Medway Council’s road safety team has organised and delivered a free training session to equip young people who ride small motorbikes with the skills to help them be safer on the roads.
‘Take Control’, a moped and small motorbike challenge day, took place on 20 October at Medway Fire Station.
The road safety team worked in partnership with Kent Fire and Rescue and advisors from East Kent Advanced Motorcyclist Group to lay on the sessions which provided training and advice for 16 to 19 year olds.
The day gave riders the opportunity to show their riding skills, discuss riding issues, and receive emergency training.
The young people who attended and successfully completed the session received a certificate of attendance and discount vouchers.
For more information contact Anna Hinde at Medway Council on 01634 332736.
Just to clarify that the purpose of these sessions was to encourage young riders who had taken CBT to get a taste of what further training can provide for them. Slow riding skills were assessed and improvement tips given [at the DSA module one test centre by the local IAM branch], along with pre-ride check advice for the riders that needed it. The local CBT manager was present to discuss the IAM input to ensure it was at an appropraitate level to the young riders’ skills.
All riders were informed about the range of training available locally and a discount was negotiated with a local retailer to provide a complete protective clothing outfit. I totally agree with Dave the current system allows riders with virtually no real experience to be perpetual learners [which I feel the new testing format is not going to address and may make it worse]. Now that we have this course trialled, our next step is to take it to the local colleges and schools. The local college was where promotion of this course was undertaken through face to face discussions with individuals as they arrived at the beginning of the day. In addition, we met groups at local parks and gathering places during the schools’ summer break. Getting numbers to attend is still our biggest problem so any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.
Feedback from the attendees was very positive about all aspects of the day though we had too few to enable the quality evaluation required to put on to E-valuit and the Knowledge Centre. However this is our intention for the future.
Andy Dickinson, Medway
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The problem is the system of CBT/licence acquisition itelf which creates perpetual learners and offers no incentive to seek futher training. Are we really happy that 16 year olds with no previous experience can do a one day course and then ride around on underpowered machines for 2 years before having to do anything else?
I feel this is letting down our most vulnerable road users and actively creates a situation which puts them at risk. 3DLD and the test review have missed an opportunity to tackle this casualty problem, one which accounts for nearly half our PTW KSIs.
Dave, Leeds
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I have always felt that training is lacking after CBT and before DSA testing. Anything that will encourage our most vulnerable twv riders to participate in any form of road or off road training is a good thing.
Whilst a lot of effort and monies are spent training others to Advanced Level very little is actually being done for those who either can’t afford to pay for such training. Students etc or those who have a twv that cannot keep up to advanced riding practices on country roads where there are the greatest number of KSIs.
Town riders, whilst they do not generally suffer the same degree of serious injuries, do suffer from closer proximity to other vehicles and therefore the greatest number of accidents. They deserve to have some form of additional training made available to them at no or little cost.
Colleges are the most convenient and practical places to meet with them, in a school type environment.
bob craven Lancs
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