Make cycle awareness a core part of the driving test

All the good practice goes out the window after the test? Rubbish; go to a country with a poor quality of driver education and you see a poor quality of driving! The UK has a rather well-developed driver education system, and one of the toughest tests, and consequently we have the lowest road deaths (per capita, per vehicle and per mile - doesn't matter how you measure it) of almost anywhere in the world.

I would say that most poor driver-cyclist interactions are down to the driver simply never being informed about how to interact around cyclists.

Fuck me.

What planet are you from? Trust me, from daily personal work experience our driver training industry across all categories for the most part consists of bunch of charlatans who train people up to the very low standard that will get you through a driving test (again, in any category)

There are a few exceptions to this rule, but trust me, I have never worked in a driving test centre anywhere in the UK that has more than a handful of instructors out of the raggedy bunch that present people for test that they would recommend to family or friends

The E petition is worth every signature it gets, but a few additional questions in the theory test question bank? hardly counts as driver development

I've lived in a few different countries and UK driving (whilst pretty fucking awful) is better than both Malta and Greece.

I just learned to drive. Learnt alot about how easy it is to come across as an agressive dickhead when you are in a car. I now try to remain calmer when I feel cars are too close. Driver awareness a core part of the cycling test?

the UK has one of the worst child casualty rates on the roads in Europe, despite relatively low walking and cycling rates. the biggest con the motoring lobby pulled was to allow aggressive, speeding drivers to bully and intimidate vulnerable road users off the roads, then claim that the consequently low KSI rates means that the roads are safer.

anecdote

anecdote

For goodness' sake. The data (look it up) says:

1. Countries with tougher tests have lower death rates
   
2. Countries that actively teach pro-cyclist stuff to drivers are safer for cyclists
   
   

Road safety is a combination of several factors, with education being a major one. Seeing as you think education is pointless, what would your solution be?

EDIT - As I feel I am getting drawn into an internet argument, I will try to avoid posting in this thread any more.

Missed point, missed point etc,.

EDIT - As I feel I am getting drawn into an internet argument, I will try to avoid posting in this thread any more.

Good idea. Get out on the roads, witness the appalling driving from those that passed their test from 1 - 50 years ago and tell me how changing a test now helps that?
And while you are at it tell me why drivers would take note and apply what they have learn't about cyclists but ignore everything else they have learnt.

Cars have to have an annual MOT, I reckon you should have to pass a similar sort of test each year in order to keep your driving licence.

My girlfriend and I got a taxi home last night after we'd gone out to dinner- the cab driver drove the wrong way round the roundabout at the top of the hill we live on.

If I'd been cycling the other way it would have been somewhat challenging not to have been in a head on collision.

The reason the chap was a minicab driver was because, I suspect (although this is conjecture) he needed zero qualifications (other than a driving test he'd passed in his home country) 30 or so years ago.

All part of the fun I suppose.

Good idea. Get out on the roads, witness the appalling driving from those that passed their test from 1 - 50 years ago and tell me how changing a test now helps that?

It doesn't, but introducing it now means that in thirty years the majority of drivers will have had it. Better late than never, no? Also; what Dammit said. Maybe refresher courses every few years (if £).

And while you are at it tell me why drivers would take note and apply what they have learn't about cyclists but ignore everything else they have learnt.

They don't ignore everything they've learnt. How can you explain the fact (not the 'anecdote') that countries with poor standards of education have poor standards of driving? I have asked this question three times now. Education changes behaviour.

Dammit - Did you pay him the fare?

Yep.