true blue wrote:I wonder - is the reasoning behind keeping learners off the motorways at the moment based on safety, or traffic flow? There seems to be common agreement that some dual carriageways are at least as challenging as the average motorway (possibly more so, because of short entry/exit slips, e.g. the A1 in Lincolnshire). On the other hand, one can imagine that an unpredictable learner on a busy motorway may be undesirable because of the knock-on effects of causing 2 or 3 cars nearby to brake for one reason or another.
For the record I've no objection in principle to learner drivers being allowed on the motorway, I just object to the principle that only ADIs ought to be allowed to accompany them there.
What is it about learners that makes you think they will increase the amount of unnecessary braking? Busy motorways are full of moments of unnecessary knock on braking from multiple cars due to the incompetence of the majority of drivers: driving too close (far, far too close), inappropriate lane changes, poor attention, misjudgement of closing speeds etc. Learners are far less prone to most of these, so cannot see they would increase the problem. In theory with enough learners on the motorway you might improve things through dilution of incompetence...
I can only see learners causing knock on problems for other drivers to any significant degree if they are totally unready to be tackling that kind of road, which is far more likely with private tuition than with an ADI. Learners may often be a little slower than other traffic, but most mid-stage learners would happily maintain 55-60mph on a free moving motorway, so in with the trucks etc., and many times I am on NSL DCs we spend most of our time overtaking, so we are not the mobile roadblock...
I rarely see driving school cars driving totally inappropriately on busy roads (there are mistakes of course, but overall progress is acceptable), but private learners can be very different. Followed one a few weeks back on the B3347 from Ringwood to Avon (Nigel/fungus will probably know the road) - NSL most of the way and 60mph is perfectly reasonable for all bar 1 pair of bends where 50-55 might be better. It was dark and it was raining, but we were averaging less than 20mph, with few overtaking opportunities due to oncoming traffic (and I was 3 cars back so almost impossible for me in the conditions). If my students aren't capable of maintaining reasonable progress on that kind of road, I won't be taking them onto it, but clearly the supervising driver thought it was all ok.
(Postscript: I finally got my chance on the Avon Causeway and slipped in a swift overtake (probably to some tutting and shaking of heads in the learner car - "madness in the dark and the wet" etc.).