"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
dennis@home wrote:
"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
Roger wrote:

My money is on them ignoring thinking time completely.
The timing kit worked by someone outside the car sending a signal that
both started the timer, and signalled the driver. the timer then ran
until the car came to rest. The equipment also recorded the distance
travelled from signal to stop. So it must have included some thinking
time - although I expect less than real world for someone who has been
plodding down a motorway for a couple of hours.

Lets think about it...

"drive at 60mph and jump on the brakes when the lamp lights" no thinking
involved

"drive at 60mph and maybe something unexpected will happen, then jump on
brakes" considerable thinking involved

I wonder which one will produce thinking time?

So the test was *totally* invalid for thinking time.
Depends. On how experienced the driver is when assessing a situation is
almost instinctive.

Experienced drivers assume that an accident is ALWAYS about to happen and
are ready to react to the most likely ones all the time.

Perfection must be wonderful. Experienced drivers may well make numerous
assumptions. A very common one is that they are 'better than average'. About
80% of drivers think they are better than average, so even if the 50% of
drivers who are better than average correctly self identify, 30% of drivers
must be deluded. In fact I imagine that some of the best drivers are those
who don't think of themselves as good, so probably about 50% of
'experienced' and 'good' drivers are actually poor. (Only 50.7 % of these
statistics are made up - the 80% figure comes from a Canadian survey).

I hope that I am a reasonable driver, I hope I'm not deluded, I assume that
most other cars are likely to do something dumb most of the time, but I know
that I don't always drive at 100% all the time. I worry, I daydream, I swear
at the radio or people using mobiles. Still, I can aspire to perfection and
being totally alert all the time.

Andy