There is one sentence in Roadcraft that every observer, and every associate who has read it, must have briefly pondered. Yet surprisingly few seem to have given it significant attention in places where IAM members foregather. It appears on page 23, at the end of the two excellent paragraphs which introduce the System of Car Control. Here it is. "If new hazards arise, you adapt by reassessing the situation and reapplying the System at an appropriate phase."

Two questions arise from this.
 (1) For any driver (or biker): How do I tackle this, both in general terms as something I can prepare myself for, and for any observer: How on earth do I put this across to my associates?

I hope the following thoughts will make sense to both groups of road user. First I shall take the Roadcraft statement at its face value. With the exception maybe of professional instructors (e.g. at police driving schools), few if any are likely to carry out practical instruction on this point on an organised basis. Situations in driving where the traffic circumstances change, and where a re-run of System is needed, will take place too fast for all but the most highly skilled instructor to handle effectively. (Permanent situations, e.g. arising solely from road layout, are another matter. There may well be some observers who build these into their box of tricks, and take associates through them in order to show something of how to handle a System re-run.) Therefore, the best that observers out on the road will generally be able to do when the need for a System re-run unexpectedly arises is to advise the associate to come to a halt, and then carry out a post-mortem. Even this will demand high levels of alertness and intelligence!

In fact there is another approach to the whole thing. To think about the System in this context, and about how we repeatedly use it as we drive or ride along, it helps if we do not view it as a checklist to consciously run through over and over again. Yes, that is what is printed in Roadcraft, and that is what each one of us once used, carefully and deliberately, as the basis for our current package of road skills. But what did that printed checklist provide for each of us, when we worked to incorporate it into our driving and riding? It enabled us to adapt the package that we already used, ending up with what we will all agree to be a superior one: a complicated, closely-knit and highly refined package of conditioned reflexes. As we drive today, having mastered the System and become fully competent in its use, this is the package that we use. Now, in every new road situation that we meet, we call upon it to enable us to negotiate the hazards safely and efficiently. This is how we use the System - by calling on the relevant conditioned reflexes, not by repeatedly thinking about Phase 1, Phase 2...

The rationale which underlies the System is based upon certain hard facts - Newton's laws; the basic design and operation of motor vehicles; the nature of the hazards that drivers and bikers are liable to meet; the value of habit; and so on. Each one of us, as we have continued to build up our unique personal package of reflexes for our driving and riding, has added our own take on these things, and this will affect the precise ways in which at each hazard we put the System into practice. And our personal use of the System will also be an expression of our personal values with regard to a sense of responsiblity - other road users - the law - and so on. It will involve our appreciation of our own skills and capabilities, both in general and on the day in question. I could go on.

So when each one of us uses the System, we are using our own private interpretation of it, and any subtle ways in which we may have developed it, consciously and unconsciously, for better or for worse, up to the present moment. Now, in my opinion, if we follow through all these things carefully and consistently when we are at the wheel, the end result is going to be indistinguishable from a 'systematic' drive. But words such as 'System' or 'Phase 1' may never enter our head for days or weeks on end. What I think I am doing in just about all of my driving is not going consciously through the checklist of the System, but simply doing what makes best sense to me at each moment. We use the System to teach doing what makes best sense to our associates. True, there are times when I think carefully about the checklist of the System as I drive - but I do this, I believe, in order to maintain my standards and not become sloppy, rather than in order to tackle certain specific hazards that I am faced with.

Let us now come back to the question of the System re-run. I think there is a danger that observers who are not pretty sure of what they are doing may get tied up in a confusing discussion of Phase 3, Phase 4 or whatever, and end up suffering the fate of the mythical Oozlum bird. Not the best way to encourage our associates. On the other hand, if we can sell to associates the idea of doing what makes best sense at each moment - including when the circumstances change - then I think the whole issue takes care of itself. And maybe this is why, as far as I am aware, observers generally have not found it necessary to get to grips with it on a formal basis.

(Note on punctuation. Roadcraft uses lower case throughout for 'the system of car control'. Roadcraft is wrong.)

Alan Russell
Past Training Officer with Manchester and Salford Group of Advanced Motorists and with Salford Advanced Motorists