A Good Driver – A Reality or Myth?

Part–One

How do you regard your fellow motorists? Equals? Less able than you? Better than you? Bloody idiots perhaps?

16% of motorists in a recent poll that asked the above were ‘don’t knows’ and 4% thought they were poor or bad drivers. So how come 16% of motorists didn’t know? Well, the most common answer was they didn’t know how to judge themselves. They had no objective criteria against which to make a comparison. No simple assessment sheet to use, you might say, and of course, they were being totally honest! So surely that begs the question; how then do 80% of motorists know for sure they’re good driver’s?

We all Passed the Driving Test

What are the facts? Well, for starters, we all passed The Test, didn’t we? So doesn’t that make us all equal? Well, yes in a lowest common denominator sort of way. For instance, some passed first time, others second time and so on until you get to Maureen from Wales who passed on her 37th attempt, I think! So, does it make much difference? Good question.

Some people deal with the stress of being tested or taking exams better than others, and The Driving Test is one of those Rites of Passage that puts most of us under a lot of pressure, doesn’t it; amongst our peer group, family and friends? Many attempt the driving test too early in the mistaken belief that they’ve got to pass in the least number of lessons, or cost. Brownie points in the peer group!

A Natural Aptitude for Driving

Some are just slow starters whilst others have no natural aptitude for driving and struggle to pass the driving test as a matter of course. Everything is so much harder for them, so spare a thought if you’re not so affected. Not everyone has the aptitude for flying a plane or circus juggling either.

Yet we expect everyone to be able to use hand–eye–foot coordination to operate pedals, wheels and levers whilst travelling at a minimum of 10 times the evolutionary walking pace – 30 mph! And that’s before entering the realm of high–speed travel on congested roads and motorways at 20–30 times walking pace – 60 to 80 mph.

Walking Pace of 3–4 mph is What
we Have Evolved to Operate at Over Millions of Years

It’s our ‘natural’ pace as we are only designed to use our feet, to place them on the ground step by step whilst swinging our arms. And some even struggle with that!

If we draw a line on a very wide piece of paper that reflected the amount of time the human being has been on this planet, and then colour in the section that representated the amount of time we have been driving, doubtless you would not be able to see that period with the naked eye.

It’s quite incredible what we have to learn to do, isn’t it? Like developing the skill to gauge the depth of travel and sensitivity to work the clutch with our left foot whilst having to use a completely different ‘feel’ for operating the brake, and also the accelerator, with our right foot.

Driving Requires More Multi–Tasking Than Anything Else we do

Then there’s the use of levers and stalks that we do with our hands and fingers, and what about looking forward through the screen, backwards through the mirrors and sideways to talk to our passengers whilst dialling out on our mobile phone whilst listening to the radio all at the same time?

Fantastic really that the human being is so adaptable and trainable, and is the reason for our evolutionary success. But many perished over the millennia because they couldn’t adapt quickly enough, and now, regrettably, many more people have perished around the world since the introduction of the car than have died in all the wars of the last century.

Let me repeat that: more people have perished around the world since the introduction of the car than have died in all the wars of the last century. And the fact is that around 80% of drivers have no natural aptitude for driving. Yes, 80%!

What Driver Training Did Any Of Us Get?

But... and here’s the big one, was it because they couldn’t operate the controls, the pedals, wheels and levers? Or was it because no one had trained them to operate beyond the basics, as in the next level — level–2? What training did any of us receive, as a matter of course and as part of a training syllabus, after The Driving Test? As an Introduction to Basics, this has to be Level–1 on the scale.

Shouldn’t we, for getting us up to speed (literally) after The Driving Test, be afforded further driver training in real driving on real roads at real speeds?

What about covering Dynamic Positioning, simple assessment of bends and corners, more on mirrors, creative overtaking, joining and using fast flow road systems and the beginnings of what I call Broadband Vision? And then voluntarily for keen drivers, perhaps Levels–3 or 4, and maybe even level–5.

There Seems to be so Much Missing From Driving

It seems there’s a whole section of required driver training that is completely missing, and for everybody’s welfare, shouldn’t it include a Level–2 in today’s Health and Safety conscious world?

It’s not what we know, but rather what we don’t even know we don’t know that is the real problem. In other words, all of us are left partially trained unless lucky enough to discover Ride Drive, or other professional post test driver training providers. Most never discover, or even think to look for, any further driver training. It’s as if we draw a veil over real driving potential. See it as a twilight zone hidden from view except for a certain few.

Driving Habits

So, back to the focus of our original question; how then do that 80% know for sure that they’re good driver’s? The answer is simple, profound maybe? Surprising in its certainty, but 100% true. The reason they can say they are good is through the ‘Comfort of Habit.’ Nothing more: nothing less, and because we feel comfortable doing what we are doing, we assume it must be right. Good! Think on this.

Even the Worst on the Roads Think They are Good Drivers

That is because doing what they do feels comfortable to them. Reassuring, right? If you watched the TV programme, So You think You’re a Good Driver, with Nick Ross, that was on our screens a few years ago you’ll know what I mean.

So that’s it, habit. Habit with a dash of ego, a splash of arrogance and a liberal coating of ignorance, but it’s not their fault. The System has let them down as it let’s us all down. We shouldn’t seek to blame our fellow motorists, as they were cast adrift, like us all, unprepared and largely unsuited into the real world of speed and congestion that awaited them out there on the highways and byways of Britain and the World.

Remember the 80⁄20 Rule

Before you berate one of your fellow motorists next time for some perceived fault or lack of concentration, just remember the 80⁄20 rule. In any human endeavour 80% will struggle to make mediocre whilst 20% will be good to very good.

Take that 20% and apply the 80⁄20 rule and you have less than 4% who will be very good and far less than 1% who are in reality the most effective drivers. And, by the way, they are all well trained. Taking Up–to–the–Test Driver Training as a requirement to be at Level–1, then they are well beyond. More like Level–3 and 4, and even a few at Level–5.

Road Collisions & Driver Error

98% of all ‘accidents’ are caused through driver error, and seldom all one driver’s fault. It’s usually a split, 50⁄50, 60⁄40 or even 90⁄10, but hardly ever is it 100%. So, when you point the finger of blame, remember one finger may point forward, but fully, three fingers actually point back to you.

Besides stating there were only two types of drivers on the roads, trained and untrained, the late John Miles, MBE, Patron of the original High Performance Course, also said, "There’s only one bloody idiot on the road, and that’s the one whose hands you can see on the wheel in front of you!"

Unlike Drivers, Computer Gamers Tend Never to Blame
the Game or the Machine Upon Which They Play

Computer gamers recognise that it’s all down to them to improve, to develop their skills and to learn what’s required to get to the higher levels. They also know the ‘Game’ is out to get them so they strive to evolve and realise their full potential, and that of the game. If they get zapped, it’s down to them. No one else! So, back to our original question, is the ‘good’ driver real or a myth?

I’ll leave that one with you.

First Published August 2008

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Good Driver Part–One
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Driver Training is the Way to Better Driving Ability