This episode is all about the Responsible Driver Program (RDP). The Superintendent of Motor Vehicles in BC can refer people to the RDP if they have received alcohol or drug-related prohibitions.
A lot of people do not know what they are in for before starting the program. Kyla Lee is joined by a guest who has participated in the RDP. He offers some insights and opinions about his experience.
I’m also pleased to announce that the Driving Law podcast is now part of the Cannabis Media Collective!
You can listen online on SoundCloud, PlayerFM, or subscribe on iTunes!
I listened to your podcast (#55) on June 1st about the RDP and ‘John’s’ experience. I thought I’d give you a write about mine.
As was stated in an earlier blog post, the RDP ‘counsellors’ really try to be your friend. Mike, is a actual bonafide counsellor who has worked with youth and adults with drug and alcohol addictions (and gambling). He has at least one DUI, and more than a few of his own ‘driving and drinking’ stories. His own takeway from his was that he is so very very thankful he never killed anyone.
It’s that approach using his own experience that he framed the course. He did not use the full 4 hours either – we were done after 2 1/2hrs the first session and about 2 hrs on the second. His goal was to get the ‘message’ across and move on.
That said, he was amazingly able to draw out people’s drinking habits and consumption. It floored me that folks were willing to share that they had downed 18 beers on Saturday night or smoked a couple joints. And he would makes notes as people talked. He also offered to let us read the comments he was going to submit to Stroh.
So on one hand, yes, he was involved in helping us through the course, on the other, was the privacy issue, and this data will get recorded with Stroh, as will the phone interview data. And it will sit there.
There were 4 of the 9 people there that were in this program for a second time. Of the nine, I was the only one doing the 8 hour program. Nothing that we wrote in the notebooks was given to him and none of it reviewed. The only thing submitted was the confidential survey.
Throughout the course there definitely was a sense of being interrogated and being pushed to ‘tell the truth’, which I agree with you and John is not the stated intent, however it does make that this course is to primarily determine if you pose a risk to public safety and should take the 16hr if you are in the 8 hour, or be told to install the interlock. That I believe is the sole intent – not to help you become a more responsible driver by understanding your triggers and learning coping skills to not drink and then drive.
He did not use toy cars or any other childish gimmicks. He used a flip chart, occasionally referred to material in the manual which he said was ‘not great’ but had some good tools. And he stated several times that the workbook was being redone so this was really not something to hang onto.
Was it worth $1,000? No…I agree with John, although I only spent 4.5hrs there for the 8hr program. I too probably took home about an hour’s worth.