marcm

For any of you who took drivers' education, do you remember if any attention was given to cyclists and how, as a driver, to deal with them? To the fact that bicycles are legal vehicles and should be passed using the full lane, for example?

I took drivers' ed about four years ago, and our instructor emphasized this. We were also taught, in the classroom and in the car, to always check our blind spot in the direction we're about to turn, before we make a turn -- even a right turn. Why? Because there might be a cyclist who we didn't see in our mirror. Every time we made a turn without checking, we were docked points.

I'm guessing that my experiences here are somewhat unusual, but that's only a guess.

Finally, has anyone, as a cyclist, ever teamed up with a drivers' ed instructor in some way? Perhaps you went to the classroom and talked to the students? Or (I think this would be a good idea, and fun) made an arrangement with a driving instructor who was about to go for a ride with a student, so that the student wound up on a road where you were cycling, and would have to pass you safely? Nothing teaches quite as well as experience.

If we can't teach drivers who already have their licenses, perhaps we can do something to improve the training of new drivers? (Maybe I'm just dreaming.)

Thoughts, anyone?

donnamb 

18 years ago, and not a mention of them besides whatever was in the Michigan driver's manual. My inability to recall anything is notable in that I rode my bike a lot when I was 15.

nova

none here that i can recall. If there was any thing on the temps trest or in driers ed about bikes i cant recall any of it. So for saftys sake we will say none to very very little that had any meanign. Now note i never did get my lic. At the time to pass drivers ed and get your lic you had to drive all 3 days. I was in a soft cast from a slip fall accident. And rules said i couldnt drive. First day of in car was 4 days after drivers ed i broke my rist in such a way that i needed to be in a soft cast for a full 10 days. At the time of sign up i was also in the cast intresting that i wasnt told this fact when i signed the paper hmm RIP OFFED by the school got to love that. At any rate i never bothered going for my lic again as i realy didnt give a crap heh. I had already been riding for a fair number of years for the sake of riding.
So for me no notable info on cyclists in drivers ed and born a cyclists only and hope to die a cyclist only

CommuterRun

I didn't vote. Driver's Ed for me was about a quarter century ago. I really don't remember if we covered bicycles or not, although I should, I was doing a lot of riding at the time.

I'm glad to hear it's being covered now, but wonder if that was just that one instructor.

sgtsmile

I know I covered it and how to deal with bikes..... The school I taught for treated bikes as vehicles. I know I put extra emphasis on it.

trackhub

Sorry marcm, I had to give it an "I forget". Mine was a little over thirty years ago, back when license applicants were required to take the MA road test on a stick shift, and the written test was offered only in English.

I think bicycles were mentioned briefly, if at all. Interesting, given the bike-boom that was going on at that time. Today, the present incarnation of the MA driver's license manual has a brief (about a half page, in what is a very small, pocket sized book) paragraph on bicycles, saying that they are legal vehicles, and subject to the same rules and regulations as all other vehicles.

The best I've seen is the Utah state driver's license manual. An entire chapter, complete with well-drawn graphics. So, have any members taken driver's ed in Utah?

Link to Utah license manual in pdf format: https://driverlicense.utah.gov/pdf/dlhandbk.pdf

cudak888 

A few years ago. Mandatory 6-hour (or was it 4?) online safety study + 20 (give or take) multiple-choice questionnaire, followed by a simple backlot maneuvers test.

The word, a form or likeness of, or a commentary about bicycles never popped up.

-Kurt

LilSprocket

Took and passed Driver's Ed in High School. Never any mention of cyclists or sharing the road (other than with other cars) whatsoever...
Damn shame

nova

Ahh thanks for that your one of the few DE instructors who do im sure. IF there was more like you maybe we would not be treated like crap by so many motorists

sbhikes

I don't remember all that terribly much about my driver's ed class waaaaaayyyy back in high school beyond the simulator, the white-knuckling when one of my classmates was driving, my inflappable instructor, and those gruesome Highway Patrol movies. But I do remember traffic school last year. There is a page in the drivers handbook on cycling. So he spent the same proportion of time on bicycles. His main message was that we have the same rights and responsibilities as motor vehicles, that we are allowed full access to the road, and that retaliation against cyclists for whatever silly notions anybody has is not only counter-productive (since we reduce congestion for drivers) but illegal.

nova

Wow just looked over the section on bikes. Way to go utah.

randya

I took drivers ed many years ago in high school, I don't remember any curriculum about interacting with cyclists at all. I've also taken a lot of defensive driving courses over the years - a couple to get out of tickets in Texas about 20 years ago, and now every three years in order to drive a company vehicle. I've only been in one that specifically and correctly discussed interactions with bicyclists in any depth and, in one of the courses in Texas, I got into an argument with the instructor because he was giving out misinformation on the subject.

77Univega

--- My thought is that it is an excellent plan for our local cycling advocacy group to approach the driving instructors here. Thanks for the idea.
By the way, my drivers' education class was in 1965. So... "I forget".

oboeguy

I believe, though don't recall exactly, that cyclist were never once mentioned, and this was only a few years ago (yes, some NYCers don't a license OMGNOW at 18 years old -- some like me, years later do while others like my bro never do).

Keith99

I rather doubt it was mentioned at all. But that was over 35 years ago.

The only thing I remember was them hammering into us in class that we should moce our eyes, not our head to see different things, and then getting docked on the driving test because the tested did not see that I had checked both mirrors because I moved my eyes, not my head.