‘Every driving test should include a bike question’

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

From Motor Cycle News (MCN)

An insurance firm is petitioning the Government to make a motorcycle-related question part of every driving test. Bennetts Insurance thinks it could help reduce casualties. At the moment a bike-related question may or may not come up in the driving theory test. The petition says the matter should not be left to chance.

It says: “With questions currently selected at random, there is no guarantee that a question relating to the awareness of motorcyclists will arise in the current test format and this petition is set to challenge that.”

Hannah Squirrell, Bennetts’ Director of Marketing, said: “The petition has been approved by the government and we need to get at least 100,000 signatures in order to have this raised in the House of Commons.”

Find the petition here: epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/26272

The responses from readers were immediate and fascinating.

pinkerton2964 says
for example
"How do you stop a motorcyclist from filtering?"

"How late can you pull out at a junction while still allowing biker a chance to swerve into a keep left sign?"

"Did we hit something?"

"Stopping distance of a motorcycle after hitting a car?"

"How did you miss a racing green motorcycle with his headlight on and a loud pipe?"

Seems to me that car drivers are the worst they have ever been and the current trend of every other person being a driving instructor even though they can't drive themselves – it’s like the blind leading the blind. I have seen at least three driving instructor cars with blacked out rear windows. There are way too many cars on the road so maybe the government should try to be more picky about who they give a licence to. Skid pan driving, motorway skills, limited capacity licence. The average car driver is a lazy, irresponsible inconsiderate idiot who will do anything to park five inches from the Chinese restaurant and drop and pick up the kids in the car even if they live two minutes’ walking distance. We should ask more of our drivers: they should know one end of the car from another.

geoffb61 says
agree with pinkerton2964
also...
Do you consider your licence a right or a privilege? If 'right' then FAIL.
Once you get in your car are you the only road user that matters? If yes then FAIL.

Sure I could think of others, but what's the point?!? There is no incentive for this (or any) govt to make getting on the road more difficult or drivers more skilled as we are all just cash cows as far as they are concerned.

banditsprint says
More to the point
Every car driver should have to do a year on a bike or moped before they can get a provisional car licence.

ChimneyPortions says
Spike
Every Car should be fitted with an 8" metal spike in the middle of the steering wheel.
Accidents involving cars would disappear overnight.

huntley53 says
Too many gadgets
In my experience the drivers rely too much on their gadgets and safety devices. Concentrate on the road and what’s going on instead of tuning your radio, talking on the phone, reading your sat-nav.
The latest Mercedes advert is a classic case and should be banned. A driver takes his eyes of the road to watch what some kids are playing at and doesn’t run a cyclist over because of Merc´s new automatic emergency braking system. Its not needed if you drive properly. That’s the problem these days, too much reliance on technology.

Doug66 says
This is my question
I asked my daughter, who is going to be learning to drive in a few months, a bike question. She knew what bike I had. That'll do.

Jackspratt says
Why not...
...just make the car test as convoluted, complex and difficult as the latest motorbike test?

cbxade says
Completely agree with Huntley53. A sat-nav is like watching TV especially when it’s stuck slap bang in the middle of the screen. Car drivers are (mostly) lazy fat gits that can't do anything for themselves.
I think questions about motorcycles should definitely be included in the test. A Volvo could be suspended above them when they take the test and if they get it wrong they would sure now how it feels like to be flattened by a Volvo lol.

billysollocks says
Huntley53, you're spot on. It's noticeable, on a daily basis, that four wheeled users are relying almost completely on electronic gadgets to help them drive. Twat nav, ABS, ESP – the list is endless. Riders have to be able to actually control a bike to pass the test and stay alive, yet car drivers merely pass a test then hand over all responsibility to the car! That cannot be either right or acceptable. How about car drivers being banned from being able to drive a car with all the gizmos for two years after they pass a test. Also, before passing a test, they should be made to pass a motorcycle and pedestrian awareness course. The road is cluttered enough without these clowns no longer using their eyes to see road signs, direction arrows, road markings etc.

cbrpilot says
Pointless exercise. So they have to remember the answer to a question that they practised for beforehand anyway – yeah, that really going to improve the awareness of these donkey isn't it.
About time some of these morons got done for the shat-nav being perched in the middle of the windscreen, after all it is an MoT failure to have an obstruction in the screen, so why turn a blind eye after?

It's about time the car test became as difficult as they are making the bike test, that might improve the standards out there, but it's going to do sod all for the turds already out there. It's high time they concentrated their resources on dangerous driving like tailgating etc, and is it just me or do a lot of you notice morons now using their phones, but talking on them on loud speaker (hand held), like that makes any f****n difference. I think they are convinced because they haven't got it stuck to their ear that it's either OK, or they just won't get caught. Not that plod’s looking though, they are too busy sitting in an un-marked Transit waiting to catch you 4mph over the speed limit. Much easier.