true blue wrote:Also, what use will dual controls be? There's no second steering wheel, so lane control won't be assisted. I should think that unexpected and probably heavy braking from the ADI will (almost) never be a good thing on a motorway! And, so far as I'm aware, the dual controls can't be used to stop the learner from braking?
Most important dual control for and ADI is the voice... But even that takes practice and experience to get right. Am I better at controlling my pupils to stop things even getting to a physical dual control stage now than I was three years ago when I qualified - definitely - and I'll be many times better again in another three years. So am I likely to be better able to deal with things beginning to go wrong in a fast moving, busy situation on a motorway than Joe Public (who may be a very good driver themselves) teaching their child to drive? I certainly hope so.
And in terms of steering, as Astraist has pointed out - we can always steer the car from the passenger side. In fact it is by far the most common dual control use with a learner (it isn't just the pedals you know...).
true blue wrote:The whole thing smacks of a half-baked idea, with the panacea of dual controls and ADIs used to cover up the fact that whoever came up with it hasn't got a basic understanding of how the system works now.
I agree that the idea doesn't work with the system as it is, and I don't really know the answer. The idea of an MotP (or indeed a very naive or incompetent ADI) taking a really inexperienced driver on to a motorway is a frightening one. But they can already take them onto roads like the A14 (pretty hairy when I last used that section back 15 years ago), the A31 down my way, or even the A40 out of London at 5pm on a Friday in winter, pretty much my definition of motoring hell (and some days when I have driven that I need to change my own undergarments afterwards...).
Some kind of two level assessment would be best perhaps. A bit like bikes with CBT etc. An initial demonstration of basic competence to control a car and understand basic road usage, would then allow you to progress to training (privately or with an ADI) on DCs and motorways. All pie in the sky. Every government for the last 30 years to my knowledge (and probably before that) has come up with countless reforms of driver training that were 'going to happen'. but they never do.