PLANS to improve driver and motorcyclist training to improve safety on roads in Great Britain have been announced by Transport Minister, Andrew Jones.
The proposed changes will see competent learner drivers able to have lessons on motorways with an approved driving instructor in a dual controlled car.
Mr Jones said: “We have some of the safest roads in the world and we want to make them even safer. These changes will equip learners with a wider range of experience and greater skill set which will improve safety levels on our roads.”
The Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) course, which allows motorcyclists to ride unaccompanied on Great Britain’s roads and has largely remained unchanged since its introduction in 1990, will also be updated with training more in line with driver training, to include:
Novice riders to do a theory test as part of their CBT course
Revoking CBT certificates if a provisional licence holder gets six penalty points
Restricting learner riders to use automatic motorcycles if they take their CBT on one.
RAC Director, Steve Gooding, said: “The casualty statistics tell us that motorways are our safest roads, but they can feel anything but safe to a newly qualified driver heading down the slip road for the first time to join a fast moving, often heavy, flow of traffic.”
On motorcycle training, he added: “This package of measures, taken together, should deliver a welcome streamlining of the process for qualifying as an instructor and improve both the content and administration of basic training for novice motorcycle riders.”
