Thai driving standards: Will raising training from five hours to 15 make any difference?

[helloagain]

2 hours ago, colinneil said:

Will increasing driver training from 5 to 15 hours make any difference? 

No nothing will change 1 bit, still have daily carnage on the roads.

I agree. And 1 shop stop is crazy. Better to have gov do the testing. BUT the gov should test the ones who say pass if you give me 1500 baht. I know a thai lady who was asked this

[Toscano]

I trained my wife to drive over about two years , we started on a school sports field , graduating to country dirt roads , before she drove on a regular highway .

My wife never had any official training , I'm not aware of any driving schools in our Isaan area .  One day my wife announced that she and her niece were going to take a driving test , they both returned with driver licences .  What is learned in a class room is better taught as part of practical driving .  I had driving lessons in London with a very good British School Of Motoring instructor , mostly during the rush hour .  I lament that in Thailand and some other countries , people drive a car how they ride a motorcycle , with little knowledge of the rules of the road .   

[Pattaya28]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

They said that 15 hours was very little

Then why not increase this "very little" 15 hours ?

And if 15 hours was "very little" what about the current 5 hours ? 

They don't know what rubbish to spout next.

[MaprangHolmes]

they should of increased it to 15 years

[impulse]

Though I didn't realize it at the time, I was an absolute menace after a full semester of the best driver's ed available at the time.

 

It took about a year of actual on-the-road experience to get past the danger.  Fortunately, I was scared to death of the cops and tickets (being young, bulletproof and immune to accidents), so I practiced driving to avoid tickets.  Not coincidentally, the skills and habits instrumental in avoiding tickets are the same skills that avoid accidents.

 

Going from 5 to 15 hours of instruction isn't going to make a difference if enforcement doesn't force drivers to pick up and practice safe habits.  And I just don't see that happening in Thailand in my lifetime.  I hope I'm wrong.

[wjhall]

In England it was always said as a  rule of thumb one hours tuition was needed per year of life ie the older you are the more time you needed

[klauskunkel]

the government goes out of its way to avoid police reform

they must be really, really scared of that

Edited April 29, 2017 by klauskunkel

[Bantex]

Unfortunately three times the training just means three time the incompetence behind the wheel.

Thais have a low attention span.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Bantex

[jesimps]

2 hours ago, jollyhangmon said:

Well put.

Now, forget 'self discipline' here - so it boils down to enforcement and really nasty fines.

That way it worked pretty much anywhere else where it, well, 'works' now ... 

Quite right! Harsh deterrent and strict enforcement of the law would bring a remarkable improvement in standards.

 

Thais are willful in disobeying any rules.

 

[pentap]

Will it make a real difference? Hummm!!

If I was asked to place a bet on either yes or no, I'd place my bet on No!

Law enforcement needs to be tighter. Road management far better. More pro-active awareness on the part of the authorises in educating the nation about road safety plus stringent safety checks on all vehicles, licences etc...

Today a motorcyclist, with no helmet, passed me at speed whilst at the same time, and what looked to me, as the rider texting on a phone.


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[smedly]

no it won't make a difference

 

Actually driving the car is not the issue, continually breaking the law is.................why ?  - because they generally can as it is not enforced properly

 

I would wager that 90% of drivers that cause accidents know they were doing something wrong.

 

The problem is effective enforcement of traffic law (moving violations) everything from mobile phone use, obeying road markings and signs, DUI and speeding, also the road worthiness of vehicles.

[phantomfiddler]

Mathematically it should make a difference, 2 differences in fact. Timewise.....10 hours, and proficiency.....200% !

[Jackin1960]

Yes by more than 100%, OF COST.

[dinsdale]

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

And with just 15 hours courses needed to focus on what would be practical and useful

Don't drink too much and drive. If you see police put on seat belt. If you see police put mobile down. Keep rear view mirror clean for putting on make up. If doing U-turn move into left lane first so easier to get around. Don't know what those yellow blinking lights are for..mai pen rai, red traffic lights, speed up you should get through etc., etc., etc.

[Sooo Upto Me]

NO,  More like 15 Weeks  ???

[SpeakeasyThai]

Thais should NEVER EVER EVER be allowed behind a wheel. NEVER.

[PezJon]

Without doubt it is going to take approaches to improve road safety. My suggestion is remove all after market dark film from cars. It is illegal in many countries. If a person believes nobody can see them bad behaviour follows.  It would be much better for the police to see what is going on in the car. Night time driving, we have all been blinded by ignorant use of main beam, maybe some of that is because dip beam+dark tint is not good. I do accept there is some benefit of dark film in sunny climes but it in my and other countries view it is better wuthout film.  One last point, what goes on can be removed easily ton make for fast legislation compliance.

 

Nb. The car dealer was at a loss when I declined the free offer of added tint film on a new car.

[NoshowJones]

No it won't, because IMO, about 80% of driving is more common sense than rules, and most Thai drivers and riders just do not have that.

[cardinalblue]

Thai gov needs to train traffic police on the rules and how to enforce first before driver education....

 

still waiting for the day to see a Thai driver voluntary stop for a waiting pedestrian at a crosswalk...currently a non existent thought/action

 

is thai education effective? Think of it in these terms....Get more english language classroom hours in the region yet rank at the bottom every year in test scores...

Edited April 29, 2017 by cardinalblue

[ujayujay]

As long the most motobikedrivers without any skills, without licence, without age limit are on the streets and the police in call on duty status.....NO

[Destiny1990]

The guy makes good sense all together hope they will listen to all his arguments and implement them.

[Mousehound]

In OZ you need a minimum of 25 hrs of logged and supervised practice before you can take a test after which there are driving restrictions.  Drivers here break rules all the time. most are poor drivers but as the roads are actually quite good deaths are relatively low compared with Thailand.  many drivers here have lost their license and drive illegally and drugs are a real problem with Perth being a major meth centre.  But, like any skill the more practice the better you are so to say that it will make no difference is rubbish.  learning avoidance and predicting possible problems only comes with practice and it is that skill that only comes with the hours spent behind a wheel.  The more the better.  I have no problem driving in Thailand and once you understand the way people drive in any country you need to adapt to that style.  I found driving in Taiwan and Italy as well as India a far greater challenge than Thailand.

[jmacken306]

2 hours ago, Pdaz said:

On a daily basis I see dozens of simple driving mistakes ( mamy of which have a high potential to cause an accident ) All of these mistakes are either evidence of poor training or of just sheer laziness to follow the rules of the road.

 

Cutting corners at junctions

Changing lane without checking mirrors

Not checking blindspot before turning into a side road

Not indicating or checking mirrors before moving off

Failing to accelerate to the speed of the traffic

Changing lanes at junctions

Not maintaining adequate distance between vehicles

Driving against the flow of the traffic

 

The list is never ending... All can be witnessed in a twenty minute drive to the shops. 

 

There is simply no simple way to re-train and instil good driving habits in pretty much the entire population.

Not knowing what the signs mean, STOP, doesn't mean Slight Tap on Pedal, Red and Whites stripes on curbing, doesn't mean it's ok to park not even Scooters.

[TGIR]

Speeding, speeding, speeding, speeding.   Can't wait....go around whatever is in the way,   drive on the shoulder, get out of my way!

 

Sound like anything you've experienced lately?

[Anthony Loh]

The pass is the pass and what we are talking is the future. Really hope that the new driving training can work but first thing should think of how to stop the corruption to make sure is a true training.

[Chris Lawrence]

At least its a start. Then when they do that they will have to work on school pick-ups.

[Formaleins]

4 hours ago, Crossy said:

The problem in Thailand and many other developing countries is that students are taught to operate the vehicle, they are not necessarily taught to drive. Things like road sense, anticipation, reading the road etc. just don't get the attention they should.

 

Even 5 hours of training should be enough, if performed on actual roads with a decent instructor.

Exactly, the current 5 hours training consists of nothing more than watching a video for half a day and listening to some know it all Thai bloke telling them how to guess the correct answers. When I went for my test 3/4 of the room was asleep and the rest were playing on their mobile phones.

 

After an hour the instructor took me out and sat me in a room full of road signs as he thought it would be more useful for me than watching the video.

 

There is absolutely no practical driving instruction. After watching the videos, you do a colour blindness test and a depth perception test, then your computer test. After that you get in your car drive it forward a bit, reverse park it then drive through a length of cones with a slight curve and reverse back out, that is it, pass or fail! and if you don't want to try the test, you can pay 2500 Baht and you get your license anyway.

[wvavin]

It's not the hours that caused accidents, it's the brains!

[hobz]

For jebus sake, we live in the future! Put up cameras everywhere! They would pay for themselves and have Massive return of investment.

Hire 100000 (hundred thousand) people to monitor the cameras and administer tickets. Give them minimum wage + a cut of each ticket, with quotas for each type of ticket/violation. The surplus money can be used for buying more submarines and tanks for awesome mr prayuth. 

 

I know, i know, some of you dont want to live in a nanny state and you are crying and you are shaking out of anger when you read my post. Its ok.

Im just saying, if you want to fix thai driving this is the most effective. Ofcourse it will be boring to drive. Lol.

You can thank me later.

Edited April 29, 2017 by hobz

[lvr181]

4 hours ago, MaprangHolmes said:

Not sure about putting Smart & Thai people in the same sentence.

Well there are some "Smart Thai" just not enough of them to advance the country, unfortunately