Driving - pay the fine or take the course +EV

[leethefish]

Deffo do the course next week you could lose concentration and go thru a speed camera at 38 mph and bang another 3 points
Then jump a light 3 weeks later ....Before you know it your on 9 points and last chance before a  ban
Just sayin

[Steve Swift]

Did the course, made me slow down for a while after the course but soon returned to my normal style except,  In a built up area (30) I stay in 3rd gear so forces me to remember why I have to slow down.  Nearly all attending  the course stated that  it was  a positive experience, but duuuuuuuuulllllllll.

[Woodsey]

Wrote a long reply but - probably mercifully - it crashed before I pressed post.

Basically this:

absolute no brainer to go on the course, especially with your attitude. teach you a few things about the safety aspect of wearing seat belts

cost, time etc should be very much secondary as reasons to go/ not go on the course

Take it seriously because you were caught doing something stupid. The insurance premiums have to include the cost of people doing more damage than they needed to. If yours goes up, so be it.

http://www.iam.org.uk/media-and-research/media-centre/news-archive/20598-50-years-on-people-continue-to-ignore-seat-belt-laws-at-their-peril-warns-the-iam

At the end of the day, we all do daft things and it happened to be your turn this time. Learn from it, take your punishment and move on with the positives.

If you do choose the course, I would be interested in hearing ITT what you thought of it.

Sorry that this is a bit ranty. All the best.

I may or may not have been on both a red light awareness course and a speed awareness course, you really would be amazed by how little the other people know, how little they learn, and how moronic the jobsworth who run the courses on the day can be.

Im still in the process of busting my sunday mtts, but if you'd like to read a rant about gen pop and these courses i'd happily oblige

In fairness I think it would be hard to run a course like this unless your were a jobsworth. I think it's a requirement for getting the job in the first place lol.

[titaniumbean]

the speed awareness course was run by the AA I think and the 2 people there were really good. the red light course was an absolute disgrace, the guy was a prick and we overran by 35 minutes because I ended up arguing with him the whole course. everyone in the room is meant to have their say and speak up but no one else had to be because I wouldnt let him be a bullshit merchant.

[verndog158]

the speed awareness course was run by the AA I think and the 2 people there were really good. the red light course was an absolute disgrace, the guy was a prick and we overran by 35 minutes because I ended up arguing with him the whole course. everyone in the room is meant to have their say and speak up but no one else had to be because I wouldnt let him be a bullshit merchant.

i assume he recommended the road rage course too?

[titaniumbean]

the speed awareness course was run by the AA I think and the 2 people there were really good. the red light course was an absolute disgrace, the guy was a prick and we overran by 35 minutes because I ended up arguing with him the whole course. everyone in the room is meant to have their say and speak up but no one else had to be because I wouldnt let him be a bullshit merchant.

i assume he recommended the road rage course too?

I was in the right, he was a twat.

I only rage when I wait for someone and they dont acknowledge that

[vegaslover]

My Mrs done the speeding course and said it was a lot more informative than she expected, but also boring as takes far longer than is needed. She did also say how many of the other drivers on the course had absolutely no idea of speed limits!!

She did it as was far cheaper when taking into account 5 years worth of insurance premiums

[titaniumbean]

My Mrs done the speeding course and said it was a lot more informative than she expected, but also boring as takes far longer than is needed. She did also say how many of the other drivers on the course had absolutely no idea of speed limits!!

She did it as was far cheaper when taking into account 5 years worth of insurance premiums

I've got less tables now so i'll cliff note rant away.


Red light awareness course, maybe 25 people in the room, myself and one other knew the answer to the tricky tricky question of 'what is the order of traffic lights.....'

A woman at the front kept stating that she would be driving through red lights after the course because its absolutely fine, repeating this even after watching footage of horrific death crashes as people try and blast through last minute and get caught out by their ineptitude/mr lorry or mr large stationary object etc.

the guy didn't think she needed anything more said to her though...

we were asked who had known they had gone through a red light, I was the only person who said they knew they were doing it, I also pointed out I would be doing it again as it saved me from being involved in a car crash from the gibbon swerving across multiple lanes into the space I had just left. he didnt seem to give a shit that they are all terrible drivers with no clue whats going on around them or how to follow green and red lights but he'd ticked his 'have I patronised them with this question box'.

later he provides a diagram of a junction with 3 vehicles approaching it and explains a situation where the 3 vehicles have a crash. both from knowing how to drive and which way a car faces, and from the way he described it, it was clear that all 3 had driven incorrectly and were all partially to blame. he goes round the room asking each person which car a b or c was at fault. they all just saying random letters without a clue or a thought. Comes to titty and I state 'all 3'.... he then explains how its got to be one person fault and I MUST give a single answer. 5 minutes later he realises that my response of fuck off and stop being a twat was my final answer, he randomly enters me in one the squares. he gets the rest of the responses and procedes to lecture us on how we are all wrong and its all their faults for different reasons.....

it was at this point that I became even more vocal and the rest of the session was me pointing out how much of a prick the guy was.

at the start of the course he'd corrected someone that we weren't criminals as it was a civil matter yada yada, proceeds for the rest of the course to call us criminals, constantly patronising us with quips like 'maybe you shouldn't have got caught' and other such classics.


suffice it to say my already low opinion of other drivers, has gone down each time I have to spend any time with them. the RLA course was a real procedure of stupid bureaucracy, and I gained nothing from it, nor should I imagine did anyone else.


it's an absolute no brainer to do these courses though because of the effect bans/points have on your insurance.

[kinboshi]

My Mrs done the speeding course and said it was a lot more informative than she expected, but also boring as takes far longer than is needed. She did also say how many of the other drivers on the course had absolutely no idea of speed limits!!

She did it as was far cheaper when taking into account 5 years worth of insurance premiums

I've got less tables now so i'll cliff note rant away.


Red light awareness course, maybe 25 people in the room, myself and one other knew the answer to the tricky tricky question of 'what is the order of traffic lights.....'

A woman at the front kept stating that she would be driving through red lights after the course because its absolutely fine, repeating this even after watching footage of horrific death crashes as people try and blast through last minute and get caught out by their ineptitude/mr lorry or mr large stationary object etc.

the guy didn't think she needed anything more said to her though...

we were asked who had known they had gone through a red light, I was the only person who said they knew they were doing it, I also pointed out I would be doing it again as it saved me from being involved in a car crash from the gibbon swerving across multiple lanes into the space I had just left. he didnt seem to give a shit that they are all terrible drivers with no clue whats going on around them or how to follow green and red lights but he'd ticked his 'have I patronised them with this question box'.

later he provides a diagram of a junction with 3 vehicles approaching it and explains a situation where the 3 vehicles have a crash. both from knowing how to drive and which way a car faces, and from the way he described it, it was clear that all 3 had driven incorrectly and were all partially to blame. he goes round the room asking each person which car a b or c was at fault. they all just saying random letters without a clue or a thought. Comes to titty and I state 'all 3'.... he then explains how its got to be one person fault and I MUST give a single answer. 5 minutes later he realises that my response of fuck off and stop being a twat was my final answer, he randomly enters me in one the squares. he gets the rest of the responses and procedes to lecture us on how we are all wrong and its all their faults for different reasons.....

it was at this point that I became even more vocal and the rest of the session was me pointing out how much of a prick the guy was.

at the start of the course he'd corrected someone that we weren't criminals as it was a civil matter yada yada, proceeds for the rest of the course to call us criminals, constantly patronising us with quips like 'maybe you shouldn't have got caught' and other such classics.


suffice it to say my already low opinion of other drivers, has gone down each time I have to spend any time with them. the RLA course was a real procedure of stupid bureaucracy, and I gained nothing from it, nor should I imagine did anyone else.


it's an absolute no brainer to do these courses though because of the effect bans/points have on your insurance.

Fewer.

[tikay]

I've been on the course, 20 minutes of content squeezed into 4 hours


Excellent!

[DungBeetle]

Nanny state nonsense.  The opening poster knows that if he doesn't wear a seatbelt his brains will be splattered all over the wind shield if he has an accident.  Why does he need a Government worker to spend 4 hours explaining that to him?

I can see the logic in educated speeding drivers though.

[AdamM]

you don't think not wearing a seat belt has an effect on other road users too?

[DungBeetle]

Does it?  Crash head on.  One driver dies, the other doesn't.  Unless you are talking about psychological damage from being involved in a fatal accident?

In any case, I don't see why a 4 hour course is needed to state the absolute blinding obvious. 

[Woodsey]

Does it?  Crash head on.  One driver dies, the other doesn't.  Unless you are talking about psychological damage from being involved in a fatal accident?

In any case, I don't see why a 4 hour course is needed to state the absolute blinding obvious. 

Meh, would rather suck up a course however useful it is than take the points.

[tikay]

Does it?  Crash head on.  One driver dies, the other doesn't.  Unless you are talking about psychological damage from being involved in a fatal accident?

In any case, I don't see why a 4 hour course is needed to state the absolute blinding obvious. 

You are right, but we got caught breaking the law, & so we have a choice - points, or a 4 hour course. 

We just have to suck it up.