I see a lot of comments posted online in reference to the fact that many take classes to learn skills that there is a very low chance that they will ever need, while not taking classes that might benefit them every day. For reference lets say learning to clear a building with an AR and plate carrier versus learning basic first aid. Or a high round count pistol course but you haven't taken anything like Craig Douglas's courses designed to help you with everyday encounters. So, why don't I ever see mention of people taking driving courses? People spend a lot of time driving, why isn't there a bigger push to get training to do it better? With the huge onslaught of popularity of fancy car camping, aka overlanding, I've seen an increase in schools and individuals offer offroad driving training. How much time does the normal driver spend on dirt versus pavement? Isn't car control on a busy interstate highway or wet two lane backroad more likely to come in handy than learning to stack traction boards or use a winch? I'm not saying that some training isn't more fun than others, but if we're going to push people to get the more likely useful classes first, why isn't driving training right after get healthy and first aid? Is it the lack of schools? (I've not had any trouble finding quality instruction over the last decade.) That people automatically assume that they are good drivers? Priority of fun vs other in relation to available time off? Thoughts from the forum?
In Vancouver our survival behind the wheel is more about surviving the other ****ty drivers out there who are completely out to lunch cooked in the head. You learn to watch for certain things and avoid/evade like the plague.
It's kinda like saying why don't I take a class about wiping my butt because I'm going to do it everyday instead of taking a gourmet cooking class. Idk, I get the point you're making. Unfortunately the kind of people who would take the course are also the kind of people who don't really need to take it. The bad drivers don't care they are bad drivers, and aren't going to pay for something like that. Driving survival course. Stay off you gotdamn cell phones, and pay attention to the f'n road. End of class.
We had multiple drivers here of un named ethnicity all have to be re tested a few years back as they all got their lisences after the instructor got caught taking payments for passing credits..
A pal in the Leo community used to tell me the crazy things he would see during road stops.. pedals painted green and red because "she would forget, so her husband did it for her" and the classic "family drivers lisence" or occasionally just a piece of paper ..
Good drivers taking driving classes still makes them better drivers and thus more able to counter the behaviours of poor drivers. Years ago....I do mean years....better yet.... decades....I was a postal worker and here the deliveries are done mostly from Honda motorcycles (then it was CT110s). As I was so tasked I was required to do a three day riding course. I scoffed....I had been riding motorcycles since I was four and rode my FJ1200 along to the track where it was conducted (to prove my point). Well I can say that I both loved it and learned a great deal (even if it was just making sense of things I already knew). By Day2 I was dragging the pegs on the track through corners and having a ball. My simple point is just when you think you may know it all there is ALWAYS something to learn. I have been lucky that my current employer has provided me with some more than useful training in the safe operation of a motor vehicle. I have been looking at good 4x4 driving courses here, again I have been driving off road since my teens but I am a firm believer is learning. Finding the right training is the key, a family friend who had never owned a 4x4 bought one and did a course, he is the resident expert now yet several of the things he was taught (especially about winching) were wrong and in fact dangerous, but he will not listen to me.
Exactly what I was getting at. Every other survival class people take is about making them better prepared, more knowledgeable, etc to deal with a situation. With driving its just "everyone else should be better at it!". Why don't we use that same attitude towards other classes? -The weather should always act the way I want it to and my plans should always go well! -That criminal should just decide to stay at home and be nice today. -I'll just be out of shape and the rest of the world should change to make it ok.
I learned to drive by watching the Duke boys and the Bandit. Oh yeah, I forget about KIT. I had my picture taken with KIT when I was a kid.
I attempted to jump a 1980 Mazda GLC like the Dukes when I was a teenager. I got the Yeee-hawww right but that was about it.
We used to jump everything we could, RR crossings on dirt roads and terraces in fields with farm trucks.
End of the street I grew up on was a big gully that ran when it rained. It was paved and steep out one side. I would launch my dirt bike out of that once a day at least from when I was legally on the road (and a good few times before that). This of course moved to jumping the occasional 4x4 out of it as well. Landed back on the road one day with the PoPo driving right toward me...... it was an interesting conversation
I was usually riding shotgun, I didn't treat my vehicles as bad as my buddy did his. His dad was upset the morning he found three of his tractors bogged down trying to pull out a truck. I had to use my dad's bulldozer to pull out his dump truck that I got stuck, pulling my buddy's truck out of one of our ponds. The pond was mostly dry, but the dump truck just couldn't climb back up the dry pond dam.
On the training issue. Even experts can benefit from more training. I think for one thing, that's it's just not something people think about. Most people think they can drive. Most people probably don't think of street driving as recreation, like off roading. And again they think they can drive, so it's more fun to get off road training. At least some of the vehicle dynamics and varing traction can translate to on road.
Nothing teaches you how a vehicle handles better then coming down an icy & deep snow covered BC logging FSR with a grade of 25%
