Why not?

[TripleS]

Top Gear was recently implicated in a road traffic accident in which the driver claimed to be following advice he had heard on the programme. The BBC responded by saying Top Gear is an entertainment programme and does not give driving advice.

For these reasons I cannot see AD being integrated into TG.

This is just the sort of reason I thought they might be interested in an AD slot - to show that they are responsible really.

Perhaps they are not interested in being seen to be responsible. At the moment they seem to be more orientated towards entertainment and lashing out at anti-car people, which is fine by me, but they would need to change their basic approach before they could do anything constructive in terms of promoting AD. Would they be willing to make that change? I doubt it, but I'd like to find I'm wrong.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[Custom24]

I'm also going to chuck a spanner in the ointment with regards to showing someone doing an IAM or RoSPA course: how will the volunteers in the local groups cope with more trainees? Is it possible to design a course that can guide the driver to being more advanced without practical tuition?

We coped with Daewoo and others selling the IAM course with every new car, with St John Ambulance changing their policy to insist all their ambulance people did IAM or equivalent, as two examples of national campaigns which suddenly gave us more associates, so I am guessing we could cope with this.

I'm not a big fan of the "without practical tuition" idea. Sounds like sending out people to drive thinking they're doing AD with unpredictable results, possibly even negative results.

However, there is some precedent to what you're suggesting in one version of the IAM Ireland associate program, as I've mentioned (read whinged about ) before. I don't know the success of that program either in terms of takeup or results. A slight difference from what you're maybe suggesting is that those associates still take a test with a Garda Traffic Officer at the end, which does constitute some practical tuition.

Remember also that an increase in associates means a future increase in observers, pro rata, as long as we retain them. I think the existing IAM/Rospa observer system works (although we have had debates about this on here before, which I am not attempting to reignite - please!). If you accept that it works (and I am guessing you do since you participate in it ), then increasing the size of the groups and the organizations is a good thing, surely.

[MrToad]

Don't worry - I'm supportive of the current Obs/Associate system, but slightly frustrated that I can't do much to promote our group locally as we don't have spare Observer capacity. We're working on it, but new ones take a while to come through the system.

It's still the case that a full IAM course is quite a commitment, so perhaps for this purpose a simplified scheme might be more attractive. A problem though is marketing a course that isn't the best - make it clear that there is more to learn and people may say 'well why bother then?' On the other hand, if people think this is all it takes to make them great drivers we'll end up once again with the situation that tarnishes the reputation of the IAM - moderately competent drivers being convinced they're God's gift.

If a scheme could be devised that required a minimum of practical tuition, it might make it easier to cope with a sudden influx of new recruits. The Daewoo scheme was before my time, but I suspect national TV has the potential generate more interest than that did.

Incidentally, I've been wondering how much theory can be got across to Associates in the classroom sessions we run, and whether it's possible to shift more learning into the classroom from the car. This has the advantage of efficiency (20 students to one lecturer) and potentially reducing the number of sessions required with an Observer.

[ROG]

Classroom - we tried that - ok for a social thing but the book is the theory and that theory is best shown or done practically.
Associates meeting socially (not classroom) & talking to each other is a good idea though.

I've been turning around my associates in 6 months on average from first run to test with about average 6 runs each.

I was the publicity person for our group a while ago and found it to be a waste of time - lots of leaflets out but few associates in. Radio spots/plugs - all to no avail. I needed a carrot to get them in such as a % off insurance - where is that flying pig!!