I had an epiphany this week too, about the state of driver training.

I'd unintentionally let my CDL lapse while I was working in the office, so I had to retest when I decided to get back in the truck.

There were a couple things that annoyed me during the test ride. He told me I failed to clear an intersection (with the short turn ramp) early enough. Dude, you saw me recheck the intersection, and completely missed my first check.

He also gave me grief for hitting 6th instead of 4th on a 7-speed. Never a grind, just the wrong gear, which I immediately corrected. Whatever, I hadn't driven one of those in 25 years at that point.

But the one I recently had the epiphany about was signs. He'd ask a block or two later what the last sign was. Most of which were long gone from memory unless it was a speed limit. He'd implied, of course, that I wasn't reading signs, which wasn't the case, but whatever, he passed me.

I don't even remember what triggered it, but the epiphany hit me like a hammer to the head. All of us who are good defensive drivers process more information, more quickly, than most folks can comprehend. And that's what happened with those signs. I remember going back to look, one of my missed signs was a bike crossing. Y'all know the drill: see the crossing, check the approaches, and as long as you have good sightlines, task completed.

And GONE! That sign is purged from processing because it's already been dealt with. Why would I waste another millisecond on it? We have so much info pouring in every second, we've learned to discard the unneeded, ASAP!

Since this was a training school I tested with, I realize that they probably hammered that ability to regurgitate signs into those students. To the detriment of good defensive driving skills they should have been teaching. I would bet that recalling signs is part of the Federal guidelines on road tests, too. So just another example of teaching for the test and not for learning. Are the inadequate skills we see wreaking havoc everyday really any surprise?

 

I'm pretty sure "Epiphany" is the only commonality between the threads! LOL