In addition to the responses given to the specific questions of the questionnaire, several comments associated with professional development have been submitted to us by cooperating experts. A key “complaint” was: “The fundamental problem with practical driving instruction is that it has not got an up-to-date and unified methodology, only a curriculum”. The decades old problem is back again; driving instruction should be recognised as a profession with a nationally accepted degree and qualification. There is an ongoing debate as regards instructors working full-time and as subcontractors in connection with the status of the instructors. The principle of “one instructor – one school” would demand full-time instructors, however many do not consider full-time instruc- tor status as a clear advantage. According to one of the school managers, in this profession even under “normal” market conditions only a certain section of the instructors should be employed
full-time, as the demand is uneven during the course of the year. Creating an instructor “nucleus”
however always more beneficial if it is made up from full-time instructors.
A few interviewees judged the activities of the advocacy groups rather harshly. According to them, the solution would involve the establishment of a professional chamber; the necessity for es-
tablishing a purely technical instructor chamber with mandatory membership for all technical
instructors was also on the cards.
Most of the supplementary comments were in connection with driver training and examination. Experts claim: the conditioned reflex for an average candidate can be developed in 30 hours, the
time specified by the authorities however not agreed upon with the profession. Driving instruction
however presumes strictly personalised programmes, however: “The examination results matter
and not the invested work”– was said by one of the instructors. The field of theory also received some critiques. A question to think about: “Why do roundabout sentences of three or four lines have to be asked? These rather test the linguistic abilities of the student than their transport com- petency.” It was also stated that the market competition frequently referred to is a false perception. As it is not the “product”, thus the acquired and transferred knowledge that is in competition, but the costs and course fees, which for many training facilities cannot even be remotely connected to
the service provided in exchange. It takes approximately 2.5 to 3 months for a person of average
capabilities to complete the course.
1 Fail 3 Satisfactory 2 Pass 4 Good 5 Excellent 0 17 34 51 68 85 102 10 38 117 96 5 4% 14% 44% 36% 2%
It is not possible to educate anyone to drive in two weeks; it is sharp practice to acquire students on this basis.
The technical instructors, in addition to preparing the students theoretically also should equip them with the ability to react quickly. At the exam there is one minute for thinking, on the road deci- sions need to be made in a matter of seconds. Exam questions should target this. Everything can
be rapidly solved by written examination, but only an oral exam provides a full picture on the
competence of the student. The exam should direct instruction towards “reality”. Currently this
principle does not fully apply to either theoretical or practical training. The theoretical questions in their current form are “worn out”, video-situational scenarios would be required, the exam should not be made up of a set of variations of questions and answers.
One of the frequent topics from the opinions and consultations associated with the development
of the profession is the rethinking of and compliance with the training equipment. Many be-
lieve that practicing the profession should in reality be subject to a school building owned by the school, a decent client reception area and training premises equipped to a specific standard, with equipment and course material owned by the school or a driving track available for the school based on a suitable rental contract (this could be developed jointly by several enterprises). The training organisation should also have training vehicles of all the types, the handling and driving techniques of which are taught to their students. These vehicles should also meet the requirements of the market.
Not enough details were provided from the questionnaires, however a significant portion of the
opinions were connected with technical instructor training. Some would restrict their number
by, amongst others, tightening the admission requirements. Others believe: “Anybody could be
a candidate for technical instructor, let’s not filter them with an entrance exam, this way they could become good experts with a sense of mission”. The problem, in many experts’ opinion, starts with the entrance exam; therefore the transport authority has to carefully consider a new system for
this. The technical instructor exam should also be tightened. The candidate should have key
abilities which are strengthened by the training. “This is why a computer is unsuitable, as it is not able to weigh up suitability and ability”.
Technical instructor and continuing training has to ensure the education of instructors who are capable of explaining interrelationships, transferring moral behaviour and developing a transport partnership.
In this paper our research carried out in the second half of 2009 is described. International examples for activity based ticketing systems that are also scheduled to be implemented in Budapest in the near future are presented together with relevant major interrelations. The paper is an abstract of certain sections of a larger research project.
From data originating from 36 different cities, composite groups have been created, as regards the tariff systems the advantages and disadvantages arising from implementation were described separately in relation to the urban morphology and network structure con- ditions of Budapest and the central Hungary agglomeration.
For the question of comparability, being a very important aspect, new methodologies were introduced, which, according to our knowledge, so far have not been used in specialist literature. The innovative relationship between general price and income level of a given country was examined with the monthly pass and single ticket/minimum wage indexes, resulting in a clear, relative and objective overview that we could interpret.
1. The history of BKV’s fare system
In Budapest the tariff system in use today was introduced in 1966 due to labour shortages in the stationary (“sitting”) conductor-system. The aim was then to introduce a unified ticket type that at the same time was affordable by all, required little administration and was valid for one vehicle and one journey (maintaining the difference between tram/bus fares) in place of the complex system containing several different ticket types (at the same time proportionate to performance at the level of the time). To compensate for the “over” simplicity and imbalances of the ticketing system, monthly passes, allowing unlimited travel, were made more affordable and suitable for the wider public.