rules. The signage is poor on that bit of road and the way evryone drives you’d think it was 40. I know it’s 30 tho 🙂

What a wonderfully positive thread this is, and it’s not even Friday yet!