Blog posts tagged ‘driving’

Despite over 81,500 driving tests being cancelled across the country due to the recent bad weather, practical driving test waiting times at the King's Heath Test Centre are as short I can remember them being in recent years. According to the DSA's website, the current waiting time is only four weeks. For much of last year the waiting time was between six to eight weeks. Appointment availability is defined as when a test centre has 10 per cent or more of its appointments available. However there are some dates available at even shorter notice than that. So keep up those driving lessons and you’ll be taking and passing a test before you know it!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2011

Ceri, South Brum Driving School

According to a report carried out for the Department for Transport earlier this year, the most frequent factor associated with road accidents was failing to look properly.  This error was more frequent than speeding and was associated with 38% of accidents reported to the police, according to the Department for Transport’s Reported Road Casualties Great Britain: 2009 publication. It highlights the constant need to be aware of the risks of not looking properly when driving.  Something we know already but it does no harm to be reminded, especially as it’s something we as drivers have direct control over. 

From my experiences I know that many accidents occur at roundabouts, when the driver is looking to the right to see if there’s a gap to pull out into, all the while unaware that the car in front of them has stopped. This is likely to result in a rear end collision. Or maybe the driver is unaware that they are drifting out of their lane because they’re concentrating so hard on what’s coming from the right at the roundabout. This is something that occurs with learners, but also with more experienced drivers.

 Another time when you can see people not looking properly is when they get too used to a particular piece of road. It could be a quiet junction on an estate where “no one ever comes along this bit of road” so it’s easy to get complacent, and when someone does come along that bit of road the driver isn’t looking properly and pulls out into the path of another vehicle.

Or it could be something as simple as reversing out of a parking space in the supermarket car park and not making effective observations – possibly bumping into the person reversing out of the space behind you, who also isn’t looking properly.  A fairly regular occurrence.

If you want to avoid becoming one of the statistics on your lessons, or afterwards, remember to make sure you really know that the situation is clear before you act. Never assume that there isn’t anything there if you can’t see that to be the case. Always anticipate that there will be something coming until you know for sure that there isn’t. It’s always better to stop when you didn’t need to, than to go when you should have stopped.

Find out more from the RoSPA website:

You may have heard that on the 4^th October this year the driving test is changing. I’d like to clear up some of the facts surrounding the new test, as I’ve heard all sorts of rumours and scare stories about it. Following a meeting with the test centre manager at the King’s Heath test centre, I have it on good authority that this isn’t going to be the problem that many in the media have made it out to be. Some may even find the new test easier, and all should find it beneficial.

Independent driving
The main change is the inclusion of an independent driving phase. This will take about ten minutes of the time on test. It will involve you having to either:
1.  Follow signs to a specific location e.g.  “follow signs to the station until I tell you otherwise”
or
2.  Follow a short series of up to three directions given verbally by the examiner and sometimes backed up by a simple route diagram. You will be asked to repeat the instructions to the examiner before you set off. 
or
3. A combination of the two.

It is the second of these that seems to worry people the most. Many are scared that they won’t be able to remember where they’re supposed to go. Well fear not, as it is perfectly acceptable to ask the examiner if you have forgotten. The examiners are generally nice people, and are there to help you achieve your potential on the test. Feel free to ask them anything that isn’t clear to you. Also, just like on the rest of the test, if you make a wrong turn (get left and right mixed up for example), so long as you’ve driven correctly to wherever you’ve gone, then there is no problem at all. It is not a test of your ability to follow direction instructions, merely a test of your ability to drive a route with minimal prompting.

Manoeuvres
Now for the good bit! Before the changes, you would have had to perform at least two reversing exercises. Now, there will be only one! So that’s got to be good for you hasn’t it? There is still a second manoeuvre, as EU law states that there has to be two on all tests. The second manoeuvre is “moving off at an angle”. This means that you’ll be asked to pull up about a car length behind a parked vehicle, and then to pull away from behind it. This is something that has always been asked of you in the driving test anyway, but it wasn’t given its own status as a manoeuvre before.

Test Routes
This won’t directly affect your test at all, but the test routes will no longer be published by the DSA. As a driving instructor, my aim is to teach you to drive safely, and legally wherever in the country, or even the world you will be driving. As such, I have never taught “test routes”. If you can drive well, you can drive anywhere. Obviously there can be some tricky junctions that can confuse in every area, and of course you will familiarise yourself with these on your lessons with me. For example, many find the bus lanes and approach to the Maypole roundabout confusing, and having a go at these before the test is a good idea. In my opinion  the lack of published test routes won’t affect your chances of passing the driving test in any way.

Hopefully this has clarified some of the facts about the changes to the test, but if you are still unsure, please feel free to give me a call, and also check out the DSA’s You Tube video about the changes.

It’s that time of year again when term is about to start or has just started. Among your list of things to do could be learning to drive. Whether you’re going to be leaving school, college or university this academic year, or in the near future, your ability to find work is highly likely to be affected by whether or not you have a driving licence. You may need to drive as part of the job itself, or just to commute to and from the workplace.

Learning to drive is also a great way to gain freedom, not relying on lifts or public transport all of the time. One of my current pupils, a Birmingham University student, recently told me she enjoys getting to see parts of Birmingham outside of the bubble of Selly Oak and the uni campus.

So when you’re considering your options this term, don’t forget to add driving lessons to the syllabus.

According to a recent report compiled by the European Transport Safety Council, our roads are a lot safer than they were at the start of the millennium. In 2001, there were 3,598 deaths on UK roads. In 2009 there were 2,528 deaths. That’s a 30% reduction overall. There were 61 road deaths per million people in 2001. That figure has fallen to 41 per million in 2009. This figure ranks the UK as second safest only to Sweden in the EU (Sweden having 39 deaths per million of the people). This compares with Romania where the figure is 130 deaths per million, making Romania the most dangerous place to drive/cross the road etc within Europe, closely followed by Greece, with 129 deaths/million.  For further information click here.

The date is fast approaching that the DSA’s latest change to the driving test will be implemented. The independent driving element of the driving test will come into effect on 4 October 2010. But does that mean you have to rush into taking your driving test before this date? I don’t think so. The new element to the test is designed to be more realistic, and more like the type of driving you’ll be doing after passing. It will involve you following a series of verbal directions, following traffic signs to a destination or a combination of both. There really is nothing to be scared of. It’s exactly what you’ll be doing when you’ve passed your test and you’re driving alone. As long as you are driving safely, it doesn’t even matter too much if you take the wrong direction or forget where you are supposed to be going. After all, that even happens to experienced drivers.

For more information click here to view a video clip from the DSA

The summer’s here and it’s hot for once! Just as in the winter there are a few things you can do to help stay safe on the roads:

1. Stay cool – open your windows, or preferably use your air conditioning. Being hot and sticky will lead to drowsiness and a lack of concentration
2. Take regular breaks  –  when you start to feel tired make sure you stop and have a break. Don’t drive if you’re feeling too tired to fully concentrate.
3. Keep hydrated  –  drink lots of water to keep your body hydrated
4. Screen wash – don’t forget to have plenty of screen wash. Flies hitting your windscreen soon affect visibility. Keep the windscreen clean.
5. Check your fluids and tyres – ensure that you have the correct coolant and oil levels. An engine is more likely to overheat in hot weather, especially if you get caught in a traffic jam.  Tyres can also get very hot on a long journey; the hotter the tyre, the higher the tyre pressure. Regularly check the condition of your tyres.
6. Animals – never leave a dog or other animal in a hot car. The temperature inside a parked car can soar very quickly, potentially resulting in the death of your pet and possibly even criminal charges for animal cruelty.

During the course of driving lessons in Birmingham you’re bound to see any number of illegal acts committed by other drivers. Speeding, overtaking on the left, and parking on double yellow lines (most annoyingly outside Lloyds Bank by Kings Heath Test Centre!) to name a few.  But why do people do this? I guess there are many motivations for acting illegally whilst driving. Common excuses could include “I sped because I was late” or “I wanted to show my mates how quickly I can drive” or “I only parked there for a second while I nipped to the bank”. None of these excuses are valid, but some people take things a bit too far! Recently a London borough published some of the excuses that it had been given for driving offences. The excuses range from a UFO spotter having been forced to swerve into a bus lane to avoid a UFO, to someone believing he’d been hypnotised into parking illegally. My personal favourite however is this one: "I won't lie. I should know better than to speed on that stretch of road because I ran a woman over there last week."

Most learners I teach don’t have the opportunity to drive other than when on driving lessons. But some do get the benefit of being able to practise in their own/parent’s/partner’s car. These lucky few are able to gain experience of different road traffic situations more quickly and are generally ready to take their test earlier than those who haven’t had extra practice.  Some instructors feel that learners tend to pick up bad habits from their family and friends supervising them, but as long as the practice is taken alongside regular professional driving lessons then I don’t believe that this is the case.

Adding a younger learner to a policy can be prohibitively expensive. There are cheaper options available such as short term policies, held by the learner themselves. One such policy is offered by a company called Marmalade Provisional, who have a tie in with Halfords. They offer policies from as little as £90 per month although this does vary with location. I have checked with them, and for a learner with a Selly Oak B29 postcode, the cost would be £99.50 for one month, or £187.00 for two months.

I believe that in the run up to a test this type of policy can really give a learner an extra boost to their learning experience, raise their confidence and increase their chances of passing the test first time.

Click here for more details…