When I was living in Sydney I decided saving up for a car was ridiculous and entertained the idea of getting a bike instead. Then my brother-in-law (already a rider) told my sister and I about a free introduction to bikes held at HART (Honda Australia Roadcraft Training) at St Ives, NSW. At the end of the couple of hours we (and a third girl) were riding around a bitumen track in first gear and decided to try for our learner’s licences.
We chose to do the learner’s course (2 x half day sessions) at HART, St Ives. I liked how they were really anal about safety and told stories like the one about the instructor’s best friend who died because he forgot to put up the sidestand. My sister didn’t like that approach, and did not achieve competency (read: failed). She also had to fill out an incident report for dropping the bike. Only two of the five starters got their Ls. Two others would have qualified for three hours of free one-on-one tuition if they’d stayed watching from the sidelines for the rest the course after they’d been told they weren’t to ride anymore.
My sister later got her Ls after doing the course on the Central Coast (NSW). People were allowed to (and did) make mistakes at the Central Coast course that would have had them watching from the sidelines at St Ives, e.g. accidently pulling on the throttle and shooting off out of control with the instructor running behind yelling “Pull in the clutch!”
For the one day Ps course, which I also did at St Ives, they set up the practice circuit to be more difficult than the actual test, so all six of us passed easily.
Three years later I’m still riding my learner approved Honda CB250. I commute 350-600 km each week, and feel much safer riding a bike than driving a car. There are no pillars to create blind spots. The view is much better out of a helmet than over a bonnet. You have all that extra space around you on a bike, so bad drivers who enter your lane without warning don’t hit the side of your car – they just hit your empty space. So far, everyone who’s tried to cut in too close in front of me (or on top of me) have actually given some warning in the way their car drifted before their move, so I’ve been prepared for them. No-one’s come close to actually hitting me yet – Yay for brakes.
Get a bike and use it safely.