hi, thanks for the hazard perception commentary clip, very useful as I'm training to be an ADI, but I'm struggling with the hazard perception element of the theory test. Could you offer me any advice please? I am either clicking too early, so outside the scoring window, or am clicking late so only scoring 3's. I am very concious of clicking too many times as this discounts any score, and have made this mistake during practice. Is the scoring window open when the vehicle being used to film actually starts to make an adjustment? (either speed or direction). Thank you for any pointers.

Reply:

Oh I hate these computerised hazard perception tests, I feel they are so unreal and hard to operate - i have the same kind of trouble as you with the ones I have tried in the past!

One would like to think the scoring window is open even once the host vehicle has begun to deviate, but I suspect from what you say this is not the case (and you can see a certain logic in this, because it means you are now dealing with the hazard, not spotting it in advance).

My best advice would be to go over the system of hazard perception you are using - for example, are you keeping up the scanning; are you starting at the horizon and working forward and constantly re-adjusting the distance of your vision so that you are picking up things well in advance, far off. (This is one of the reasons I hate the computer systems, because you cannot see the detail in the distance. Nor can you adjust your position - both fundamental parts of good hazard perception.)
nik

Traction Control is fitted on many modern cars, designed to help prevent and control skids and loss of traction. It may not however be your best friend in the snow.

Pile-up as cow strays on motorway
An escaped cow caused a five-car pile-up when it strayed on to a major motorway in West Lothian. Motorists and passengers escaped with minor injuries after the animal wandered onto the eastbound carriageway of the M9 near Winchburgh.
As the first vehicle dodged the lost cow, it collided with another car - starting a five-car crash. Two fire engines were called to the scene at about 2130 BST on Tuesday. The cow died at the scene. Sgt David Gray, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: "The people had a pretty lucky escape. Unfortunately the animal did not."

Cows are reasonably large and slow moving objects (as a rule they don't suddenly materialise in your lane), so the fact this accident caused a five car pile up probably goes to highlight something we all know: drivers drive far too close on motorways and do not look far enough ahead.

New GPS research carried out in Taiwan suggests that drivers using in-car satellite navigation systems take less time to reach their destination, and they may drive more safely too.

One group of drivers were involved in the research each using in-car satellite navigation systems to reach a variety of urban and rural destinations they had never travelled to before. Another group of motorists were also asked to use paper maps to reach a similar set of mysterious destinations.

The Results

Satellite navigation assisted journeys were around 7 percent shorter in towns than map-guided ones, and 2 percent shorter on rural runs.

The researchers attached sensors to each car to track how often a driver made a course correction. The research found that map users changed course more times during a journey than satellite navigation users.

One of the researchers offered an explanation for these positive results, saying that a satellite navigation unit relieves the drivers' mental workload: "Sat-nav users could take to the road immediately without any additional mental workload other than initially loading the destination into the device." By contrast map users have to study street maps before they enter the car "And their mental workload continues throughout the journey".