stefan einz wrote:It's called creeping excellence.
I can only assume, Von, that this is a slight jest. I hope so, because I doubt if there is any real evidence to causally link driving test standards to accident rates, given the huge number of variables involved.
What is indisputable is that the test today could be significantly more effective. It is only the weakness of our Government to show real leadership around road safety that prevents it from being so.
Kind regards
Steve
The numbers were provided, simply because that's what the numbers are in relation to some of the points raised. I don't seek personally to attribute or attach any correlation between them.
However, with that comment specifically quoted, I'm talking about how we each struggle with the learning & testing ourselves, but if we are not careful as we become more accomplished, we have a tendency to forget how hard we actually did struggle & to show empathy for others who now do so. We expect more & become less forgiving of others, with an attitude that it's something we've always been able to do, when in truth we couldn't, we had to learn & that took time.
It's easy to be dismissive of others when we ourselves have been more fortunate with the training we received.
I'm not applying that comment to the DSA tests alone, but to whatever level people get to & then watch others trying to attain that level.
It's easy sometimes to look at what passes as an advanced driver in some places & scoff, because in truth advanced is not what one might call it from one's own perspective.
I certainly remember struggling with DSA training & test, plus plenty of other courses afterwards. I don't think those starting out find it easy now either, but the problem is that they do mostly consider it the end of their training & there is little to encourage them to think otherwise.
If you make the initial driving test too hard though, you run the risk of more people not actually bothering with the test. Drivers in the main are not very tolerant of the less skilful around them on the roads & even drivers that call themselves advanced drivers, don't actively go out of their way a lot of the time to make it easier for those less skilled than themselves when they interact with them. They simply see them as a burden.
How many times we hear people complaining (not necesarily here but in general) about someone holding them up by driving at a speed slower than they personally wish to travel, when in truth if they want to pass, it's up to them to do so safely, not rebuke the less skilled for simply making the progress that they were comfortable with.