The Initial Rider Training Project

Ever heard of this? Nope, nor had I!

Bearing in mind I belong to the Driving Instructors Association and the British Motorcyclists Federation, and receive their publications, as well as the Driving Standards Agency 'Despatch' magazine, I'm surprised that this one had passed me by.

The project

The need to understand

Training is recognised by the motorcycling community as a key element to improve motorcycle safety. OECD members recently confirmed this view, putting training programmes on the top of their priority list : “Countries have different training needs, based on their vehicle fleet and training resources. Motorcycle training should therefore build on existing standards, focus on risk awareness and risk avoidance, and develop an understanding of the rider/motorcycle capacities and limitations.”

The efficacy of rider training within the European Union, indeed the very existence of rider training in a number of Member States, are areas of consideration that have manifested as a consequence of the development of a harmonised European driving licence. Whilst the means by which a person acquires the knowledge and skills to satisfy the defined criteria is not yet addressed, it is an area of considerable interest.

The need to understand the different and distinct approaches adopted in Member States were the starting point. The views and the need of the Rider project (1997) identified rider training up to the standard required to pass an official test of competency that was applying in Member States, and categorised and evaluated the various distinct approaches. The following project Developing a European Approach to the Initial Training of Motorcyclists (2008) then considered the acknowledged problems of pre-licence rider training in Europe.

The relationship between newly qualified rider overconfidence, failing to recognise hazards and take risks and pre licence training that has overly focussed on machine control skills, has been recognised for a long time. However, today’s training programmes overwhelmingly concentrates on machine control skills to the detriment of hazard awareness and rider attitude and behaviour. An innovative approach was therefore developed by acknowledged experts.

The programme was also structured in a modular and pedagogic way for use in all kind of training circumstances.
This new approach to training delivers machine controls skills in the context of their relevance to the hazardous environment of today’s roads, with an understanding of the rider having a primary responsibility for his or her own safety, a real improvement to much of the pre licence training presently available to riders within the European Union.

The IRT Project also considered the innovative area of e-Coaching to improving initial rider training, in exposing riders to virtual hazardous situations without putting them at risk. The e-Coaching approach is viewed by the project experts as having the potential to make a significant contribution to safety of riders.

The IRT web site includes plenty of stuff to download, including:

Manual PDF
Manual .doc

And while we're on 'did you know' topics, did you know about:

“Ride-Safe 2009” - Worldwide Rider Training Survey/Competition for best Rider Training Exercises

Nope, neither did I . . .



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FEMA Newsletter

The latest issue of the FEMA - the Federation of European Motorcyclists Associations - newsletter has just been published.

Available here

The Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations (FEMA) is the representative federation of motorcycle (comprising all powered two-wheeled vehicles) users throughout Europe. FEMA represents the interests' of citizens' national organisations at the European Union and agencies of the United Nations. FEMA's primary objective is to pursue, promote and protect the interests of motorcyclists.



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Video Projection - Rather Stunning!

I make no apologies for being an 'arty' type.

So I was particularly impressed by this video, projected onto buildings.




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Motorcycle Safety Videos

Fo you have a few moments to spare?

A few 'motorcycle safety videos from history' to watch, and a little bit of background too.

First off, the classic 'Think Once, Think Twice, Think BIKE!"



And an alternative version:



- - - A little story about this version: The bloke who did the stunt riding was interviewed on TV, and asked "Isn't it difficult to do that without being hurt?" He answered: "No, not once you've practiced . . . "

Now for the more recent version:



And now for the science!

The 'Think Once' fist/hand image is re-used in this video, produced by Transport for London:



It's based on a psychological phenomenon caled 'looming', and the 'time to arrival illusion'.

More here on the TfL site.

In tests, which used footage of vans, cars and motorcycles approaching at identical speeds, psychologists found that participants regularly estimated that motorcycles would take longer to reach them than larger vehicles.

This optical effect, caused by the way the brain assesses approaching objects, could cause drivers to underestimate how much time and space they have available when pulling out in front of approaching motorcycles.

London, of course, is a fairly 'urban' area, so suffers more - or at least, it's motorcyclists do - from the 'SMIDSY' ("Sorry, mate, I didn't see you", or 'Right of Way Violation') crashes than rural areas, where many bike crashes are single-vehicle, and self-inflicted.

Full science article here.

And it's for those riders that 'Perfect Day' was made:



Another selection of videos, and some history, soon.



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More Zil Limousine . . .

Browsing around, I happened across this site on Russian cars, which includes a video of the Zil factory, various images of Zil limousines, and designs including the 'Parade'.

I also found a site with various customised limos - but I can't find it again . . .



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Grab the Brakes!

You'll probabl have heard 'planning' mentioned if you've ever taken any rider training.

What you may not have realised is the amount of planning your instructor had to do.

Example:
Learning clutch control for pulling away.

Your instructor will have had to plan for teaching you to stop before setting you off on your own!

So now you're out riding on your own, you'll have learnt to plan ahead, and may even be working to develop the skill.

So here's an add-on to that:
Plan your way out of a situation, before you get in to it.

And that can be at many levels, from parking to high-speed cornering.

Another example of using this idea is with braking.

If you brake as a panic reaction to a situation changing in front of you, you're likely to grab the brales rather than apply them.

In particular, grabbing the front brake lever will apply a lot of pressure before weight transfer has taken place - so the front tyre grip is limited.

So train yourself to instantly release, then smoothly reapply, if you grab the brakes.

Perhaps you don't think this applies to you, you can brake quickly, firmly, but smoothly.

OK, here's a test:

Take one fresh hen's egg, place it on the kitchen worktop, then slowly and carefully pick it up.

Easy.

Put it down again.

Now grab it as quickly as you can.

If it's in one piece still, place it to one side, and instead get a well-past its sell-by rotten egg.

Repeat the 'grab', as quickly as you did before. That'll add the sort of mental pressure of a slippery road surface . . .


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Pimp

'Pimp' is one of those words which has changed its meaning over the last few years, largely thanks to the 'Pimp my ____ ' TV programmes, which feature a wreck of a car or motorcycle having a huge amount of money and talent thrown at it to achieve some dramatic result - all in an hour.

But the latest incarnation is perhaps not what you'd expect:

'Pimp my Panda'

The 'panda' in question being a police car!

No pics, unfortunately, but here's details & links:

http://www.west-cheshire.ac.uk/modules/prdb/show_pr.asp?pr_id=340

HIGH flying motor vehicle students have beaten off stiff competition to be named winners of Cheshire Safer Roads Partnership ‘Pimp my Panda’ competition.

Based on the popular TV show Pimp My ride, students from colleges across the county took part in the competition to design a ‘pimped up’ version of a police panda van.

The West Cheshire College team of John Hall, Michael Francis, Michael James and Steven Rowlands, supported by tutors Rob Donald and Robert Stevens, set to work creating their own take on the old van which included coming up with designs and developing plans to create it.

Once they were through to the finals, which were held at Cheshire Police HQ in Winsford, the team had to face a grilling by a ‘Dragons Den’ panel of experts, including police and road safety experts, who quizzed them closely on their efforts.

CSRP manager Lee Murphy said: “West Cheshire College was the clear winner due to their unrivalled interpretation of the brief along with their impressive creativity and interactivity within their designs.”

The students’ design will now become reality and the final pimped-up panda will be used as a road safety tool to tour across the county.

More

Even more


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Riding in Snow

Well, I don't, and I'm not sure the owner of this bike did. Picture was outside Basingstoke hospital, and the bike was still there the next day.

Clearing pictures off my phone, fund this one from Sat. 10th (?) Jan. this year, just as the cold weather was starting to bite. I think at the time this was taken - at about mid-day - the temperature was -5 or -10, or something stupid like that . . .

Still, until now this had been the only UK-based web site to not mention the bad weather!

Next year, a post about the recession.

Perhaps

Not


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Making Signs Be Seen

Have you noticed that councils don't talk a load of bollards like they used to?

Last Wednesday I went passed a post-accident scene, with one of the illuminated bollards detached from its island and laying 'dead' on the road.

This week it's been replaced, by a thin, reflective, panel.

Cheaper for the coucil to install and maintain, I suppose. One item instead of a 'box', and no electrics to worry about.

Here's a similar example:



This particular one is in Alton, Hampshire. In fact, there's a whole load of them on a load of small islands in a 30 limit. Most are 'dull' yellow retro-reflective, although one pair (the islands are in pairs with dropped areas between for pedestrians to cross) are fluoro yellow.

So spot the deliberate mistake:



Worked it out? Well, if these pictures had been taken at night, the area of the 'speed' sticker wouldn't reflect, as they're plain material.

Nice idea: remove illuminated bollards, replace with retro-reflective, then make them non-reflective . . .

Yes, an absolute load of bollards . . .



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The Nature of Concentration?

. . . Was the question posed on an advanced driving forum.


My reply:




OK, 'concentration'.

Weird thing, concentration. It's something we do but have sometimes little control over.

In a way, it's rather like large, pink, dancing elephants.

Huh?

Well, you've probably just had a brief image of something like a Disney elephant - whether you wanted it or not!

So your attention is back on me now? OK, try to imagine that while I'm explaining 'concentration', that pink, tu-tu'd elephant has just danced behind my back. You'd have watched that, no matter how interesting my concept of 'concentration' is to you.

So what if we really try, really want to concentrate? We can direct our concentration. Keith Code (US bike instructor and author) has the concept of 'your $10 of concentration', which is your total budget, and you have to spend wisely - at any time you can't 'spend' more.

In driving terms, this means that as a novice you start off spending most of your $10 on the 'mechanical' aspects of driving, things like finding the clutch biting point - but it leaves little concentration for what's happening around you.

So you have to develop those 'mechanical' skills so they become more 'automatic' and 'fluid', to allow you time to look and plan ahead.

And from that looking and planning comes smoother driving.

But it's not as easy as that.

You still need to direct your attention.

A video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVtQ4NN5_-Q

That's attention being directed at a very high level!

Can we all do that?

Well, 'yes' - it's easy, isn't it?

But is it?

How much of the information around us do we really take notice of - and do we allow ourselves to be distracted.

Here's an exercise:

Next time you're driving, look at the road signs . . .

[audience]
mumble mumble "We already do that, burk, what's he think he's talking about???" mumble mutter
[/]

. . . and yell out the meanings.

Point at them too, if it's OK to take your hand off the wheel.

You'll find that, even on a 'well-known' bit of road, you'll suddenly 'see' and understand signs you've ignored before.

Speaking, even pointing, makes the passive act of 'looking' into a multi-sensory activity - so far more difficult to ignore.

If you've just yelled "Stop!" when pointing at a stop sign, you'd be the burk if you ignored it!



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1960s Motorcycling

An 'open' gallery on Flickr, which I hope the owner won't mind me linking.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30096576@N05/sets/72157613288461253/show/

It features about 85 fantastic photos of biking life in the 1960s in Great Britain.

There's crashes, breakdown, track racing, and road racing, greasers, rockers, the '59 club', biker cafes, and much more.



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Emergency! Emergency!

You hear the siren wailing behind, and can see the blue lights flashing a few cars back, but do you know what action to take to clear the path for the emergency vehicle to pass quickly and easily?

Devon and cornwall police have produced a well-illustrated guide to possible action you can take when there's emergency vehicles about.

Public Reaction to the presence of emergency vehicles

The Highway Code offers little advice on the correct course of action to take upon seeing emergency vehicles travelling on an emergency call. This aide memoir seeks to address that shortfall in order to enhance road safety and improve the public understanding of the intentions of emergency vehicle drivers.

Here are some dos and don’ts.


Read more here



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