The authors have trained over 20,000 young drivers, noting their attitudes and comments from hundreds of specialised driving courses.
Cars and driving issues have been the major focus of my life since I was a knock-kneed young boy learning the craft in the back paddock on the farm.
Driver education and the related skills that driving entails, which impact on all parts of life, have been a passion of mine from the moment I chose my career as a young man.
Even before I took on the racing number ‘05’ in 1975 I was interested in driver safety and finding ways to save lives on Australian roads. Although many ideas have been tried in an attempt to stop young driver deaths in recent years, these remain focused mainly on greater penalties and restrictions.
I was honoured to be offered the opportunity to write the foreword for this ground-breaking book on young driver safety.
The emphasis on this punitive approach is a philosophy that I have never felt comfortable with.
Encouragement and support create a far better level of awareness and acceptance which flows on to a person’s well being and happiness. Current ideas on how to seek compliance with society’s standards creates an adversarial relationship between teenagers and driving authorities which doesn’t appear to be working well. It permeates all areas of their vital and exploratory young lives. It is not a happy experience and creates a downward spiral.
As a race driver, I am well aware that many drivers love their cars so much that they’re tempted to drive inappropriately on the roads. Motorvate contains very clear information, designed to give answers and tools to help these ‘Driveaholics’, as the book describes them.
Motorvate contains some of the most comprehensive and intelligent arguments I have seen on the young driver subject, and I’m also impressed that the authors have written it in a way that makes it easy to read, easy to use and thoroughly entertaining. It is a breath of fresh air.
If every parent, every teacher and every parliamentarian in the country read Motorvate, I believe that many lives would be saved. These are the lives of our precious and irreplaceable teenagers, just beginning their journey on a pathway filled with challenges and pitfalls. Let’s give them the information for self-responsibility and the tools to achieve all that they can.
It’s a critical time where many people are on overload, dealing with the stress of living in this complex world we have created. It’s fair to say the world would be the most welcome recipient of a generation of well adjusted, productive and happy people who possess skills to tackle the challenges that life in the twenty-first century presents.
We can’t afford to lose them.
Peter Brock
April 2006
Books such as this are historically turgid and obvious, or so radical that they challenge commonsense – however, I’m very glad I accepted the offer to read Motorvate.
This book is well thought out, well argued and substantiated. I liked the way the book opens, immediately grabbing attention – I even got my kids to read it, and they agreed that it got them interested immediately. The use of two principal voices is good too, a bit of gender light and shade.
This book should be required reading in all schools, and all Australian parliaments!
Peter McKay
Chief Motoring Writer
Sydney Morning Herald
There is more to road safety than speed cameras and Geoff Fickling and Jennie Hill know it. They have been been spreading the safety message for many years as respected advanced driving instructors, and they have now also created a book which should be a compulsory read for young drivers and their parents.
It takes a real-world approach to the road safety challenge and highlights the need for treating driving as an essential life skill. The book includes some confronting stories but they are exactly what is needed to get people thinking and talking about what can really be done to improve Australia’s road safety record in the twenty-first century.
This book will be an important addition to my motoring library and I can give it a solid recommendation.
Paul Gover
Motoring Editor
Herald Sun Newspaper, Melbourne
It is exciting to find a book which identifies the importance of safety and an attitude of respect for others on the road, and which identifies these important components in driver education of the young. The publication is timely in that all states in Australia are experiencing concerning statistics which indicate a high crash, injury and death rate amongst young people.
In my role as Chief Executive Officer of CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport), although the emphasis of the sport is on speed the buzz words are ‘Risk Management’, and I believe that this book provides a very sound framework of this for young drivers. It provides parents and mentors with important keys to learning, firstly by identifying the psychology of the young person and then by providing techniques which will ensure they become safe road users. Readers of this book will find it to be a fantastic resource and a great read, and it has my full endorsement.
Rob Nethercote
CEO
Confederation of Australian Motor Sport
This book certainly makes you think!
It’s not just about practical driver training, but addresses the attitudes and behaviour of young drivers. It’s a new approach aimed at parents, for without their support the chance of young drivers instigating the ideas presented is very slim.
Although better cars and roads have reduced the road toll, the book suggests it is time to apply resources to driving attitudes.
Motorvate is compulsory reading for all parents who want to avoid those sleepless nights waiting for the worst knock on the door a parent will ever face.
John Large, OAM
Deputy President
FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety
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2. Blood, Sweat & Gears:
ORDER BLOOD, SWEAT & GEARS
This extraordinary new book - released in 2009 - is specifically for young drivers. It discusses much of the same information as Motorvate, but in a shorter, easier to read and more teenager-friendly format.
One of the main premises of the book is that the practical or Action side of driving can be separated into two areas - 'Ordinary' driving skills, and 'One-percenters'. While the Ordinary driving skills are well taught, in general, by learner instructors, parents and some driver education courses, the One-percenters are rarely taught. These are the skills that young drivers must have for the 'one-percent' (or hopefully less) of their driving time that's spent responding to or avoiding emergencies. Skills such as skid control, defensive driving, emergency techniques, and information about car maintenance that is crucial when in a tight spot.
So - why aren't these skills taught? Well, the book explains this, too. Mostly, it's because many of these skills can't be taught without causing overconfidence. Take a young driver who already thinks he's a great driver (most, just like most older drivers) and give him lots of extra skills - and you've now got a bulletproof young driver. For that reason, a lot of driver training is ineffective or even dangerous. So Blood, Sweat & Gears explains how to avoid the bad stuff, and what to look for if you want your young driver to truly be a safer driver.
Even better, Blood, Sweat & Gears explains the different driver types in terms of their psychology or Attitude. There are two basic types of drivers - Demure or Dominant, and four sub-types - Debut Drivers, Decoy Drivers, Daring Drivers and Driveaholics. It's crucial for young drivers (in fact - all drivers) to know which type of driver they are so that the the positives of each type can be exaggerated and the negatives minimised.
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