"Learner Drivers Fear Motorways"

[supraman2954]

No shocks here

www.sky.com/skynews/xml/article/0,,40000-211625,00.html

Skynews said:

Learner drivers fear motorways Learner drivers do not feel they are prepared for motorways and are frightened to tackle the high-speed roads once they pass their test, new research reveals. Insurance company Zurich Financial Services found that 80% of motorists believe the current system, which bans learner drivers from using motorways, left them unprepared. In all, 26% said they were nervous about using motorways as a result, although for women drivers this figure increases to 37%. The Department for Transport spent two years investigating a variety of ways it could improve the learner driver system and had considered compulsory motorway training as one option. However, it decided this March that it would not adopt any of the radical proposals it put forward, saying they would be too costly to put into action and would result in too small a safety benefit. The Department for Transport had also considered compulsory minimum training periods, skid training, probationary licence periods and a second practical test.

[Streetcop]

It's called MAD...

Not Muppets Against Detection...but Motorway Anxiety Disorder...

Street

[Mrs Fish]

I agree totally, I didn't go on the motorway until a year after I passed. I'm fine now though

Should be a part of driving lessons.

[andygo]

I remember the first time I went on a motorway, shortly after I had passed my test. It was dark, and trying to judge the speeds of cars coming up behind was really worrying. Once I got the hang of doing 80mph tokeep up with the general flow, it became much easier........

[gh0st]

My first motorway was the M4 / M25 part

I do remember thinking to myself from the left hand lane "I was always taught to keep left but no-one else is doing so. Am I in the wrong?"

And things havent changed much since then either...

[FunkyNige]

Oh ffs it isn't rocket science - pick a speed, stick to it, if you approach someone going slower just MSM out to the lane to the right then move back in when you've passed. Repeat until destination reached.

They teach driving on dual carriageways for the test, why is a motorway so differnt? Not in a law sense, but in a driving-on sense.

[ben_london]

Make Pass Plus compulsary, I did 2 hours of motorway driving. Whilst not making me the most competent and confident of driver on a big Motorway at first, it did get you used to the speed and the way it works.

On the flip side I dont really want people who passed the day before thinking they can now use Motorways easily and trying to bomb up the outside at triple figures.