What happens in a speed awareness course?

[fari2014]

I have to do a speed awareness course virtually as alternative to points via zoom. Has anyone done one. What happens in the course?

You get talked at for three hours about road safety and speed awareness. It is informative and some of it is interesting. My tattic Was to sit quietly and get through it. Wasn't helped by a gentlemen who really didn't want to be there and made it very clear to the trainers and everyone else in the room.

I did. Same as above. The 'instructor' was very friendly, didn't make you feel a twat for speeding etc but was very interesting. They did require a very minimal amount of interaction and you had to be on camera and alone in the room you're in. Some idiots wife kept coming in and out and he was in the phone a lot too, think he had to re take the course.

I did one in person before covid. It’s a brilliant course actually and no hand slapping from the instructors. The assumption is that you were not aware enough of the rules and they are educating you.

It was interesting and bits of it made me think. I still do the 3 second rule and am very aware of what happens at various speeds, plus the fact that many accidents happen less than a mile from home, when people lose concentration.

you will need a pad and pen, they sometimes ask questions, ask you to write down your answer and hold it up to the camera.

DP recently did one, as above really he sat on zoom for a few hours (you can't turn your camera off, nobody else can be in the room) and listen to someone going over things like misconceptions about speeding/the law/effects of speeding. There were a couple of 'quizzes' and everyone had to participate or give an answer to what would happen in various road scenarios and things like that. I don't think there was any meaning to them in the respect that it didn't matter if you got the answer wrong, just a tool for learning I suppose.

At the beginning everyone introduced themselves and said where they were from which would have irked me, I can't see why it's necessary to have to divulge your name and local area to strangers as part of speed awareness but I am a bit finicky about privacy.

Quite boring all in all I daresay but certainly better than the alternative!

Yes. Some of it was interesting, most common sense. Tbh it's just like sitting though an interactive webinar

I'm actually waiting to be sent something so I can register onto one. It's been months now! Delayed because the initial notice of 3mph over 30 was sent to DH, it was his car but me in it, so he sent back the initial letter basically dobbing me in, I then filled in the form for myself when that came back - and have heard nothing.

Should I be chasing this up?? I don't want to have a harsher penalty if it's gone astray somewhere. Think I sent the form off 5 weeks ago.

Dh had to do one a while back, pre covid, and in person.
Whilst he didn't want to really do it, and was a bit embarrassed about having to do so (own fault for speeding imo) he went and took an active part in the course. He said it was actually really interesting. He didn't feel he was lectured at, rather it was informative and the trainers were very good. I know this will be location specific though. He said the attendees were a very diverse group covering people from all spectrums of life, age and sex. He said the table he was sat at was really engaged and discussed the information during some of the more interactive aspects of the evening but at least one other table pretty much sat in silence, so possibly got less out of it. A virtual course will be so,what different anyway though.

Fwiw he has driven daily since and never been caught speeding again. Whilst I know he probably does on occasion, such as motorways, he does think more on lesser roads such as dual,carriageways and the like. Changing his car contributed to this too, but I do think it helped him change his driving style more.

The most interesting thing for me is the diverse group of people that attend. I always think it would be a good start for an apocalypse movie as it's such a random group of people I'd love to see how they all survive

I did one a few months ago. It was quite enlightening - some people have no idea about driving or speed limits!

The instructor made us introduce ourselves but only first name and county so I didn’t worry about any kind of privacy invasion. She did a 1-2-1 with everyone at the start to confirm who we were. We had to show driving licence. If you were worried about privacy you could say then and ask to use a different name in the group session.

It was quizzes and discussions mainly. You have to participate in these sessions but it’s not too taxing at all. She started off by saying that we were all normal drivers not bad people, not there to be punished but to have our learning refreshed. She said if we were bad drivers or had severely broken the law we wouldn’t be in that course and would be facing more serious consequences instead.

I quite enjoyed mine, it was a break from my real job and a bit of a refresher course. It's nothing to worry about.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I will have my licence ready and get a pen and note pad. After all the positive replies, I am looking forward to the course now.

I did one in person pre Covid and found it really interesting and informative.

Had the 3 hours off hell today , it’s ment to help but the chaps taken the course was treating it as a exam marching up and down, it’s a venue we had to attend not to go to a school lesson . I was charged £160 because they messed my days up , bloody shit next time I will take the points at my age who gives a shit , waste of time and money !!!!

I did one in person years ago, and really enjoyed it. The instructors were nice, and it was very informative.