Get a move on, sunshine!

Date of Test:  2006
Test Centre: Upton, Merseyside
Reason for fail:  serious fault, Progress - Appropriate Speed

This is Lever Causeway. It's a mile long, perfectly straight, tree lined road. Beyond the black and white signs in the foreground, the speed limit for it is 60 miles per hour.

But Danny, on his driving test, and with the idea that he had to do everything slowly, went up this bit of road at a nice steady thirty.

He caused havoc! People were trying to overtake, but having to swerve back in because of oncoming traffic. He acquired an ever growing tail of frustrated drivers behind him. He knew how to drive on fast country roads, but he just got the wrong idea of what was required of him, and the examiner had to give him a serious fault.

OK. So how do you deal with a situation like this?

I think the first principle here is that you must be able to sto pwithin the distance you can see. If you're on a narrow and bendy road, and you come to a bend with a tractor stopped dead in the middle of the road, you really do want to be able to stop in time.

The road markings can help you here too. Long white lines with short gaps mean there are hazards around. Short white lines with long gaps tend to occur when the road is clear.

Being able to drive properly does not mean doing everything slowly. It means doing everything at the right speed, and sometimes, when you have a clear and open road in front of you, you should be prepared to travel at the speed limit.