I was flashed doing 36 in a 30 back in August.
I opted to take a speed awareness course which is tomorrow.
What can I expect?

A whole heap of abuse on here 😉

To learn some things.
To meet lots of very bitter people. I think I was the only person on my course glad to be there as I was expecting a court summons…

To be patronised mercilessly for a few hours.

To encounter a few angry people who have decided to argue with the instructor about the circumstances around their particular speeding incident.

Sit quietly at the back, bite your tongue

Even though the “instructors” pretty much lie about everything, do the “sit at the back” thing, and be glad you didn’t get any other punishment!

(oh, and pay more attention next time you’re driving!) 😉

I went in extremely cynical and bitter. Surprisingly I found it quite interesting though.

+1 for the being patronised

A lot will depend on whoever is presenting the course

Sit quietly at the back, bite your tongue

^This is what I had planned.

^This is what I had planned

Or go with an open mind and stand a chance of learning something?

To be patronised mercilessly for a few hours

Not in my experience.

Mine was excellent, very informative and well delivered.

bite your tongue

Because you know best right ?

The instructor on mine was horriffic – significant chunks of what she said just didn’t make any sense at all (both in terms of content and vocabulary)…… one poor sod who asked her quite innocently and politely what she meant on one occasion was threatened to be ejected from the room and taken to court.

bite your tongue
Because you know best right ?

Yawn

Do your ears and mouth not work independently of each other? Most people can listen without speaking.

the line above was:

To encounter a few angry people who have decided to argue with the instructor about the circumstances around their particular speeding incident.

Not in my experience either Simon

One or two people will argue the toss about everything, thinking everyone is with them, everyone just wishes they’d just shut the **** up.

The clown, who’s not funny (probably one of the above).

One who feels massively injusticed (probably one of the above).

Everyone else just accepts they’re there and gets on with it, sees it thru and goes home. I learnt a few things I didn’t previously know.

Do your ears and mouth not work independently of each other? Most people can listen without speaking.

“Bite your tongue” suggests you have something you want to get off your chest, but don’t for whatever reason.

One or two people will argue the toss about everything, thinking everyone is with them, everyone just wishes they’d just shut the **** up.

Oh this all day long.^^^

On mine, I got chatting to a guy before we went in and had a lot in common, so we just hung at the back consuming all the complimentary biscuits and sparkling water we could. Anyway, we stayed in touch and is now a good mate.

True story.

Listen, answer a question if asked. They will go through the rationale for speed cameras and stress accident statistics and dangers of speed. It’s very very hard to fail, but if you argue the t0ss about everything you will fail.

BTW I read something interesting today, revenue from fines goes to the government but revenue from speed awareness courses goes to the police.

Embarrassingly I’ve been twice. The first one I quite enjoyed, the next one has slightly different content and was delivered differently, but was still fine.

I think it’s the sort of thing all drivers should do regardless. Lots of it wasn’t covered or discussed when I learnt to drive. No idea if you need to know this stuff in the theory test.

If you are lucky and get a good instructor who tries to make it relevant and interesting you might learn something. A lot of the people on the course I went on suddenly discovered they could drive 10 mph faster on A roads legally because they all thought the national speed limit on single carriageway roads was 50 mph. One guy found (too late as he’d obviously accepted the conviction) that his speeding conviction was technically not legal as the speed signage where he was done was not regulation.

Lots of it wasn’t covered or discussed when I learnt to drive. No idea if you need to know this stuff in the theory test.

What sort of thing?

Genuinely interested, as someone who firmly believes that all drivers should be re-tested at regular intervals (say every five years).

All good advice so far, mine would be try to learn and don’t be a ****

Classic story here from a few years ago :-

Speed awareness course, arrogant so and so turns up in a brand new Cayenne and obviously didn’t want to be there. Constantly on the phone texting, e mailing and being told to put phone down. He replied with a ” I’ve a business to run and cant be here ” type attitude.

After a few run ins with the instructors and being warned about his attitude, the afternoon session was in car out on the road working on looking ahead, planning etc.

After the session, everyone back in the classroom, matey is again on the phone e mailing texting so the instructor asked him what he had gained from the afternoon session. His reply of ” don’t buy a ****ing Nissan Note ” ( instructors car ) didn’t go down well and he was sacked off the course and given the points.

True story from one of my colleagues who used to deliver the courses.

Judging by work colleagues who have done the course, it taught them some information, so didn’t think it was a wasted day. Dont say you have driven at 200 mph and have faster reaction times than most and 56 in a 50 was a bit harsh , as one of my engineers did. 😀
He does ride a 1400bhp drag bike at Pod…….

The course will go much faster than you think.

I went as a professional driver and learnt a few things that improved my driving, look at it as free training and take from it what you can.

Went on one recently and it was actually pretty good, two guys presenting had some patter going and there was some interesting stuff delivered in ways i hadn’t seen before. 10/10 (ironically enough i do driver training in my co. and we use the brake stuff, which is dry as a witches tit, I also got caught speeding rushing from delivering an eco-driver briefing to a safety team meeting :D).

Expect to learn a lot.
Expect some attendees to remain as stupid and dangerous as they were when they went in… but really, that’s not your problem.

I felt the same as after my Bikeability – surprised at how much I learnt and glad I’d done it.

+1 for GrahamS idea re complusory re-testing every five years. It’d be a great revenue earner for government and probably reduce the bill for running an ambulance fleet and A&E, bring insurance premiums down etc etc

look at it as free training

Cost me £90 🙁

To be patronised mercilessly for a few hours.

To encounter a few angry people who have decided to argue

One or two people will argue the toss about everything, thinking everyone is with them, everyone just wishes they’d just shut the **** up

So posting on here will stand you in good stead 😉

Or go with an open mind and stand a chance of learning something?

Word. I suppose you might find it patronising if you know everything, but if you go there with an open mind and the awareness that you DON’T know everything, you might find it both useful and interesting, like I did. 🙂

I’ve not been on one myself, but was at a hotel where the conference room was being used for the course.
I walked in by mistake. It was the oddest collection of people – teenage racers with tattoos sitting next to grey haired grandmas.

One of two things will happen, if previous threads are anything to go by.

1) You stand to learn a great deal, if you’re a clueless dolt who hasn’t looked at the Highway Code in 20 years.

2) You’ll be mortified at the clueless doltishness of everyone else in the room if you can actually drive a bit.

As a random example, on the one I did one young lad ‘fessed up that he didn’t know any road signs bar the half dozen he knew would be on the test. He found this hilarious. Similarly yuks-a-plenty was the woman who’d driven a cyclist off the road and looked like she was expecting a round of applause.

What can I expect?

I’m disowning you 😉

Never been on one either but mate at work went on one last week and it sounds like the sitting at the back and biting your tongue/trying not to fall asleep is definitely the way to go.

2) You’ll be mortified at the clueless doltishness of everyone else in the room if you can actually drive a bit.

Which I a valuable lesson to learn, anyway. It puts a whole new perspective on driving (or, worse, riding) in the middle of this lot.

Rachel

The one I did recently was enlivened by some idiot petrolhead who wore his favourite ‘racing’ jumper which had badges of all the motor racing companies and teams on it and then proceeded to question and argue about everything. I nearly rose to the bait when he said cyclists were pillocks, but by the end, his arguing held things up so long that everyone else hated him and were calling him names under their breaths 🙂

You’ll be mortified at the clueless doltishness of everyone else in the room if you can actually drive a bit.

+1. The majority of people in mine just didn’t have a clue about the responsibility they have as drivers. Comments like ‘how am I supposed to know what the speed limit was’ were quite common.

I feel like I’m missing out by not having an opinion on these. Still I should be grateful I don’t have to attend.

My wife went on one several years ago, she had some useful information passed on and told me some things about it too, sounded good.

I’d agree that we should have to do something like this periodically to keep our licences anyway.

Don’t announce you’re a cyclist. The feckers will all turn on you. Probably the instructors too.

I found mine OK (66 in a 60). As with most people on there, went in thinking I’d learn nothing, ended up with some useful non Highway Code type facts.

The instructors were good, didn’t patronise, and it wasn’t even a full day.

1 guy was thrown out of the one I went on. The instructor told him not to come back after lunch.

Another old guy failed.

I have no idea how you can fail a course like that.

Allthgear +2 !

It is terrifying the number of people who haven’t a clue what the speed limit is on a given type of road. I left with an improved knowledge of reading the road and an acute awareness that a significant number of people are dangerous on the road and need to be given more space.

The instructors on my course were entertaining and knowledgable and dealt well with questions asked, regardless how stupid.

It is pretty clear that the driving test isn’t a full assessment of a drivers ability and I agree that there should be mandatory retests every 5 years.

The driving test needs to cover considerably more than it currently does!
Everyone wonders how the likes of the Finns are such good drivers, rally and race – take a look at how long it takes to get a license….
3 YEARS!
Covering every type of weather and each season.
To think that its ok to let Junior take a 90min test in september and then go out on the M’ways in the fog, heavy rain, snow, etc come november/december is utter bollocks.

😯

Listen be polite and try to ensure everyone else does the same. On mine had a number of people moaning all the way through how they don’t speed / barely drive/ first time ever been speeding so on and so on. It got so bad one guy on my table stood up three quarters of the way through told people to shut up moaning – we where here for a reason, we have all been caught speeding!!!, and the sooner accept that, allow the instructor to deliver the important message the sooner we could go home. This was roughly after 5 hours!!! Three people in the room applauded him when he sat down and the instructor thanked him!!!