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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to not go on a speed awareness course

303 replies

sPJPPp · 08/04/2015 09:51

The course will be 97 and the fine is 100.

I would get three points and my insurance will go up by about 40 next year.

The course is 2 hours drive away and will take 4 hours. So the best part of a day taken away.

Aibu to just take the points as 40 to loose a day off is just not enough.

OP posts:

Sparklingbrook · 08/04/2015 12:14

Could you have said no Ryan? Sorry for all the questions, i think I am rankling on your behalf. Did you have to pay?

RyanAirVeteran · 08/04/2015 12:15

Sherbet

I was pulling out of a side road, I was in first gear, I was peeping and creeping and had just commited to the manouvre when he appeared like a bat out of hell from some illegally parked cars further up the road.

LadyTmalia · 08/04/2015 12:16

fearandloathinginambridge

Sadly your 10% +2 miles information is incorrect :( It is at the discreation of the county as to what they "allow"
I do believe Avon and Somerset county are quite tight and dont allow anything over the limit.

LadyTmalia · 08/04/2015 12:24

Discreation :o Lol I meant discretion

softlysoftly · 08/04/2015 12:31

Gallic I've no idea, never thought about discrimination. Perhaps I should have got a lawyer before sending court stuff back!

I did write in it my "mitigating circumstances" so perhaps the judge will let me off unlikely

Snottybiyatch · 08/04/2015 12:37

I'm a bit hmm at the people that find it interesting. Then again millions watch shit on TV

That is IT. OP you are an absolute hoot and a sweety pie to end all sweety pies. Can't believe I took you seriously for the first five pages.

You dun me up like a kipper....good for you!!

SoupDragon · 08/04/2015 12:39

I don't think anyone can really concentrate for 4 hours, your kidding yourself!

Well,to e fair, you seem unable to concentrate for the length of a car journey and are easily distracted by other drivers.

It does just seem like a punishment for adults, make them bored out of their brains for hours

No, it's a punishment for bad drivers.

Justusemyname · 08/04/2015 12:47

Fearandloathing - you are wrong with your threshold list.

Grantaire · 08/04/2015 12:49

DH went on one a few years ago. He's a very humble man, happy to admit his mistakes (driving on autopilot, didn't notice the temporary speed limit on a road he drives daily. Totally his fault and he never denied it) and was positive about the course having heard people say they were quite useful. He says his was absolutely rubbish. The chap doing it was mostly bored and the rest of the time, patronising. The feedback from the people on it was very negative, consistent with feedback across several weeks and the chap no longer runs courses.

Just making the point that sometimes the courses are not great. MIL has been on two and said the second was terrible. Same content but bored, awful delivery via power point and some very sexist remarks too. The first she raved about.

I'm still less than two years from passing my test so my lessons and reading of the highway code are still pretty fresh in my mind. What surprises me about these threads is how little people know about speed. I was taught how to deal with tailgaters (slowly and consistently reduce speed to increase your own stopping distance, move over to let them pass if convenient). Similarly, I was taught to match my gear to my speed at all times. In fact I was taught that for efficiency, economy and the environment, you use your gears to reduce speed and only use the brake if you aren't afforded the opportunity to use the gears and the engine's natural braking. In a 30 zone, I'd never be above 3rd gear. It is efficient, prevents creeping speed and is responsive driving. I was also taught how to know what speed a road is from several clues if there was no immediate signage, plus info on repeater signs and many other things which come up on here.

I'd be interested to know if it's just people forgetting what they've been taught or if they were never taught in the first place. A brief chat with a friend recently leads me to believe that she was taught next to bog all about any of this. I find this quite alarming.

Grantaire · 08/04/2015 12:52

Ryan, have I misunderstood your scenario? You were pulling out of a side road onto a main road and hit by a car already on that road? That is your fault isn't it? I mean it's your responsibility to join the road at an appropriate point. Unless you are saying the other chap was speeding which of course is a mitigating factor but still technically your fault.

Sorry if I've misunderstood. I hope you were physically okay afterwards?

MamainMilan · 08/04/2015 12:52

It does just seem like a punishment for adults, make them bored out of their brains for hours

Maybe you'll surprise yourself and actually learn something. Hope your attitude changes a bit OP.

GraysAnalogy · 08/04/2015 12:57

You did something wrong, pay the consequences with a decent attitude.

zfactor · 08/04/2015 12:58

Don't go on the course. Take the points; then it's just 3 more goes and you'll be disqualified, thankfully.

5Foot5 · 08/04/2015 13:13

*I don't think anyone can really concentrate for 4 hours, your kidding yourself!

It does just seem like a punishment for adults, make them bored out of their brains for hours. Still I guess I should reserve judgement. *

I went on one a few months ago. (Thought I was in a 40 limit. It was 30.)

Although the course is 4 hours you do get breaks for coffee as they realise no-one can concentrate for that long at a stretch. Also it wasn't all being talked to - there were group exercises and discussions as well.

I suppose a lot depends on the instructors, but the man and woman who did the course I was on were really nice and didn't patronise at all. They did their best to keep it interesting and informative.

Oh and it is best to at least look as though you are going in with the right attitude and taking it seriously because they have the right not to sign you off as having completed the course if you are clearly taking the piss.

Original poster

sPJPPp · 08/04/2015 13:14

Lol at me being on the wind up because of lots of popular shit on TV.

This has all got very sanction in us with all the people calling me a bad driver and hope I get banned, for one very minor offense in 15 years and probably well over a million miles.

OP posts:

Original poster

sPJPPp · 08/04/2015 13:15

Thanks 5, with breaks and exercises I think that should be OK for 4 hours. Was worried it would be a 4 hour talk

OP posts:

Steppeoneggs · 08/04/2015 13:16

Grantaire - I took my test 30 years ago, and certainly some of what you have pointed out wasn't taught then.

But also, technically in UK you don't have to have any driving lessons, you can be taught by anyone with a full license sitting in the seat next to you. A scary number of people do this and therefore haven't had any decent theory taught to them, eg how to deal with tailgaters, because that isn't something that comes up in the theory test. (and no theory test when I did mine either)

I remember a long argument on radio 4, went on for weeks over the speed limit on a dual carriage way (this would have been about 10 years ago) there was a 50/50 split, half thought it was 60, and 70 is only on motorway, the other half thought it was 70, as long as there is a barrier down the middle, in the end they got the chief of police from somewhere in and he said 70.
I was amazed, I had a good driving instructor and felt that I had been well taught and I thought it was 60. Just shows how much we all don't know really.

zfactor · 08/04/2015 13:16

One very minor 'offense' (sic) for which you've been caught.

Snottybiyatch · 08/04/2015 13:17

Not on the wind up for saying there is lots of popular shit on tv: on the wind up for an unbelievably sustained superior approach to fellow citizens.

But like I said, you've had me. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!

Sparklingbrook · 08/04/2015 13:19

Maybe they will lay on a 3 course dinner half way through specially for the people that have driven millions of miles and are excellent drivers?

Snottybiyatch · 08/04/2015 13:20

Oh come, zfactor you're being very sanction in us

(Took me a good few minutes to work out what that was supposed to be )

zfactor · 08/04/2015 13:25

Snotty - Indeed I am! (sanctions in the US, what sanctions in the US, what's that got to with driving in the UK?...)

UncertainSmile · 08/04/2015 13:26

Is this cool? Is it?

m.youtube.com/watch?v=6vWHNwmzf1o

Theoretician · 08/04/2015 13:29

sPJPPp if you were the brilliant driver you thought you were, you would know what the speed limit was on that road wothout signage

What kind of road should a car driver know has a 50mph limit, if there are no signs?

BitOutOfPractice · 08/04/2015 13:31

Just keep an open mind eh OP? That'll stop you coming across as one of the arrogant prats that seem to be on every course

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