Saturday 1 August 2020

How many driving lessons do I need?

When I first started working as a Driving Instructor in 2005, this question was THE most regularly asked question when customers range to book some lessons.

I started to drive in 1991 and at the time, learning to drive typically involved 1 hour long driving lessons of which I remember having about 18 before passing my driving test. Those around me had similar numbers of lessons with the exception of 1 of my friends, who had about 5 go's at his test before passing it and took lessons every week in between his test attempts - he must have had about 40 hours of lessons in total, something like that.

In line with the times, we set about "learning to drive after passing our test"...
  • 'B' hit a opening car door as he drove past it - nobody had mentioned that risk on our lessons
  • I couldn't turn right at crossroads with people coming the other way who also wanted to turn right and had many near misses and received much abuse from others as I worked it out for myself - it hadn't been mentioned on lessons
  • I also nearly killed a few of us when passing parked cars when there was on-coming traffic present that I now know has priority in such situations - that hadn't been mentioned either (and neither had the risk of rear seat passengers being thrown forward in the event of a crash - I had passengers in the back without seat belts on that day and one ended up sitting on the handbrake!)
  • Myself, 'D' and 'I' all needed work doing on our gearboxes within a year... guess what - vehicle empathy hadn't been mentioned on lessons to any of us
  • 'I' and 'A' were both rear ended at various junctions - that HAD been mentioned, but in the context that as it wasn't our fault, it didn't really matter
  • 'M' had several bumps and crashes, hitting a hedge when avoiding an oncoming car on a narrow country lane and reversing into things when leaving car parking spaces
  • 'B' skidded on gravel at a junction and came off the road, hitting a sign
  • The first time it snowed, I skidded into a busy main road with thankfully nothing coming, after driving slower, but not slow enough for the conditions. I was also driving too fast in heavy fog, and nobody had ever mentioned the words "always drive at a speed that allows you to stop easily within the distance you can see to be clear"
So could we drive and should we have passed our tests?

Definitely not!

Were we lucky not to get seriously hurt or to hurt anyone else?

Definitely!

So did our Driving Instructors do a good, thorough job of teaching us to drive?

I think they did their best in the times and culture they were operating in. The culture was very much about getting everything as cheaply and as quickly as you could and there wasn't such a focus on safety then - almost as though a certain number of people getting seriously hurt or killed in crashes was an unavoidable fact of learning to drive.

The facts of the time were that an average driver had 30 hours of driving lessons before passing a test - as we'd all generally had little more than half of that, we WERE very much a risk on the roads, not only a risk to ourselves, but a risk to everyone else too whether they were walking, riding or driving. That lad that had 5 go's at his test and more than twice the number of lessons the rest of us had has never, to my knowledge, had any incidents.

Today, Driving Instructors are trained more towards being being Road Safety Professionals. Even if turning right at cross roads isn't likely to feature on your test routes, a good Driving Instructor will still teach you to do that and the focus is very much on learning to drive, rather than learning to pass a test - putting nerves aside for a moment, if you can drive properly, then passing a driving test IS easy even if you've never driven on the roads you find yourself being tested on.

The current figures from the DVSA tell us that the total number of driving lessons needed to pass a driving test has remained reasonably steady now for many years... you should expect to have between 45 and 50 hours of professional training and around 30 hours of private practice in your own car. If private practice isn't an option for you, then you're looking at around 60 hours of professional lessons and as you get older, particularly if you get into your late 20's before learning to drive, your number of hours increases a lot - a 40 year old will take around twice as many lessons as a 17 year old, with much of that being down to the "I want to get it absolutely right before taking a test" attitude rather than any kind of inability (40 year olds will very likely have lost a few people they know to crashes and other incidents on the roads of course, so the safety messages are very real to them).

There may be a conflict of interests, but I genuinely have a lot of respect for the quality of learner drivers passing a test these days and definitely don't agree that the old saying of "you learn to drive after passing your test" still applies.

Amongst many other skills, today's learner drivers who pass their tests demonstrate that they:
  • Can interact with other drivers when turning right at cross roads, adapting their driving in response to the other vehicle being a car, bus or motorbike and using a mixture of 'offside to offside' and 'nearside to nearside' techniques depending on the situation
  • Leave enough room for doors to open as they pass parked vehicles, but don't move into the path of oncoming traffic to do so (they wait until it's safe instead)
  • Understand priority at meeting situations and when it's appropriate to give way
  • Adjust their speed to suit the limits of their visibility, being ready to stop within the distance of clear road they can see ahead of them and adapting to different weather and road surface conditions
  • Drive in a manner that reduces wear and tear on the vehicle, reducing the need for repairs
  • Know their responsibility for the safety of those in and around their cars as they drive
Those skills mean that they won't have the problems me and my friends had when we learnt and they are required to demonstrate these skills repeatedly over a 35-40 minute drive in mixed road settings, so it is unlikely that they will pass by fluke. I genuinely believe that today's new drivers drive at a standard that is higher than that of many of the drivers around them on the day that they pass their test.

So, bearing all that in mind with all that practice, discussion and money spent... it remains a statistical fact that 1 in 6 drivers passing a test go on to crash within 6 months so why don't they drive to the standard they've been trained at all times after passing?

Food for thought!



Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk
Or call 0800 820 20 38

Tuesday 28 July 2020

Handling Emergency Vehicles

I remember once being on a bus in central London when 5 Police cars came up from behind at speed and with their lights and sirens on. The bus was stuck in traffic within some roadworks and there was no room for the Police to get past.

The bus driver remained perfectly calm.

In spite of what I've been told in my own training, the lights and sirens on all of the Police cars stayed on as they waited in the traffic and the first two positioned themselves behind us in the line of sight for the bus driver in a very "Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" manner with the other's further back in the queue separated from those first ones by other queuing cars.

But still my driver remained calm.

It was almost as though he didn't know that the Police were there. We were held by Red traffic lights and coned into lanes that were only a few inches clear of the bus on each side with London rush hour traffic ahead of us - probably about 8 or 10 other vehicles in front before we got to the lights.

We were stuck, but it was obvious the Police were in a hurry at the worst possible time in the day for London's traffic.

The lights changed, the traffic moved and as we came out of the roadworks, the road expanded to 4 lanes. The driver signaled his intention to move to the left as he approached the exit of the roadworks and the Police responded by positioning to the right of the lane, inches from the cones, absolutely itching to get past.

And that's exactly what happened when exited the bottle neck and got back out into some space. The bus moved left (and accelerated normally), the Police moved right and easily out paced us on the open road and because our driver left the scene rather than stopping to let the Police past, the flow of traffic followed behind us and the other Police cars were "released" one by one to follow their colleauges.

That bus driver remains one of the best examples of how you deal with emergency services that I've ever seen on the road.

When you are approached by a vehicle responding to an emergency on the road:
  • Remain calm
  • Do what you can do to help them through (but don't stress if you can't do anything)
  • Use signals to communicate your plans to the emergency driver
  • It helps everyone if you offer SAFE opportunities to them to get past
  • It helps everyone if you consider yourself to be part of a team assisting the Police
  • Don't break any rules in the Highway Code - you must drive legally at all times and face prosecution if you don't!
It's worth bearing in mind that that emergency drivers:
  • Have formal exemptions to break three rules in the Highway Code
    • Speed limits
    • Red lights and stop signs
    • Keep left or right bollards
  • Have widespread public support in breaking other rules in the Highway Code
  • Are trained to deal with traffic - in a nutshell, they have two questions in mind at all times:
    • Is there space?
    • Are all other road users aware of my presence?
  • Are well trained in car control skills
  • Are well trained in the driving skills of observation and anticipation
  • DON'T have to use blue lights and sirens in emergency response if they feel it's better not to
  • SHOULD turn off their lights at sirens when in queues at Red traffic lights (to avoid provoking a dangerous reaction from other road users) and restart them when lights turn to Green
  • MUST drive SAFELY at all times, regardless of the circumstances surrounding their journey
So it's a question of teamwork! We can help emergency vehicles by being aware of our surroundings, creating space and trying to be as predictable as possible.

Examples of people failing driving tests for poor response to Emergency response vehicles include:
  • Drivers entering bus lanes
  • Mounting the pavement
  • Drivers stopping in dangerous places expecting the ER vehicle to over take
  • Drivers stopping in other inappropriate places and causing a blockage
That bus driver WOULD NOT have failed his driving test because there was nothing he could do.

Stay safe!


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Tuesday 14 July 2020

Advanced Driving... Reading White Lines

A few weeks ago, I did a series of articles looking at commentary driving and if you gave that a go, then you'll know that it's all about making your thoughts conscious and actively looking to read the situation around you.

In today's notes, I want to look at the subject of white lines, and specifically, the white lines down the middle of the road that define overtaking conditions.

Advanced drivers who are giving a commentary will often comment on the white lines that they can see in the road up ahead, particularly as they navigate their way around bends and over the crest of hills etc.

They'll often plan for overtaking manoeuvres based on this information and as a result they'll say something like this "the overtaking restrictions lift just around this bend, so we might get the chance to overtake this tractor here" and go on to select gears and move into overtaking positions before or as they take the bend.

I was doing this myself recently, when it occurred to me just how often the information presented by the white lines is wrong - it's got to be more than half the time!

For those who aren't sure:
  • Double white lines down the middle of the road mean overtaking is disallowed in at least one direction - if the white line on your side is solid, then you can't overtake. You ARE allowed to overtake bikes, works vehicles travelling less than 10mph (road sweepers etc) and parked cars but these lines are used where overtaking is considered to be dangerous
  • Single white lines mean that overtaking is allowed in both directions and there are two versions - longer lines and smaller gaps mean that it is "hazardous", smaller lines and longer gaps mean "non-hazardous"
  • Arrows telling people to move back to the left hand side of the road are a sign that a change in the road markings is coming ahead (sometimes you can see that if you look far enough, but other times it may be around a slight bend etc) - this would usually mean that they are becoming more restrictive / hazardous
Examples of inaccurate placement of the lines include:
  • A road near me where you come around a right hand bend with a 1/3 mile straight bit of road ahead of you, but double white lines are present for around 250 meters before the line on your side is broken and you are allowed to overtake
  • The road I was on last weekend was quite bendy but road markings were often "overtaking is non-hazardous" in places where there was less than 100 meters clear visibility of the road ahead due to upcoming bends or hill crests
  • Very bendy sections of road where clear visibility is down to less than 50 meters with "hazardous" overtaking road markings
  • "Non-hazardous" road markings past entrances to businesses, side roads or fields
I've always thought it was a bit strange that road markings attempt to define "hazardous" or "non-hazardous" overtaking conditions when so much depends on visibility in different road, traffic and weather conditions as well as what it is that you're actually overtaking.

I wonder how many crashes or near misses are caused every day by drivers taking these road markings at face value and overtaking when they can't see sufficiently far enough ahead? A driver suddenly confronted by an oncoming vehicle on their side of the road as they come over the crest of a hill will not be left thinking afterwards that that driver is a highly skilled, advanced driver will they - they'll more than likely think they're stupid!

There's nothing wrong with planning ahead of course, and I think it's worth mentioning that overtaking doesn't just mean that we're overtaking other large vehicles - overtaking things like slow moving bikes requires a shorter stretch of road, particularly if you're driving a high powered car but I find the road markings alone to be a very inaccurate indicator of the safety of an overtaking manoeuvre.



Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Saturday 11 July 2020

The first week back after lock-down & a new style of blog

This is the first of a new set of blog posts that I intend to read like a diary piece. The intention is to do them weekly and see what lessons can be drawn from each week.

I'm starting them at the end of the first full week of work that we've been able to do as an industry since the government lifted lock-down restrictions on us.

This week, everyone has worn a mask, everyone has avoided paying cash, everyone has agreed to have their temperature taken, nobody has cancelled their training session and nobody has displayed any concerns about the virus.

The only problem with those masks is that, although they're not tight, they wear grooves into the tops of your ears after about 8 to 10 hours of wearing them, leaving your ears feeling bruised and looking dented - it's certainly a relief to take them off at the end of the day and I feel the pain of all those people in care work and at the NHS etc who've been wearing them for ages!

But of course, the masks are necessary.

As ADI's, we are sitting 18 inches away from somebody else in a well ventilated, yet otherwise enclosed space and either of us may have the virus and not know it.

In everything I've read up about the virus in the last few months, the one question that remained unanswered related to the number of people who contract it without displaying symptoms but more and more reports and studies are now concluding that the answer to that question is that it is around 80%. In other words, if you deliberately infected a group of 100 people, then 80 of them would be expected to display no symptoms. If it's true, that's a horrendous figure because we all rely on people displaying symptoms in order to recognise that they have the virus, stay in and protect the rest of us!

So the masks are essential PPE for anyone working in close proximity to others and it's disappointing when you see an ADI not wearing them, or hear them saying that "I've told the clients that I'll wear one if they want me to" (which is an incredibly unfair position to put a teenager in - can you imagine ANY teenager insisting that you wear a mask??)

If people like us, in high risk situations don't wear them, then what happened in Leicester WILL happen again. Local lock-downs are a reality where there are local outbreaks and no matter how self conscious or uncool people feel about wearing masks, we ALL lose out if that happens.

It's worth saying that the majority of ADI's I've seen this week ARE wearing PPE though, and that's a good thing.

It's also worth considering if you're learning to drive without masks that they are mandatory for both people in the car when you take your driving test. DVSA have already released that information to say that the examiners will be wearing them and expect that the clients also wear them - if you're not used to it when you take your test, you're going to be at a disadvantage in the same way that you would be if you were driving a new car on test day.

Other things I've been doing in the car this week is cleaning it before and after every driver!

That's interesting when the client comes and stands in the middle of the road waiting for you to get out of the car whilst you're trying to wipe it down - you start power cleaning!! 

In order to be effective, the cleaning must cover all contact surfaces with soap, as the virus has a fatty coating that is destroyed in soap leaving it fatally wounded so not only does every surface need to be touched by a wipe, that surface needs to be coated with a fresh, soapy wipe and left wet to the touch for a couple of minutes whilst the soap does it's job.

This is again something that examiners will be doing before they enter the car for a driving test.

If you are doing it yourself, then anti-bacterial wipes from the supermarket are fine and don't damage the interior, but you must be careful not to buy ones that contain bleach - because that WILL harm the interior!

The windows have also been open this week and the Heko Wind Deflectors I purchased to allow the windows to be open in all weathers have been put to their test with all the rain we've had.

In spite of it getting pretty heavy from time to time this week, I've been pleased to see that very little rain has entered the car (any that has, has come in through the very back of the rear windows where the deflectors don't cover). Ventilation in the cabin, particularly on fast roads, has been fantastic and it hasn't been too noisey. These wind deflectors are available easily by searching on line (I got mine through EBay) - mine cost around £40 for the set and look great on the car.

So that's it for this week. Driving instruction requires an ADI to do a lot of things in their head when they're working. They watch the road, plan how they'd drive along it themselves if they were driving, plan escape routes in case anything goes wrong AND watch the client to see if their actions match what the ADI would do or are otherwise appropriate for the road conditions IN ADDITION to actually talking to the client about their driving! Mentally, a driving lesson is a busy time for an ADI and you develop a kind of fitness if you do it regularly, so you can cope. It's obvious that after 14 weeks off, I've lost some of that mental fitness and it's been a tiring week... the day off is very welcome and there are more days off next week to enjoy!

Whatever you're doing this weekend, enjoy it!



Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Monday 22 June 2020

The current situation regarding driving tests...

As the lock-down restrictions ease more and more, many people are wondering what is going to happen now with driving tests so I thought I'd write a few pieces to keep you all informed.

There are three elements to this and I've put them in priority order:
  1. You had a practical driving test booked at the time of lock-down
  2. You had a theory test booked at the time of lock-down
  3. You were either about to start or were mid-way through training but weren't ready to pass your theory test
Firstly, if you had a practical test booked at the time we went into lock-down, then you will know by now that it was cancelled and rearranged by DVSA. The process used for this was the same process they use if they cancel for any other reasons, and as such the system re-booked your test automatically. Most of those I had booked at the start of lock-down were re-booked to take place in late June and early July. Test centers were initially closed by DVSA until June 20th.

Last week, the DVSA wrote to us to say that they were cancelling all of these re-arrangements completely for the time being and test centers remain closed.

There are no general refunds being made. The way it's going to work is that when the DVSA re-open the testing system, we will be invited to re-book you into a convenient slot. The re-booking system will reopen gradually in stages, with priority give to those that were closest to taking their test at the start of lock-down (so if you had a test booked in late March, you'll have the first shot at re-booking when compared to friends that may have had tests booked in April, or May).

As a booking agent, I will take care of all of this for my clients, but I will be speaking to them all about the practice they've been able to get through the lock-down and we'll make the decision together about when a good time would be to present for test before making a booking. Some people have been able to practice a lot with parents; some haven't done anything at all and everyone will have varying degrees of confidence about going in for a test.

In terms of timing, we have no idea really as to when this system will be opened up but it is one of those things that is obviously dependent on the R value staying nicely below 1.

The DVSA have also written to us to explain that they are concerned about a whole host of things that affect reopening. Some of these things include building issues such as the risk of Legionella and staffing issues with examiners being in various states of health and at various stages of life. It is anticipated that there will be a reduced capacity for testing when it resumes.

As far as PPE is concerned, I am happy to discuss what I am doing and you'll be pretty well up to speed on that from what you're reading in the news. Basically there'll be temperature checks for everyone, compulsory wearing of masks, good hand washing practice and sanitisers available in the car, a practice of cleaning the car's controls down before every new driver and plenty of fresh air.

Like many reading this, I consider these precautions to be common sense and with, at the time of writing, government estimates of infection rates in the country being in the region of 1 in 1700,  I don't mind saying that the DVSA look pretty incompetent in appearing to be so confused and disorganised with regards to a plan to return to work. Whilst many ADI's are preparing to return to some form of service provision in early July, no testing is taking place until the DVSA decide to return to work, so watch this space.


If you had a theory test booked at the point of lock-down, the DVSA again cancelled this and you will have an e.mail telling you when you're new date is. I believe that the automatic re-booking system is managing this for us and that you'll have new dates allocated to you.

Theory test centers remain closed until at least the beginning of July at the moment and as with practical tests, the DVSA are remaining tight lipped about any plans they might be making to reopen them. My opinion is that they should be reopened immediately because a theory test center is one of the easiest public places you can go to in order to maintain social distancing - it was pretty much in place naturally anyway to prevent cheating!

Again, there is no news on what precautions will need to be put in place, but I see no reason why it should be different in many ways to a trip to your local supermarket with just a few additional measures to clean keyboards, use hand sanitisers etc.

Unlike the practical tests, it appears that you CAN still book a theory test if you want to take one. Worth remembering though, there may be a significant delay in being able to book a practical test if you pass your theory, because priority will be given firstly to all of those people who have had tests cancelled due to Coronavirus before the test booking system is opened up to the general public again.


If you were either at the start of the learning to drive journey or part way through it, then you are largely unaffected by these problems in the testing process.

I would advise you to continue to read up and practice for the theory test and where you can get practice at driving, do so. You should practice with somebody you live with acting as supervising driver (they need to have held a full licence for 3 years for the vehicle you're driving and be at least 21 years old). Strictly speaking, the practice of "just going for a drive" is still against government guidelines, but there's no reason why you can't drive to the park for a walk if you like or to the shop.

The biggest affect on this group of people is going to be the availability of Driving Instructors. The profession contains a lot of people who are of retirement age and health problems such as obesity and diabetes are rife within the cohort. As a result, it is expected that there will be a number of ADI's who leave the profession completely as restrictions are lifted and those that are left (I'm in this group) may often have availability problems caused by things like childcare. One interesting way in which this virus crisis has exposed us is that many industries are totally reliant on the assistance of grandparents for childcare reasons in order to earn a decent living with schools only being open for around half of what many modern working class people call "a working day". That isn't an attack on schools, it's a statement of fact and it'd be nice if "the new normal" re-balanced things a bit.


The long term affects of this Coronavirus will be felt in the economy for a long time to come, but the DVSA will recruit new staff to replace those that are forced to leave on health grounds, and people like me will continue to bring new Driving Instructors through our Driving Instructor Training programmes... eventually, normal service will be resumed but it's going to take a long time!

I'll provide further updates as I get them.

Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Saturday 13 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 6 - Weather Conditions

If you've been following these blogs this week and trying to complete the exercises, then well done!

You'll appreciate that driving at this standard isn't easy and you'll probably be finding it tricky to fit everything in. To recap, what we're doing is:
  • Looking as far ahead as we can to the limit point
  • Identifying information (ALERT):
    • Road Signs
    • Road Markings
    • Road Surface Conditions
    • Junctions (and other fixed hazards)
    • Vulnerable road users and other road users in general (and any other variable hazards)
  • Noting how if affects us (INFORM)
  • Setting out a brief, concise plan to manage that risk (MANAGE), usually involving:
    • A change in speed
    • A change in road position
If you've been doing it, you'll now appreciate how important it is to keep the speed down so that you can keep up mentally and also how important it is to be both concise AND not overly worried about terminology - "man walking in road" really is okay, even if they do turn out to be female when you get closer!

Our next step today is now to add weather conditions to the mix.

Weather conditions are well discussed as a risk increasing factor, but it remains the case that most drivers don't adjust their driving to suit deteriorating weather, until it is REALLY BAD! There are two points I'd like to make here:
  1. When I discussed limit points, I was intending to get you to look as far ahead as you can see with the aim of you gathering information about the road as soon as it became visible. Bad weather will often mean reduce visibility and as a result, this information might not be available as early as it otherwise would be - this may not be much of a problem for fixed hazards, but what about variable ones?
  2. The stopping distance problem is well documented - if the road is wet, then it takes up to twice as long to stop and the reason for that is that you have half the grip of course! In normal driving, this isn't a problem and you won't notice the car skidding when slowing for junctions or cornering... unless you do it in an emergency! This is because normal driving perhaps only uses 10 or 20% of the normal grip available in good conditions - if you wet the road and half the grip, there is still ample grip for normal driving.
Both of these factors SHOULD be altering your driving! It's not necessary to reduce speeds to walking pace just because it's raining, but advanced drivers choosing speeds on approach to bends will consider the increased stopping distance needed in their choices. Likewise they will "forget" that they know the road and know that the road is straight here and drive at a speed that allows them to stop easily if an unexpected hazard requires them to do so - fallen tree across the road in thick fog conditions for example.

Today is potentially a great day to add weather considerations to your commentary as the forecast is for a mixture of sunny, hot weather, cloudy spells and showers of rain that may turn thundery at times - a nice mixed bag to practice with!


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Friday 12 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 5 - Vulnerable Road Users

In my last blog, I looked at the subject of junctions.

Junctions are an example of a fixed hazard in that their location and layout are fixed and don't change - the decision is basically "is it safe?" and isn't generally affected too badly by "what might happen here that I don't expect"

Today, we're looking at the subject of "vulnerable road users" and if I'm honest, that means "all other road users" because we can all make mistakes and when we do so, we'd all hope that those around us act in a way that keeps things safe rather than making things worse.

To illustrate this point, I'd like to share a story from 1996. I was waiting at red traffic lights behind a Porsche as the lights changed to green. The Porsche moved off, but I saw a Landrover approaching from the right that clearly wasn't going to stop at the lights and stayed still.

The Landrover hit the Porsche with a lot of force, throwing it up onto a traffic light and I got out of my car and dialed 999 as I went to see if the Porsche driver was okay.

Whilst I was handling the 999 call, an elderly man came over and asked if I was on the phone to the Police. He asked me to pass a message on to them that "I didn't mean to do it, I just didn't see the light"

Like I said, we can all make mistakes. Modern culture means we all like to imagine that we're experts in the legalities of it all and tear this situation apart trying to answer the question of "should he be driving?", but it all boils down to a simple mistake and I'd seen it coming, whilst the Porsche driver hadn't - with the result that I was safe, and the Porsche driver was injured.

Those on 2 wheels, might change position in the road to avoid grids, cats eyes and manhole covers, those on 4 legs might find their ride spooking away from hedges and those with 4 wheels might be taken ill at the wheel or react when they see a bee trapped in the cabin with them... the possibilities are endless really, but many of the most common acts of other road users can be predicted.

For example, that Landrover SHOULD have been slowing down a long time before he got to the stop line, so the fact that he didn't stop WASN'T A SURPRISE AND NEITHER WAS IT UNEXPECTED - all it needed was for the Porsche driver to look to his right as he prepared to move and he'd have seen it.

Likewise, if you can see that you've got to pass a horse, all you've got to do is look ahead and see the oncoming traffic and you avoid getting forced to move back in too early by simply holding back until it's safer.

And if you're on a motorway and you see an HGV coming down the sliproad, it's easy to predict whether he needs the same bit of road as you or not if you look... if he does, adjust your speed and position in good time so that he can get on safely without you having to take any avoiding action.

It's very important that you comment on what is actually happening based on factual evidence rather than anything else. Assuming that people are going to walk into the road in spite of the fact that they're standing at the kerb looking carefully and clearly waiting for traffic to clear is not what this is about - that's treating everyone as though they are stupid and what's we're looking for is to identify those situations that are going wrong.

I'm not going to give any specific examples of what I'd say here, because it's all so unique to the situation, but I want you now to add commentary about other road users to what you're doing already.

So by now, your commentary includes:
  • Signs and markings
  • Road surface conditions
  • Junctions
  • Other road users
Your now at a stage where you'll find that your commentary is filling your driving. This is good. Every single one of these things you're talking about is a hazard and every single one of them could develop into a crash on the right day and by commentary driving, and going through that process of seeing the hazard (ALERT) acknowledging the risk (INFORM) and describing how to reduce the risk (MANAGE) you're stopping yourself from getting involved.

Tomorrow, we'll discuss the weather in our final blog on this subject.


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Tuesday 9 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 4 - Junctions

In yesterday's notes, I touched on the subject of variable hazards.

Variable hazards are changeable hazards that may or may not be there on any given day, at any given time or in any given circumstances. Broken down cars, flood water, vulnerable road users and debris in the road are all examples of variable hazards.

In contrast, fixed hazards are those that are always to be found in the same place and generally have a fixed number of possibilities, which obviously allows you to plan for them with more ease than those random things that just appear one day and are gone the next. Common examples of fixed hazards include traffic lights, junctions and bends in the road.

Fixed hazards can be responsible for a degree of debate when we're training advanced drivers, because these hazards still usually require some level of decision making and as your actions will be dictated by the decision you make at the time, some drivers prefer to view them as variable hazards. A good example here is traffic lights, which obviously will regularly change colour and that is a fair point of view, but the difference is that those traffic lights will be there every day and you are generally limited to just three basic actions (give it some thought and feel free to debate that on social media if you like).

Today, our focus for our commentary driving practice is junctions.

What we want our commentary to include here is clues that the junction is there, so now, in addition to the signs and road markings that already feature in your commentary (and the road surface), I want you to look to the limit point and consciously seek out pieces of information that indicate the presence of junctions.

We'll then use the AIM process to acknowledge the risks and make adjustments to our driving as we negotiate a safe path through those junctions.

The types of things you're looking out for include gaps in the building line, lines of lamp posts or trees, shadows or reflections, or signs (not necessarily direction signs). In the rural setting where street lighting isn't usually present, bundles of street lamps will often be placed around junctions to increase visibility and you may see these in the distance by looking over fields and hedges. Vehicles ahead of you may be seen to signal or start braking as they begin to prepare for a junction just beyond the limit point too.

As has been the case with the other exercises, keeping your comments concise and keeping the vehicle speed low will help you to avoid getting tongue tied. This example might help too:

"Left hand bend up ahead, warning sign for junction on the right" (Alert)
"There could be queuing traffic. I'm turning right and might need to give way" (Inform)
"Reducing speed for the bend. There is some oncoming traffic so giving signal. Position towards the centre line. Can go after the red car. Holding back and selecting 2nd gear. Looking into the side road for hazards. Red car clear, right hand mirror clear. Turning into the side road" (Manage)

You'll notice that this talk through is getting more involved now as we start to actively manage several risks associated with the same hazard.

In the example, the junction around the bend poses a number of risks and thankfully, ALL of them are reduced in severity by a reduction in speed in this example. Generally speaking, drivers will lower risk by reducing speed and / or altering road position to allow extra space.

When it comes to these situations with lots of possible risky scenarios, it's important to remember that the aim is to make us more aware of our driving and therefore safer drivers. A comprehensive list of possibilities isn't required and with practice, you'll find that you naturally prioritise certain possibilities that suit your way of thinking. This is why Driving Instructors talk so much about children running into the road. None of us want to hit anything and the traditional training of Driving Instructors tells them to go for the most graphic example when discussing the potential problems one might encounter. In reality, hitting a Wheelie Bin being blown into the road in high winds is just as undesirable and both are equally as avoidable using the same tools of changing speed and road position. As long as you acknowledge that a risk is present and adjust your driving to reduce that risk, it's fine as it is.


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 3 - Limit points & Road Surface

How did you find yesterday's commentary driving exercises?

It can seem difficult at the start and I think most people recognise that at some point over the course of their driving lives, they've forgotten bits of the Highway Code and also fallen into a habit of ignoring quite a bit of information as they drive down the road. When I first did it, I realised just how fast I was driving too - I found that I was driving faster than I could think and reflecting on the potential consequences of that was an important part of my training to become a Driving Instructor.

That's why this technique helps people to become better drivers - it's like waking them up from their daily habits and re-engaging them in the task of driving.

Today, I want you to add road surface information to the road sign and marking work you were doing yesterday and in doing that, we're also going to discuss the limit point.


Limit Points

The limit point is that place up ahead where the road disappears out of view.

You have an uninterrupted view of the road up to the limit point, so looking up there regularly, and giving commentary on what you can see up there means that you're seeing and considering information nice and early and making any adjustments to your driving smoothly and in good time.

Furthermore, if you drive at speeds that mean you can easily stop before you reach the limit point, you virtually eliminate the possibility of being involved in a crash - simply because if something comes into view at the limit point that's a problem, say a fallen tree blocking the road for example, you can easily and safely pull up.


Road Surface

I think most drivers know that it can take twice as long to stop on a wet road than a dry one and that it can take up to ten times as long on a snow covered road.

But how long would it take to stop on a loose road surface?

And how long would it take on a layer of dirt or mud?

The truth is that we're all guessing at the answers to these questions and if we're honest, we are guessing with the wet and snowy road surfaces too. There are so many variables that the statements made in the Highway Code about this are very general and can only act as a guide rather than a definite fact.

And then there's potholes, manhole covers and cats eyes - all of which can unsettle the car and alter the amount of grip available to it as it travels along the road and crucially, affect it's ability to stop in an emergency.

It's weird, but whereas motorcycle trainers often talk about road surface condition and it's affect on grip with their trainees, it's often the case that car drivers have never thought about it until it's mentioned at an advanced driver level and that's in spite of it being part of the driving test! The truth is that as car drivers, we aren't as vulnerable to falling off and getting hurt, but we are obviously just as vulnerable to crashing and I believe that we all share the goal of not crashing don't we? The fact that we're in a safety cage and unlikely to fall out of our car's shouldn't really stop us from considering things that increase road risk. 

So it's essential that we consider road surface if we want to be able to be able to stop within the distance we can see is clear up to the limit point.

The condition of the road is what we call a "variable hazard" in that it's different every time you drive down the road. Variable hazards are dangerous because people have absolutely no idea about them until they see them regardless of how well they know the road and it's for this reason that advanced drivers try to pretty much ignore the fact that they know the road and drive as though they have no local knowledge whatsoever at all times. We'll be looking more at variable hazards later in the week.


Practice

So today's practice involves going out and commentary driving and talking about road signs and markings as you did yesterday, but looking further up the road to the limit point and talking about them earlier than you perhaps did yesterday.

I also want you to add information about the condition of the road.

Remember to keep it concise, and that reducing speed when you first start will help you to fit it all in. It's also worth doing it in short bursts of 5 minutes or so at the start and then allowing yourself to rest and reflect on what went well, what didn't go as well and how you can alter the driving to help to get it right. Practice makes perfect, but that reflection means that less practice will be needed!

Remember also to keep to the AIM structure...

Alert - What information can you see?
Inform - What hazard does it present?
Manage - How will you change your driving to lower the risk?

As far as road surface in concerned, if you try to imagine a driver driving along an A road between towns where a farmer has recently been working on fields, the commentary might be something like...

"Straight road ahead, can see a long way to the limit point, opening on the right, mud on the road there, road could be slippy, reducing speed, positioning slightly left where there's less mud"

Obviously, there'd be mirror checks in that lot, and you can add them to the commentary if you like but the aim of these blogs this week is to help to improve your driving, and not to turn you into a Driving Instructor - I'm assuming that as a regular driver, you're already using your mirrors.

And that's it for today! As you practice you'll hopefully see it getting easier and you'll hopefully see your driving improving too - less risk, less stress, better fuel economy and often quicker arrival times in spite of us talking so much about slowing down (the truth is that the opposite is also true you see - where you can see that there are no problems, you can increase speeds and are governed then of course, by the speed limit and traffic conditions)

Tomorrow, we'll be discussing junctions and adding them to your commentary.



Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Monday 8 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A week - Day 2 - let's get started!

So following on from yesterday's introduction to the subject of commentary driving, today I am going to suggest a few practical exercises that you can try in order to start and develop a good commentary driving technique and improve your driving.

Remember that we use the AIM process in commentary driving "Alert - Inform - Manage" and as it's the first time many of you will have tried this, I need to go into a bit of detail on each of the steps this morning so you understand what you're trying to do. As a result, I find that this blog is longer than I expect the others to be as we progress through the week.

We're going to be looking at road signs and markings in these exercises.

You don't need to do any specific preparations, but some general tips will help you:
  • Be as concise as possible as you speak
  • Speak out loud to get the biggest benefit
  • Slowing the car down a bit helps you to think
  • Do it for a few minutes at a time and then rest your brain - it's hard work at first but gets easier with practice!
  • Look as far ahead as you can
  • Turn off the radio so you can concentrate
  • If you find yourself talking about things behind you or struggling to keep up simply stop the commentary, drive normally and rest your brain for a bit and start again using road signs far ahead in the distance
  • If anything happens that requires you to take action, stop the commentary and respond normally and naturally as you would have done before today
Let's go!


Step 1 - "Alert"

As the foundation of our commentary driving, this bit deserves the longest explanation:

As you drive, I want you to start by simply mentioning to yourself all of the signs and road markings that you see.

I want you to notice when you see speed limits change and when you see warning signs (triangle shaped), direction signs (notice the colour of these - each colour tells you about the road ahead of you), prohibiting signs (those in red circles), instructional signs (blue ones) and those extra, unique signs such as clearway signs (no stopping at all unless you're in a queue), deviation of route signs (the more black and white arrows there are, the sharper the bend is) and stop signs (octagonal signs used at dangerous junctions).

I also want you to notice road markings, in particular those at junctions (which define priority) and along the center of the road (which generally describe overtaking conditions by allowing, disallowing or urging caution when planning to overtake). The word "SLOW" is written in the road a lot you'll notice and rather than being an instruction to slow down, this road marking should be seen as a warning to you that there is a hazard in the road ahead.

Here are some examples (remember to be concise):

"Warning sign, junction to my left" (Alert)

"The word SLOW written in the road" (Alert)

"Overtaking disallowed in both directions" (Alert)

Whilst this is a 3 stage process, I want you to simply mention the signs to begin with as there is an important process taking place here as you do this.

As you drive, you might realise a few things and the following thoughts are normal:
  • "I didn't realise there were this many signs around!"
  • "Why do they bother putting signs up for that? I know there's a junction there - I drive this road every day"
  • "I've been speeding down this road ever since I started driving!! I didn't realise the 30 zone started there"
  • "I think I need to read the Highway Code!"
  • "How does Nick expect me to keep my eye on the road whilst looking at all these signs??!! They're a distraction!!"
If you're having these thoughts then your commentary driving is already working for you!

Firstly, you can read the Highway Code for free by following the links here and it's obviously available through all good bookshops and on line for just a couple of quid - I'd urge all drivers who are serious about being seen to be good drivers by those they share the roads with to get an up to date copy of the book and read it.

With regards to the other thoughts - it's worth spending a bit of time reflecting on them in a bit fo quiet time (when you're not driving).

As you reflect, it might help to consider these specific questions:

If you're either finding those signs and road markings distracting or finding the task of taking them all in to be hard work...
  • What does that tell you about your speed?
  • What does it tell you about everyone else's speed?
  • Are your thoughts about risk changing?
  • Is there anything you can change in your driving to help you to reduce the risk in your driving?
Some of these thoughts can challenge us if we're generally proud of our driving, but spending some time thinking about them is vital if we're going to reduce road risk for ourselves and others around us. Remember that nobody's asking you to share your conclusions.

The next steps are easier to cover


Step 2 - "Inform"

Back in the driving seat now, the next stage of our commentary driving involves mentioning to yourself how the road sign or marking you've noticed affects you as a driver - not all of it will pose an actual danger, but all of it is important to you in some way.

The trick to getting the commentary right here is to avoid too much verbal detail and keep your comments concise. Here are a few examples:

"Warning sign, junction to my left" (Alert)
"Vehicles may emerge" (Inform)

"The word SLOW" (Alert)
"May be a problem over this hill" (Inform)

"Overtaking disallowed in both directions" (Alert)
"Road may be bendy ahead" (Inform)

Expressing these risks vocally like this is likely to be the first time many of us have actually appreciated many of the risks actually posed by different features in the roads we drive on daily.

It is again worth spending some time reflecting on and pondering these realisations... how can these thoughts have a positive effect your driving?


Step 3 - "Manage"

By simply noticing and vocalising the risks, you'll probably have already noticed that you're doing things naturally to reduce your road risk as you drive.

The final step in commentary driving is to put these natural actions into words.

You're not training to be a Driving Instructor, so again, you'll find it easier if you're as concise as possible and here are some examples:

"Warning sign, junction to my left" (Alert)
"Vehicles may emerge" (Inform)
"Slowing down & moving away from the kerb" (Manage)

"The word SLOW" (Alert)
"May be a problem over this hill" (Inform)
"I can easily stop at this speed if I see anything, so no change" (Manage)

"Overtaking disallowed in both directions" (Alert)
"Road may be bendy ahead" (Inform)
"Forget about overtaking and hold back from vehicle ahead" (Manage)


And that's it for today!

Notice that not everything requires an action. Sometimes you'll conclude that your current speed, gear and position choices are fine as they are and that's perfectly okay! 

The important factor that is being introduced by the commentary today is simply to be aware of the amount of information presented to you as a road user and a realisation that it is all important in your assessment of risk as you drive.

Hopefully, if you've had a go at commentary driving today, you'll have seen that whilst it's hard work (it really does get easier as you practice - you'll find short bursts of a few minutes at a time is a great way to start), you'll have already started to change the way you drive through certain stretches of road.

Tomorrow, we're going to add to today's work the subjects of road surface condition and limit points and I hope you'll join me for that and carry on trying to improve your driving. I promise that the blog tomorrow won't be anywhere near as long now that you've got the basics! Feel free to message me any thoughts or questions through my social media outlets.


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Saturday 6 June 2020

Commentary Driving in a week - Day 1 - Introduction

Have you ever heard of Commentary Driving?

Commentary Driving takes many forms (dependent on the context of the driving task being undertaken) but it is essentially about putting your actions into words and saying out loud the thoughts that are going through your head.

Most commonly, you'll have seen the Police using a form of commentary driving on many occasions when you've been watching those fly on the wall documentaries where the cameras follow a couple of Police Officers for a few days. During a pursuit, you'll be familiar with the following type of commentary:

"Following the suspect straight ahead into Maddison Street. Speed is 45mph in a 30 zone. Suspect is on the wrong side of the road. Turning left into Osbourne Road now"

That level of commentary is doing several things that assist the Police in the course of their work. It's a record of what's going on and as such it's gathering evidence, but it's also communicating the presence of risk and the driver will be focusing hard on managing that risk.

That's one of the reasons why commentary driving works you see - it forces you to concentrate and in order to do it at high speed like the Police do takes a lot of practice. Most people find that they need to slow the car down quite a bit in order to get the commentary in line with actual events but even then, you'll notice that the Police are prioritising their commentary in those examples - they simply don't have the time to mention absolutely everything.

So with that in mind, let's look at another type of commentary driving - the type your Driving Instructor used when you were driving for the first time:

"Push the clutch down. Move the gear stick towards me and then forward into 1st gear. Set the gas. Raise the clutch to the bite point and keep your foot still when the front of the car rises a bit"

Whilst that might appear to be "instruction" to you, it is only by practicing commentary driving at that level of detail for spent many hours that allowed the Instructor to develop competence in that skill. With a learner driver at the wheel of course listening and trying to complete the actions so that they can drive the car, it is essential that that level of detail is there (otherwise something important might not be done... looking both ways at a junction for example) and the car MUST travel very slowly in order to allow that level of detail to be used. The Police couldn't do that (and neither should they because there is no benefit for them in mentioning what they're feet are doing when they're involved in a pursuit).

So context is important and so are the aims of the driver when we're discussing commentary driving. For most of us, I imagine that our context is simply driving to and from places of interest (work, home, shops etc) and our aim is to do that with as little hassle as possible - none of us either want to crash or get involved with the Police in terms of paying speeding fines etc do we!

So what  we need to do in our own commentary driving is to firstly describe the information available to us, followed by a quick assessment of the risk it presents and a brief summary of how we're going to deal with that risk.
AIM
ALERT - Make a conscious note of the hazard
INFORM - Tell yourself consciously what problem it presents
MANAGE - What are you going to do to manage this risk down to minimal levels?

Doing this will improve your driving by focusing you on the task of reading the road rather than driving allowing you to simply drive from memory. The road is a constantly changing environment and whilst you might know every lump, twist and bump in local roads what you don't know is that there's a broken down vehicle parked dangerously on the bend today, or that as you go over the crest of the hill today you're going to see a vehicle on your side of the road overtaking a horse in a bad place - we call them variable hazards and it's those are often the things that cause the crashes.

Starting on Monday and over the course of the next week, I am going to release daily blogs with the aim of increasing the number of commentary driving drivers and improving people's level of safety on the roads. Each blog will take a few minutes to read, and give you a task to carry out on the next drive you take. Every day, we'll ask you to add more and more to your commentary driving until you reach a level next weekend where you're starting to see real changes in your driving style (hopefully).

As each blog is released, I'll publicise links through the following outlets and I'll be available through the social media pages to chat over what whatever questions, queries or findings people have:



Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk


Friday 29 May 2020

Essential reading for advanced drivers...

In surveys on attitudes towards driving, two findings are consistently shown:

a) Most people are very proud of their driving
b) Most people are critical of everyone else's driving

I've always been fascinated by the interaction between these two findings. With each group holding more than 95% of those people surveyed and with it being so, so common to hear people openly expressing those opinions, I totally accept that they reflect the attitudes of the general driving population, yet they are in direct conflict with one another!

If we're ALL really good at driving, then how can we ALL be so bad at it at the same time?

Quite clearly, there is a significant number of people driving who genuinely THINK that they're really good at driving and therefore wouldn't approach a Driving Instructor to help them to improve, but attract a lot of criticism from other drivers around them.

Now I don't know who those people are, and neither does any observer - these people can only identify themselves in their own private thoughts.

The first step is to accept something very difficult and that is that whilst it's true that there are one or two really angry people in the world who are just angry at everything, you are probably doing something to attract any criticism you receive.

You have to remember that at that moment in time when another driver is blasting the horn and calling you an idiot, all they are basing that opinion on is what they've just seen you do. They don't know you. They don't know that you drive for a living. They don't know that you've been driving for years without a crash and they don't know that you've got a clean licence. All they know is that you perhaps changed lanes without apparently knowing they were there and almost caused a crash so in their opinion, for that moment alone, you showed them that you were a bad driver... and as hard as it is to accept, they're right - although it might be a rare occurrence, at that moment that was exactly what you were!

We all make mistakes (including me), but for the best of us it's a very rare situation that might only happen once every couple of years rather than every time they leave the house. As we're all surrounded by the same random selection of drivers and driving on the same random selection of roads, it's a fairly accurate way of judging how good you are at driving - the less often you find yourself in situations like that, the better at driving you are (and you could apply the same mentality to your application of the rules such as speed limits, traffic lights and parking etc).

One time efficient and flexible way of improving your skills is to read a book on the subject and this is my essential reading list for anyone who is interested:
  1. The Highway Code - start with this one of course! Most of the problems arise where people who haven't read this book since their driving test took place years ago either come across others who know it well or have simply forgotten what it says - simply brushing up on the rules is THE single, most time effective way of reducing your road risk!
  2. The DVSA Guide to Driving, The Essential Skills - if the Highway Code is the rule book, The Essential Skills is a manual of how to apply those rules to best affect and the two go hand in hand. These two books are the ones on which the Theory Test questions are based.
  3. Roadcraft, The Police Driver's Handbook - often seen by those who haven't read it properly as being "totally different to how you drive for your driving test", this book goes into detail about road risk rather than focusing on the correct application of rules. Particular focus is placed on making sure the driver is mentally fit for the task of driving, reading the road ahead and controlling the car.
  4. Mind Driving: New Skills For Staying Alive On The Road (Stephen Haley) - is an excellent examination of the reasons why drivers crash and what is going through their heads when they do so. It's a very different book to Roadcraft. From discussing the biological problems such as natural blind-spots in the human eye and the way in which the brain processes information from the eyes, this book aims to help you identify risk in your driving and put in place strategies for avoiding or reducing that risk.
With the exception of Mind Driving, all of these books are all freely available in your usual outlets. Mind Driving was published in 2006 and as such, it's becoming more difficult to find a brand new edition, but I did notice that there are new copies available on Amazon when I was writing this.

If, after reading these books, you feel that you would benefit from some time with a qualified trainer, then I can obviously help with that and it's worth bearing in mind that we do these training sessions without L plates and that the branding on the car is deliberately low key to avoid attracting undue levels of attention. We usually meet, start and finish at local car parks to keep things as discrete as we can be and with these sessions involving full licence holders, they are very much "training sessions" looking at the areas of weakness that the driver wants to look at, rather than "driving lessons" which are aimed at helping a driver to pass a driving test.

When lock-down is over, get in touch if you think we can help!


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Sunday 24 May 2020

Signalling to go around parked cars - yes or no?

How well do you use your signals when you're driving?

I notice that a lot of drivers do it "because they should" and by that, what I'm saying is that when I drive my car with L plates on, I notice people in front of me signalling to go around parked cars and all sorts of things whereas I don't see so much of that when I haven't got the L plates on.

I can only conclude that those drivers are aware that a Driving Instructor is behind them and as a result, they are paying more attention to their driving which I suppose is a good thing really, but the truth is that it doesn't really bother me whether you signal to go around a parked car or not and I'll attempt to explain why that is.

Official advice for drivers is that you don't usually need to give signals to go around parked cars. The reason for that is simple - the driver behind you can usually see the parked car that you're going to drive around, so he doesn't really "need" you to tell him you're going to drive around it - he's actually expecting you to do so being as jumping it, tunneling under it or stopping to turn around and go the other direction don't seem like very likely options for you to take!

Truck drivers, bus drivers and anyone else who might have fair reason to think that the traffic behind them can't see up the road ARE encouraged to signal to go around those kinds of obstructions because it's a fair assertion that the following driver might not be aware of the parked car. Even this wouldn't really be necessary if a decent driver was following you though, as they'd hang back a bit and position themselves in the road to make sure that they could see past the vehicle in front of them.

Anticipation is a key skill of driving and good drivers will constantly be looking to gather information about the road ahead, including (but limiting themselves to) signals given by others in order to plan their own actions. Where they can't see, they will simply position themselves so that they can see - it's essential to good decision making and if I can see another vehicle driving really close behind an HGV in a position where they can neither be seen by the HGV driver or see up the road beyond the trailer doors, I know that I'm following somebody who is a high risk to the rest of us and treat him with caution!

Signals we can use in the car include:
  • Direction indicators
  • Hazard warning lights
  • Brake lights
  • Reverse lights
  • Flashed headlights
  • Arm signals
  • Speed
  • Road position
The intention of a signal is to communicate to other drivers what you intend to do, and good signals will always convey this message in good time and without the possibility of misunderstanding.

So for going around a parked car, early positioning tells us that you've seen it and intend to go around it, reduced speeds / brake lights tell us that you're considering the safety of the manoeuvre (perhaps there's oncoming traffic) and eventually allow us to predict whether you are actually stopping or not - what value does a flashing amber light on your right hand side add?

Likewise where there are two junctions on the left and you intend to turn into the 2nd one, the reducing speed tells us that you're planning something, staying in the normal driving position of 1mtr from the kerb suggests that you're not planning pull up at the side of the road, as does the final approach speed of perhaps 10mph which would be consistent with a manoeuvre into one of those side roads. In this case, an early direction indicator would be a problem because it suggests that the 1st opening is your intended destination so this signal can only be given once we are committed to driving past it. In fact, the fact that a left hand direction indicator was absent in this case, would be a reason for me (if it was me following you) to expect very early on in the process that you were intending to take that 2nd opening.

Using signals doesn't give priority and if you're good at using them, you should never use them in such a manner that they require any other driver to slow down, or move into a different position on the road to accommodate you - if this is needed, then the manoeuvre isn't safe to carry out and you should consider safer options.

With this in mind, many advanced driving organisations spend a lot of time discussing why signals are not necessary in a lot of cases. When the thought process is taken to the extreme, and if you're driving well, a case can almost always be made in favour of not signalling because it's un-necessary! These discussions are almost always referring to left and right direction indicators though and ignore the information conveyed by the vehicle's speed and position which is of particular value to those we share the road with. My own view on this is that it seems un-necessary to constantly debate it! If the purpose of those conversations to make us all better at using signals or to is it to win some sort of competition between experts equally qualified experts? Ultimately, I can't see that there is ever any real harm in giving signals with the simple intention of communicating your intentions to those around you, even though it doesn't effect them at all.

And that, ultimately is why I'm not bothered if you want to signal to go around parked cars or not!



Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk