Safe Speed Forums

Some interesting stuff on the DSA FoI responses section:

http://www.dsa.gov.uk/Category.asp?cat=357

This document was quite interesting, it details the practical pass rates by age and gender. Would be interesting to see how this falls at higher ages, the drop from 17 to 18 is quite substantial, any suggestions on why this could be - is it perhaps because a 17 year old is more likely to be eager to take and pass their test for social reasons, but maybe those learning later are doing it out of necessity and are therefore differently motivated and possibly more stressed?


Gareth

17 year old pupils tend to be motivated by peer pressure - "my friend passed last week so I need to pass as well"

17/18 year olds are also keen to pass before they leave home for University etc. The New Drivers Act certainly encourages this - pass just before you leave for college and then dont drive much/at all for the 2 year probation period - very convenient

Older pupils as Gareth suggests are often learning for "work" reasons and sometimes try to take tests earlier than they are really ready.

Older pupils often have fewer lessons for financial reasons - younger pupils parents often pay/contribute

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).

It could also just be that some people are naturally good at driving and will pass first time -- and you'll get more of these people taking the test at 17 and passing; whereas for the 18- and 19-year olds there's probably quite a few of them who already tried once and failed, and are therefore fairly likely to fail again.

Could be that the 17s have still got an certain immunity to test nerves , more used to learning and taking in things whereas the older ones have not faced any form of test for some years and get hit by nerves??

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

I'm very pleased* to note the 10% difference between the sexes in the pass rate - even if us guys can't get any PSHE GCSEs, we're much better in the things that matter...

I was quite amazed that only 2/3rds are passing their bike test though - surely the hardest bit of the driving test is reversing - how does anyone fail a bike test - especially since those doing it are surely enthusaists

I went down through every gear from fourth during my emergency stop and that was still a 'minor fault' in it!

Oh, and speaking of FOI - a week ago I put in an FOI request for all the Hendon driver training documents (including pursuit, etc) as a sort of extension to Roadcraft - assuming I get them, would anyone like a copy?

*will give me some good ammunition

Well, the DSA site seems to be running on steam power today and I can't find the report on bike tests, but I know from personal experience that the u-turn on the bike test (especislly the big bike test) is FAR harder than the reversing excercises on the driving test. I failed my first big bike test on the u-turn and it was the ONLY fault I made.

The majority of people I've spoken to who have failed a big bike test have done so on the u-turn.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

There was certainly peer pressure, i don't think that anyone in my year failed before me and I certainly wasn't going to be the first.

Nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition.

I'm not sure our local testers would have let you away with that!

A lot of new riders fail for putting a foot down during the u-turn. I'd imagine that forgetting to cancel indicators is another common one. Don't forget that 1 missed right lifesaver is enough to fail you too.

And finally, don't forget that many (most?) of the people learning now already have car licences and they bring their bad habits with them. Add to that a very tight schedule to learn bike control, road positioning, OSM/PSL etc if doing an intensive course...

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Less Kodak, more Kojak.
In times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Ok, been over 56 days after I got the confirmation of my request, and no reply since then - what should I do now?