Improving driving skills

[clunkbox]

I've been driving for 8 years, and for the past 6 I've been clocking up a lot of miles (at lot of them Scottish highlands as opposed to motorway plodding). I've noticed in the past few years that my skills have started to plateau (if not get worse!), and I've picked up my fair share of bad habits too. I think I'm a reasonable driver, in terms of being able to drive quickly and safely but I don't have much frame of reference to assess it on, so I'm sure I'm not as good as I think I am!

What would be the best way to go about improving my driving? I'm not overflowing with time and money, but I would considering doing a course/assessment at some point in the future. Are there any inexpensive courses which would help? IAM / HPC? HPC interests me more but looks expensive? Not to offend anyone but IAM has always seemed to me like old guys in flat caps pottering around at 50 mph*. Not that I want to I want to drive recklessly on public roads, but I want to be able to drive enthusiastically without putting myself or anybody else in danger - whether this is quicker or slower than I currently drive I less important.

I've got the roadcraft book, which I haven't looked at for years but I'll dig it out of the box and give it another read. I've not done any track time, but would like to at some point, although since I drive an 320d estate it's not exactly a track monster. Saying that I'm more interested in improving my on road skills.

Edit * I'm sure an IAM course would be useful to me though.

Edited by clunkbox on Wednesday 12th September 13:39

[clunkbox]

Thanks,

I think the best plan is to do an IAM / Rospa course in the near future, and depending on how that goes think about doing HPC in a year or so. Can anybody recommend a course / instructor in / near central Scotland?

[clunkbox]

Yeah, that sounds about right. Between driving more capable cars and being more sensible (being on 9 points will do that) I found I'm not longer pushing myself or the car on the road. Not that that's a bad thing but it also meant I was no longer learning anything, and like you said, getting complacent.

[clunkbox]

The more I think about it the fact that IAM may be more centred around things I'm not interested in may be a good thing - it stands to reason those are the things I could stand to improve the most! Urban driving is probably my weak point to be honest.

[clunkbox]

johnao said:

Exactly right. I would add that the examiners are tasked with ensuring that the candidate can quickly get up to the national speed limit and maintain that speed where safe to do so. Driving along at 50mph when it was perfectly safe to do 60mph would, if done throughout the test, undoubtedly result in a test fail.

Where does this perception of bimbling along at 50mph max come from?

Don't know to be honest!

[clunkbox]

Cheers Everybody.

Giving some serious thought doing Drivecheck / full with IAM.

[clunkbox]

Thanks for the may offers of going out for a drive I'll take one of you up on it when I have the time!

[clunkbox]

I've been lucky to drive up north so often, certainly hasn't done any harm! Even the A9 has it's benefits, it is a master class in (mostly terrible) overtaking! My urban driving is decidedly mediocre though.