Driving Schools & Driving Test

Hagar

Should the Dept of Transport run all driving schools ?

A more standardised approach to teaching could lead to a higher overall standard of driving. Initial lessons to take place on specially set aside training tracks, not the local supermarket car park! Proper dual control vehicles uniformly coloured / identified to highlight them to other road users when the lessons progress to that stage.

If all drivers were taught in official State driving schools there could be a process of continuous assesment during the training process which would render the need for a test obsolete. It would also get away from learners "fluking a pass" on the day.

I am not trying to put the current driving istructors or testers out of work. Many of these would be highly professional, some would be more amatuerish eg "Tommy Joe School of Motoring and Hackney Service" passing on barely adequate but poor driving habits. The more professional instructors would no doubt form the backbone of the new Dept.

What do you think?

Furp

I think this would be a great idea and something along these lines should be put in place in this country, imagine a standardised syllabus for driver training a standard fee and a test at the end, I really think it would improve the system in place now, it might also quicken up the process.

They could also bring in things like motorway driving which is unreal to think that this is not covered in the present system, in fact I think the present system is really dated.

And also the idea of having purpose built tracks to get you initially trained is so much safer and responsible. This could be used for all types of vehicles not just cars.

Although what are the chances of the government bringing this in!

mackerski

Hagar wrote:

Should the Dept of Transport run all driving schools ?

They should certainly regulate them. Here's an example of why:

A few days ago, I was listening to Newstalk 106 in the hours of darkness, when the reruns are on. George Hook's stand-in had a discussion on about driving standards and had, as a guest, a spokesperson for a driving school, which I'm pretty sure was the Irish School of Motoring (you'll note that I didn't call him an instructor - this will become important). Discussion was wide-ranging and covered many aspects of driving and the poor quality thereof. Public comments were received, many of the usual observations. Guest touched on the likely imminence of compulsory driver training, how this was a good thing and how, (plug), his school was a fine body of folks to do it. Fine, you'd expect that.

Anyway, a listener wanted the guest to clarify the correct method of signalling on a roundabout. "No problem", you'd think, "anybody with a licence knows that, especially if he does PR for a chain of driving schools". However, after much hemming and hawing, an "as far as I know" and a "don't hold me to this", our friend proceeds to describe a process which was:

a) not terribly coherent
b) Wrong
c) Kicked off with a particularly obviously mistaken assertion, that when you're going left you don't indicate at all.

Now, to be fair, this man is not a driving instructor, and there's no suggestion he ever has been. However, what kind of driving school sends a spokesman on the radio to comment of driving habits that doesn't himself know the basics of how to conduct a vehicle?

Dermot

jlang

I heard that on NewsTalk 106 too and I was shocked that the guy from the Driving School could get such a basic detail of driving wrong.

cdebru

he is a driving instructor or was and as far as i know his father owns the ism