It seems to me that the key portion of the reply is:
"Evaluations of driver education programs that incorporated skid pad
training found that such training actually increased crashes, most likely
because it made the group of young drivers overconfident."
...or in other words, there's no substitute for seat time. It would be
interesting to run those same results through separated out by number of
years driving. Every time I see something like this, I'm reminded of
statistics for general aviation pilots -- the accident rate jumps at about
100 hours (keeping in mind that most private pilots are licensed with 50-60
hours behind them), because many have gotten comfortable enough to push some
of the old limits. Then it settles down again for awhile, since the
survivors were either smarter or luckier than their brethren. I've
forgotten where the next spike is, but it's again related to a "comfort
level" -- and there are similar spikes for pilots with advanced ratings.
Anyhow, airplane insurance is usually pegged to the pilot's flying hours and
rating, becuase these are the determinant in accident rates.
IMO, "skid pad training" and competition training/experience are not the
same things, either -- learning the limits of the car and learning some
fast-driving ettiqute are two different things. After all, as most race
drivers (and not a few others) know, as long as everyone's going in the same
direction at the same speed, there's not much chance of contact!
Unfortunately, the auto insurance industry is far happier simply ignoring
the benefits of experience and training -- why complicate the equation: if
you drive a fast car, you must be dangerous, no matter what your training,
experience, and actual accident rate. Since they have a captive market
(everyone), they have no incentive to change.
Jamie
'92 Prelude Si
Speed Demon Racing
http://www.mindspring.com/~jsculerati/sdr
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