Easiest driving tests in the UK

[bungeejumper]

Is it me, or are Scotland's drivers being tested to different standards?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46976751

I failed my test twice in Norf Lunnon - the first time I was "unlucky" (a huge cloudburst ruined my emergency stop, yeah right), and the second time I lost my bottle (ahem, I mean my nerve!) and completely deserved to fail. After which I was so disgusted with myself that I got back on my motorbike and didn't drive a car for another eight years.

And the third and successful attempt was in (tadaaaaa) Birmingham, where the odds seem to be really stacked against you. At least, they are these days. Can't say I have any regrets. But why are pass rates so divergent? Is it just that some areas have more half-prepared chancers than others?

BJ

[swill453]

Is it me, or are Scotland's drivers being tested to different standards?

Well the statistics would also support the proposition that they're simply better drivers.

Scott.

[chas49]

Is it me, or are Scotland's drivers being tested to different standards?

Well the statistics would also support the proposition that they're simply better drivers.

Scott.

Or indeed that the quality of driving instructors is wildly variable as well.

[bungeejumper]

Or indeed that the quality of driving instructors is wildly variable as well.

A good point, thanks. Except that all of the areas with the highest pass rates seem to be deep(ish) rural, and all/most are far away from heavy traffic densities, motorways, bus lanes, multi-roundabout confusions and all the general road-signage overload that hardened urbanites have to take into account wherever they go.

It was quite interesting to see that Llandrindod Wells came in at number 7 in the highest pass-rate listing. By chance, my uncle happened to live there, and he had spent the second world war as staff driver to Air Marshal Lord Tedder, the deputy supreme commander of the allied invasion force from D-Day onwards.

Uncle Selwyn had ferried his eminent boss across the ruined mess of coastal France, all the way along the cratered roads to the very bombed-out centre of Berlin, and then onward to Belsen, where he was among the first people to drive into the place. We all thought he was mentally unbreakable. But poor Selwyn came to a complete halt on 1970s Hyde Park Corner and abandoned his car until somebody from the ministry came out and rescued him. Couldn't cope with the sensory complexity.

Not that I blamed him, because I didn't like it much either. The Blackwall tunnel used to scare me, even on a relatively powerful motorbike. But the licence system implicitly assumes that every driver has been trained to deal with maximum-overload urban situations, and I somehow wonder whether that is happening? Or if it's possible?

BJ

[Rhyd6]

A friend of ours passed his test in India, though passed isn't how we would describe it. He was a passenger in his cousin's car when his cousin sat his test. This test consisted of driving in and out of traffic cones, stopping when the tester shouted stop and turning around and driving back through the traffic cones. Cousin duly passed and as friend was in the car he too was given a pass ceritificate. At the time he'd never been behind the wheel of a car. Several years later when he arrived in the UK to take up medical training he quickly realised that although, by this time, he'd been driving for some time in India it might be a good idea to have a few lessons here.
I passed my test many, many moons ago in Mold, mind you as the Test Centre shared the same tea room with the Ministry of Labour where I worked and I made the tea for everyone the examiner was quite prepared to overlook any minor errors in case his cuppa was mysteriously sabotaged

R6

[tjh290633]

My children both passed the test in Brighton. They have now moved the Test Centre to less urban Burgess Hill, as a result of which we are plagued with learners doing 3-point turns in our rural lane. We also have convoys of motorbikes, two learners and an instructor usually, all over the place.

I believe that the centre was moved because of the high traffic density in Brighton.

TJH

[Nimrod103]

A friend of ours passed his test in India, though passed isn't how we would describe it. He was a passenger in his cousin's car when his cousin sat his test. This test consisted of driving in and out of traffic cones, stopping when the tester shouted stop and turning around and driving back through the traffic cones. Cousin duly passed and as friend was in the car he too was given a pass ceritificate. At the time he'd never been behind the wheel of a car. Several years later when he arrived in the UK to take up medical training he quickly realised that although, by this time, he'd been driving for some time in India it might be a good idea to have a few lessons here.
I passed my test many, many moons ago in Mold, mind you as the Test Centre shared the same tea room with the Ministry of Labour where I worked and I made the tea for everyone the examiner was quite prepared to overlook any minor errors in case his cuppa was mysteriously sabotaged

R6

I thought the most important part of the Indian driving test was demonstrating frequent use of the horn.

On ease of driving tests in the UK, I heard once that tests in Wisbech don't include hill starts (because there aren't any hills).

[UncleEbenezer]

Surely the easiest tests are those from longest ago?

My dad never took a test: he came out of national service having driven and got a licence on the strength of that. A decade or so later, my mother's test was to drive up the street to the town square, turn round and drive back again. A generation on, I had something more like today's test with all the familiar exercises, but all in very benign conditions.

Now another generation on ... glad to see so many of them have more sense than we did, and don't bother at all.

[sg31]

Surely the easiest tests are those from longest ago?

My dad never took a test: he came out of national service having driven and got a licence on the strength of that. A decade or so later, my mother's test was to drive up the street to the town square, turn round and drive back again. A generation on, I had something more like today's test with all the familiar exercises, but all in very benign conditions.

Now another generation on ... glad to see so many of them have more sense than we did, and don't bother at all.

I started driving at 17 in the early 70's, it was what you did when you reached that age. There was no thought of not learnig to drive. My wife is a few years younger than I and never bothered to learn. At 17 she couldn't envisage a time when she would be able to afford a car and had no need of one and no desire to drive. Fast forward nearly 40 years and she never changed her mind until I had a serious head injury and had to surrender my licence.

We live in a rural area now and the bus service is very poor, one bus pr hour between 8 a.m. a 6 p.m. No service Sundays or bank holidays. Now my wife can see why it would be a good idea for her to be able to drive. The inconvenience of not being mobile for nearly a year was enough.

She isn't enjoying the experience, at her age it isn't coming naturally but she is determined and improving.

I would recommend everyone to learn to drive, even if they can't see the need now there may be a need far into the future. It's much easier to pass the test while you are young.

[vrdiver]

I agree having access to car use is a real boon, but I suspect that the current generation may be the last to have to sit a driving test. Once self-driving cars become the norm, human controlled vehicles will become the exception, and then banned as too dangerous.

To any 17 year old who doesn't need to drive today (e.g. lives/works in an area with good public transport) I'd be tempted to advise them not to bother learning!

VRD

[swill453]

I agree having access to car use is a real boon, but I suspect that the current generation may be the last to have to sit a driving test. Once self-driving cars become the norm, human controlled vehicles will become the exception, and then banned as too dangerous.

I can possibly envisage this happening at some point, but since we don't have any fully autonomous vehicles yet I think it will be a number of decades (5+?) before they could be dominant.

Scott.

[didds]

Now another generation on ... glad to see so many of them have more sense than we did, and don't bother at all.

well that surely depends on where you live? We aren't in an extremely rural area thopugh we are in a rural county... and the opotion to NOT use a car really doesn't exist unless everything you do is within walking or cycling didtance (with safety caveats of weather and darkness at times etc). The public transport provision is woefully inadequate, and in some cases non existant to "the enxt town" even short of 90 minutes for a 14 mile journey with at least one change.

And for those that can just about "exist" with public transport here, they are at the mercy of timetable alterations... only a few months ago one of the bus companies changed its timetable such that a friend was no longer able to get to work "on time" in a "next town" just ten miles away .

Need the train here for a cimmute? No bus service connectes with the first SIX trains in BOTH directions (east/west) - ie no connection for the first TWELVE trains of the day. And then you cant get back after 1715 as that is when the last bus leaves.

didds

[vrdiver]

Now another generation on ... glad to see so many of them have more sense than we did, and don't bother at all.

well that surely depends on where you live? We aren't in an extremely rural area thopugh we are in a rural county... and the opotion to NOT use a car really doesn't exist unless everything you do is within walking or cycling didtance (with safety caveats of weather and darkness at times etc). The public transport provision is woefully inadequate, and in some cases non existant to "the enxt town" even short of 90 minutes for a 14 mile journey with at least one change.

And for those that can just about "exist" with public transport here, they are at the mercy of timetable alterations... only a few months ago one of the bus companies changed its timetable such that a friend was no longer able to get to work "on time" in a "next town" just ten miles away .

Need the train here for a cimmute? No bus service connectes with the first SIX trains in BOTH directions (east/west) - ie no connection for the first TWELVE trains of the day. And then you cant get back after 1715 as that is when the last bus leaves.

didds

Sounds like you should forward this post to your local MP! Give them something other than Brexit to think about

VRD

[UncleEbenezer]

well that surely depends on where you live?

I used to think like that. Especially when my journey to school (by the school bus - the only direct bus service and therefore by far the quickest) was over an hour each way. Cycling it was indeed hard work: something to do as a one-off, not regularly. For a teenager, this was a Very Bad Thing, as it precluded getting involved in after-school activities.

Then I earned some money with a summer job and got a relatively[1] decent bike, and the distance shrank to something much more reasonable. The distance became one I could reasonably commute, and indeed have done at various times in my life. Shrinking distances like that has stood me in good stead through life, as cycling routes like Bath-Cheltenham or Sheffield-Leeds for an evening out no longer seemed daunting when the weather was half-decent. Or indeed commuting Bath-Yeovil (with a pleasant pause for water at the hippy well in Glastonbury), though I never quite did that daily.

There are people for whom that's not a reasonable solution. You can recognise them from the blue badges they get issued.

[1] Good enough for a young chap, though I've found that my needs get more expensive with age and decrepitude.

[Slarti]

I agree having access to car use is a real boon, but I suspect that the current generation may be the last to have to sit a driving test. Once self-driving cars become the norm, human controlled vehicles will become the exception, and then banned as too dangerous.

To any 17 year old who doesn't need to drive today (e.g. lives/works in an area with good public transport) I'd be tempted to advise them not to bother learning!

VRD

Given how many employers demand a clean driving licence before they will even interview for jobs where I can't see the need for driving, as my son who is unable to drive for medical reasons has been finding, I'd say that would be very bad advice.

Also, I see it being quite awhile yet before the first self-driving car is let loose on the roads, let alone economical to buy ones.

Slarti

[bungeejumper]

There are people for whom that [cycling]'s not a reasonable solution. You can recognise them from the blue badges they get issued.

Oi, you, just step outside and say that Not all of us over-sixties are ready for (a) invalidity benefit or (b) the employment scrapheap, and you might be surprised at the number of us who can't catch a bus because there isn't one within three miles in any direction. Or who can't get a local taxi to the nearest town for less than £20 return. I have a bike in the garage, but I'd be killed immediately by a lumbering juggernaut if I tried to use it on our local roads. Might as well paint a target on the back of my jacket.

Some day, the economics of car ownership will change, and some day the self-driving taxis will find it worth their while to venture outside the urban zones. Until that distant day arrives, I'm keeping my licence, and it'll be an important part of my mobility, my social life and indeed my civic freedom. Nobody else is thinking about those things, after all.

BJ

[AF62]

would not like to take a test in a populous area.

It can be a benefit.

Many, many years ago I took my test in a large city about 4pm on a January afternoon. Just as the test began it started snowing heavily, so we spent most of the test sat in heavy traffic hardly moving in the early afternoon rush hour.

As I didn't have the opportunity to do anything wrong I passed.

We live in a rural area now and the bus service is very poor, one bus pr hour between 8 a.m. a 6 p.m. No service Sundays or bank holidays.

I live in a medium size town and the bus service is hardly any better than that - a couple of buses to the station in the morning and a couple back in the early evening, hourly during the day apart from 3pm when nothing runs as they are used for the school services, everything stops at 6, nothing on Sundays.