Two of the UK’s biggest motoring schools, the AA and BSM, will give learner drivers dedicated instruction on how to drive safely around cyclists.
AA president Edmund King said today that instructors in both schools would take a module to standardise and improve teaching learner drivers about cyclist safety. Learners will also be taken through a worksheet to help them drive more carefully and considerately near riders.
“I am personally committed to breaking down the ‘two tribes’ attitude displayed between some drivers and cyclists. Often we are the same people,” King said. “This new module means we now have a standardised approach to teaching learners how to drive safely around cyclists from two of the country’s leading driving schools. I am convinced that this initiative will change attitudes and save lives.”
The AA and BSM instructor module covers dos and don’ts for driving around cyclists, and includes guidance for teachers to help get the message across. The pupil worksheet sets out facts about cyclists on the roads, and encourages learners to think about the care, courtesy and consideration they should afford riders.
In September last year, Red Driving School surveyed its instructors and found that 75 percent favoured the introduction of a cyclist awareness module into the driving test.
The news comes in the same week that young driver Emma Way hit a cyclist and later boasted about it on Twitter, saying she had right of way because she paid road tax. She apologised yesterday.