Motorways present unique challenges not covered in the standard driving test, which can leave new drivers unprepared for high-speed driving conditions.
Terry Cook discusses the misconceptions surrounding motorway driving, emphasizing that it's not just a simple extension of regular driving. He highlights the importance of understanding motorway rules, such as joining and exiting safely, navigating variable speed limits, and dealing with smart motorways.
Terry also stresses the value of practice with a qualified instructor before and after the driving test, as this experience can significantly ease the transition to real-world driving. Throughout the episode, listeners are encouraged to recognize the need for preparation and awareness to ensure safety on motorways.
The Driving Test Podcast is here to give you all the information and tips you'll need to help you pass your driving test. Whether you're learning to drive, getting ready to start, or helping someone else, this show will get you in the right gear.
Navigating the roads after passing your driving test can be daunting, especially when it comes to motorways. Terry Cook, the host of the Driving Test Podcast, delves into the significant gap between driving test preparation and real-world driving scenarios, particularly on high-speed roads. This episode emphasizes that motorways are not simply an extension of regular driving; they come with their own set of challenges that new drivers may not be equipped to handle. Cook highlights the necessity of understanding motorway rules, the importance of higher speeds, and the critical role of planning and awareness when joining or exiting motorways. He discusses common pitfalls, such as middle lane hogging and the dangers of not signaling, illustrating that many drivers often overestimate their skills on these roads. Moreover, Cook stresses that the driving test does not cover motorway driving, leaving new drivers vulnerable to real-world conditions. Through thoughtful insights and practical advice, he encourages listeners to seek additional training on motorways, particularly with qualified instructors, to build confidence before embarking on their post-test journeys.
Takeaways:
Motorway driving requires specific skills that are not covered in the driving test.
The higher speeds on motorways necessitate more advanced planning and awareness of surroundings.
Joining and exiting motorways can be challenging and require good timing and lane management.
Smart motorways have features like variable speed limits and dynamic lanes that drivers need to understand.
Fatigue is a significant risk on long motorway journeys, so taking breaks is crucial.
Practicing motorway driving with a qualified instructor can significantly ease the transition post-test.
Transcripts
Terry Cook:
Welcome to the Driving Test Podcast.
Terry Cook:
I am your host, Terry Cook of TC Drive, and I am here as your guide on your journey to passing your driving test and beyond.
Terry Cook:
That's right.
Terry Cook:
I'm also here to help you prepare for all those wonderful journeys you're going to go on after you passed your driving test.
Terry Cook:
Now, today we're continuing our look at how the driving test doesn't always prepare you for life on the road.
Terry Cook:
And this is day four of this miniseries and we're going to be looking at motorways.
Terry Cook:
But before we do, I just want to remind you that I'm releasing these episodes throughout Road Safety Week, which is run by Brick, a road safety charity.
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Now, Brick helps support the families of those who've lost their lives due to a road traffic collision.
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Now, unfortunately, there's crashes on the road every day.
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On an average, five people lose alive every day as a result of crashes on UK roads.
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So Brake do need your support.
Terry Cook:
If you'd like to donate, you can find a link in the show notes or you can Visit the website brake.orguk.
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but I want to help keep you safe by talking to you about the way the driving test doesn't prepare you for wheel while driving and what you can do to get yourself ready.
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So, today we're looking at motorways, and if you've missed any of the previous episodes, make sure you head back and check them out.
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But in regards to motorways, you simply won't do them on your driving test.
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You're not going to go on them at all on your driving test.
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In fact, there's a lot of driving test areas where there's a strong chance you won't even go above 50 miles an hour.
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So it's not just motorways, it's actually high speed roads.
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There's a strong chance you won't get anything on on your driving test.
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So what are some of the challenges you may face on motorways?
Terry Cook:
Well, the first thing I want to point out is that motorways are not easy.
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It's something I hear a lot where people say, you don't need any practice on motorways, it's just driving.
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They're easy.
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I disagree.
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And one way I think we can almost prove this is when you go on the motorway, you'll see plenty of other drivers basically driving really badly.
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Often though, they'll think they're driving great.
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So a lot of these people that say the motorways are easy, they'll be the people that are breaking the speed limit or that are going too slow, they'll be the people that are not signaling when they change lanes or not getting into the lane in good time, or cutting in front of you or on the phone whilst they're driving, you know, a lot of those people will be acting that way.
Terry Cook:
Middle lane hoggers is another prime example.
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We should be driving on the left unless there's a reason not to.
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But when you.
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Often when you go on a motorway, you'll see people just driving along, chunding along in that middle lane, causing problems.
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So when anyone turns around and says our motorways are easy, think of that as a little warning sign thinking, oh, I'll pay attention to your driving them.
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But what are some of the specific problems?
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So the first one I think is probably the most obvious.
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I'll mention the consistent higher speeds.
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If you think about the day to day driving most of us do, it tends to be around 20, 30 and 40 zones.
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That's where we go day to day, often to get to work, to go to shops, all this kind of stuff.
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When we're doing those higher speeds, we need to be planning further ahead.
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We need a bigger gap circuit front.
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We need better planning because whilst there's less collisions on motorways, when collisions do occur, the outcome is a lot worse because of the higher speeds.
Terry Cook:
We also need to look at joining and exiting, so the slip roads onto a motorway.
Terry Cook:
Often when you're joining that motorway, there's just a stream of traffic coming along at 70 miles an hour that you have to navigate your way into.
Terry Cook:
Plus if you're on the motorway and there's someone joining, you have to watch out for the people that are cutting in front of you, but also needs to be considering could you move across to make it easier for them.
Terry Cook:
Same when you're exiting, are you getting into your exit lane in good time or are you leaving it to last second and then cutting across five lanes of traffic?
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Plus on motorways you'll often find roadworks with contraflow systems and reduced speed limits.
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And then you'll have speed cameras in there as well.
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And all of a sudden you've not got people breaking the speed limit, everyone's doing the same speed limit.
Terry Cook:
You'll have heavy traffic consistently, as I've mentioned, and within that comes navigating your way through it because as we mentioned, there'll be people that are breaking the speed limit and there are people that are going too slow and you need to navigate your way through that.
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And then look at overtaking as well.
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Generally, will there be occasions you're going to have to overtake on the left or will you be overtaking on the right consistently?
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How are you going to plan that in?
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How are you going to factor that?
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The signage on motorways is fascinating.
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Sometimes it's awesome and it's so easy to help you get in lane and other times it'll say this lane for something, then a mile further down it says, oh, this lanes, now for something else.
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So navigating that signage and being prepared to be ready to respond and change lanes or whatever's required, then we've got the services.
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So if you're on a long journey, we do want to be pulling up and taking a break at a services.
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Perhaps one of the most entertaining things for me is always trying to work out the exit of the services.
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They're the worst marked things in the world often.
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I've been driving for 22 years and I still often struggle to navigate the directions in services.
Terry Cook:
More ways I'm fine, services not so much.
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But then we've got another big one, which is fatigue.
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Because again, if you think of why you would tend to use a motorway, it will often, not always, but often be for those longer journeys.
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So we drive in for longer.
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We need to be aware of fatigue and we need to find ways to keep ourselves alert.
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Whether that's taking a break, cranking a window, energy drink, coffee, whatever it is, we need to manage those fatigue levels.
Terry Cook:
But the other thing I want to mention is specifically is smart motorways.
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And I just want to point out a few of the features on smart motorways.
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So first of all is the dynamic hard shoulder.
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So basically that means the hard shoulder will be open at some times, but not at others.
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Now, if that hard shoulder is open, we should be utilizing it.
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That is the left lane.
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That's a lane we should be using unless we're overtaking or following signs or something like that.
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If we're not using that hard shoulder when it's appropriate, well, we're not driving correctly.
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And we're one of those people then that are saying, oh, motorways are easy, but not driving correctly.
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In that same token, we've got the red X's.
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So there is a gantry going above the motorways with signs on the electronic signs.
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And if there's a red X above the lane, that means that that lane is closed and you need to move across.
Terry Cook:
Now you cannot continue in that lane.
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And I do quite a bit of motorway driving and the number of times I'll see people just ignore that red X.
Terry Cook:
The only thing you'll get up on those gantries is variable speed limits.
Terry Cook:
So sometimes you'll be driving and the national speed limit on the motorway is 70 miles an hour, but you'll see a sign for 50 and then 1 for 40 and then 1 for 30 and then it'll go back to national speed limit again.
Terry Cook:
So you need to be aware of these overhead gantries.
Terry Cook:
And then we've got the other one, which is emergency refuge areas.
Terry Cook:
So if the motorway has a hard shoulder, that's where you should be pulling up.
Terry Cook:
If you break down, for example, or if there's an emergency, that's what the hard shoulders for.
Terry Cook:
Now, if there isn't a hard shoulder and there's emergency refuse areas needs to be pulled into those instead.
Terry Cook:
So you can see there's a lot that goes on in motorways, and in smart motorways in particular, that your driving test just isn't going to prepare you for.
Terry Cook:
So how can you prepare?
Terry Cook:
Well, fully qualified driving instructors can take you on motorways before your test.
Terry Cook:
This came in a few years ago.
Terry Cook:
It used to be you couldn't do itself after your test, but now you can do it with a fully qualified driving instructor.
Terry Cook:
Now, just to clarify, you can't do that with your parents before you test.
Terry Cook:
It has to be with a fully qualified driving instructor.
Terry Cook:
Now, obviously afterwards you can, but not before.
Terry Cook:
And the, one of the advantages of doing it before you test is like almost everything else I'm speaking about in this series, it's going to make your driving test easier.
Terry Cook:
Because if you've just spent four hours on a motorway and then you come to your driving test and you hop on a, a dual carriageway for two minutes on your driving test, well, how easy is that going to be?
Terry Cook:
You know, you're used to these harder conditions, so practicing this will actually make it easier for your test, but obviously will help prepare you for post test afterwards.
Terry Cook:
When is it better to get this experience?
Terry Cook:
And when you've got someone sat next to you who can help.
Terry Cook:
And we can practice this in a few ways.
Terry Cook:
So first of all, we could just start traveling short distances, so we could be getting onto the motorway at one junction and then coming off at the next.
Terry Cook:
So sometimes that could just be a five or ten minute drive just to get you into that, that routine of doing it.
Terry Cook:
And the difference in the road works or the difference, the difference in the signage and the difference in the volume of traffic.
Terry Cook:
So we can start off by doing those small bits.
Terry Cook:
Then, if you're able and your instructor is able, you could do a longer session because those longer sessions are so much fun.
Terry Cook:
Pick an area to drive to drive over there, you get to encounter some smart motorway, you get to encounter normal motorway, you get to practice that fatigue, you get to practice pulling into the services.
Terry Cook:
I'm sure if your instructor's anything like me, he'll happily buy you a coffee and a sandwich as well.
Terry Cook:
You know, he gets to practice all this stuff.
Terry Cook:
And again, look at how that prepares you not just for your driving test, but potentially 30, 40, 50 years of driving you're going to do afterwards.
Terry Cook:
And if for any reason you can't get a lesson booked in before you test, well, there is absolutely nothing stopping you booking a motorway lesson after you test.
Terry Cook:
Just because you pass your driving test doesn't mean the learning have to stop.
Terry Cook:
So you can see there again that there's, there's a lot in the test that doesn't prepare you for motorway driving, but we still can prepare you for driving on those motorways, which are their own unique beast.
Terry Cook:
So I hope you found this little look at motorways useful and how it doesn't prepare you for the test, and the test doesn't prepare you for all aspects of driving.
Terry Cook:
And I'll be continuing this throughout Road Safety Week, so please consider donating to break.
Terry Cook:
You can find a link for that in the show notes.
Terry Cook:
But for now, make sure you subscribe to the driving Test podcast because we'll be returning with a brand new format soon.
