Walking the Tightrope: Speeding
Sally Codman dreads attending a speed awareness course - then is pleasantly surprised.
Regular readers (assuming I have any!) may recall that earlier this year I was stopped for speeding (the first time in almost 30 years of driving) and given the option of attending a Speed Awareness Course or paying up and taking my points like a woman.
After weighing up the pros and cons I opted to go back to 'school' for a day and keep my clean licence. Part of the thinking behind this being that in the current climate of zero tolerance to speeding, I may not be given this alternative another time.
And yes, I admit there may be another time, because I don't have a cruise control on my car and even the best human 'cruise controls' are subject to attention lapses.
Having taken the decision and filled in the forms I occupied the waiting time by worrying (usually aloud) about various aspects of the course-to-come. Would my eyesight, which until recently has been excellent, still be up to scratch for the old number plate reading test? Cue - family driven mad by Mum constantly screwing up eyes and reading number plates aloud.
Would my driving deteriorate very badly when subject to the scrutiny of a driving instructor after all these years? Cue - Eldest daughter (who passed her test recently) being driven mad by Mum asking if her driving was 'okay today?'
After a bad night's sleep, full of paranoid dreams of being snapped by speed cameras, stopped by coppers with cameras and finally losing my licence completely, the day of the Speed Awareness Course dawned bright and very sunny. I couldn't help feeling the fine weather was part of the punishment after all those rainy days in August when I wouldn't have minded being inside.
I arrived at Kirklees Council's Driver Training Centre in Flint Street, Fartown, clutching the required documents, a good 15 minutes before the official start time of 8.45am, having set off ridiculously early so I wouldn't be tempted to speed en route.
After a quick licence check it was over to the dreaded number plate test - no problem there. Then we were given a quick tour of the rooms we would be using and offered a coffee before the course got underway. We were a mixed bunch of 'students', ranging from a few youngsters who looked as if they'd only just removed their L-plates, right through to professional drivers with grey hairs and years of experience.
Suffice to say us gals were in the minority!
After a quick icebreaker introduction exercise we kicked-off with a look at 'The True Cost of Speed' - from both the emotional and hard cash viewpoints. Next up was the interesting question of 'Why do we Speed?' This drew out some interesting answers, including; being late, feeling stressed, feeling angry, the conviction that you could drive safely over the speed limit and having the opportunity or fast car to do it in.
Then it was on to 'Personality and Speed' and 'Opportunity/Obligations and Speed' and the need for setting speed limits. The afternoon featured the practical on road training sessions we'd all been worrying about. However, we got a chatty, friendly instructor who put us at our ease and talked us through the 'Proactive Driving Style' promoted on the course. This basically consists of improving your hazard perception skills and slowing down in plenty of time if you spot trouble ahead.
Then it was back to the Centre for a course evaluation and discussion session before we all received a written evaluation of our driving skills - or lack of them.
I have to admit that I opted for a shot at the 'Speed Awareness Course' with a very negative frame of mind. I'd planned to fill a seat for the day with the sole intention of keeping my licence clean. By the end of the day I had, rather reluctantly, to admit that I'd learned a lot and brushed up on hazard perception skills that have grown rusty due to years of driving mostly on familiar roads.
The course presentation hit just the right note, we were treated with respect and the serious content of the course was leavened with just the right amount of light-hearted comments and ad-libs. But a few of us couldn't help thinking that the 'pill' would have been easier to swallow if the course had cost �60 - the same as a speeding fine - instead of a whopping �95!
