6 Reasons Why the Written Test is Important for Keeping the Rider Safe

By William T Hoehn

 

1. Most foreigners view taking the written test as a mere formality that gets them to the "REAL" test, which they think is the driving test. Many do not take the time to study, choosing instead to "wing it.” It is possible to do this, but it means the important safety considerations outlined in the test do not become an integral part of the rider's daily technique.

2. The test questions are important tools to learn how to drive with joy and without incident. For example, the simple knowledge of where the blind spots are with the car in front of you can minimize the chance of you being sideswiped or run off the road.

3. The driving test is more a measure of your physical ability to handle the bike under specific situations, and has little to do with interactions with cars, buses, scooters, pedestrians or obstacles. The written test covers these interactions extensively and is like a memory card file plan you can implement at any time. As you take the driving test, ‘run the tape’ of the written test practice questions to reinforce what you need to do on the bike while driving. 

4. By using your knowledge of the test bank, you can better keep yourself focused on what is really happening when driving, rather than letting your mind become distracted and lose sight of potential quick action situations. You stay more in touch with your immediate driving environment, with the responses you have with your bike, AND from the comparison of the text to the reality around you, rather than from the school of hard knocks and painful encounters.

5. A pilot with thousands of flight hours still uses a checklist and a textbook approach to everything that happens during a flight to make sure all are safe and secure. The plane may fly at an altitude of 36,000 feet (about 10.97 km) giving the pilot time to make corrections to dangerous situations. You are only 4 inches above the ground and have at most milliseconds to assess and react to stay out of the hospital. If the information from the test question bank is running in your head like a computer, you will gain additional time AND SPACE to dodge the bullet (or the garbage truck).

6. Throughout this series of discussion I will repeat, as you should also……

                        A SCOOTER, NO MATTER WHAT SIZE, IS NOT A TOY.

It is at once a beautiful means to enjoy a wonderful place and an instrument of pain and even death. Knowledge of what situations are possible and how to respond to the dangerous ones means more freedom and joy.