August 21st, 2008 Administrator
Stark driving fatality and injury figures have led to plans for a radical overhaul in driver training and testing.
The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) have started consultations for change since the number of people killed on Scotland’s roads in 2006 totalled 314. Another 2,625 were seriously injured.
The agency is urging people to contribute their views at the conferences being held across the country.
This nationwide consultation will run until October before the findings are presented to the Secretary of State for consideration.
Chief examiner Trevor Wedge said: “The DSA wants to gather opinions on issues such as changes to the theory test and making the practical test more realistic.
“They say safer and better newly-qualified drivers would mean lower numbers of accidents.”
From : Stv website
Posted in Driving, Driving Tests, Road Safety | No Comments »
August 19th, 2008 Administrator
Women are risking lives by wearing sunglasses instead of their prescription spectacles while driving – because they are more trendy.
More than 3.8million of the country’s 14.3million female motorists who have vision problems admit driving without their glasses because they are too embarrassed to wear them.
Twenty-six per cent said they had chosen trendy sunglasses instead. Incredibly, almost half of those with vision problems (42 per cent) relied on passengers to read road signs for them.
The research, commissioned by insurer Sheilas’ Wheels, also revealed that 11 per cent had been involved in an accident or a near miss in the past year due to a lack of vision.
Jacky Brown, of Sheilas’ Wheels, suggested that women invest in prescription sunglasses. And a spokesman for the Eyecare Trust pointed out that these women were not only endangering lives but were breaking the law.
From : Daily Mail website
Txt-Drive, a Bedford based driving school offering cheap driving lessons in Bedford says : in good daylight you should be able to read a number plate with letters 79.4mm (3.1 inches) high at a minimum distance of 20.5 metres (about 67 feet). New style car number plates have a narrower font and should be read from a distance of 20 metres (66 feet).
You will be required to take an eyesight test at the start of your practical driving test. Txt-Drive also requires an eyesight test when you begin learning to drive with Txt-Drive. This is carried out at the start of your first driving lesson.
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August 10th, 2008 Administrator
Road chiefs have launched an anti-litter campaign after collecting a tonne of rubbish from just one six-mile stretch of motorway.
To be run by the Highways Agency, the summer “Bag it and Bin it” campaign will target England’s motorways and major A roads.
The agency’s workers recently collected 189 refuse bags of litter from the six-mile stretch of the M3 between junctions 1 and 2 near south west London.
The agency said that on 34 miles of the M1 between junctions 24 and 30 in the East Midlands, roughly 2,500 refuse bags of litter are collected each year.
And in north west England, in the first six months of this year, just over 32,100 refuse bags of rubbish were collected from motorways and major A roads.
Derek Turner, the Highways Agency’s director of network operations, said: “Everyone agrees roadside litter is unsightly, and clearing it up from the roadside takes up valuable resources that could be used elsewhere.
“We want everyone to help us keep England’s roads clear by getting into the habit of keeping a bag in their vehicle to store their rubbish until they can find a bin for it.”
Sheila Rainger, deputy director of the RAC Foundation, said: “With rubbish, there’s no such place as ‘away’ – every piece of litter tossed onto the carriageway has to be picked up by someone.
“Throwing litter onto the road is a filthy habit and there’s no excuse. It’s a waste of money which could be better spent on repairs and maintenance and it’s a safety hazard for everyone who has to dodge bags, cans and bottles on the road.
From : Yahoo
Txt-Drive, a driving school based in Bedford, offers driving tution on Motorways. The Pass Plus course is ideal for pupils who have recently passed their driving test at the Bedford Test Centre. Pass Plus covers six modules including motorways. Pass Plus is designed to develop the existing skills learnt on your driving lessons. On completing the Pass Plus course, you should be entitled to a discount on your car insurance. Please see the Pass Plus website for details or the Txt-Drive website should you wish to do the Pass Plus course in Bedford.
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August 10th, 2008 Administrator
Drivers who stick to the speed limit are nearly twice as likely to be followed too closely as those who flout the Highway Code, according to a study seen by The Times.
Tailgating – driving closer than the two-second gap advised in the Highway Code – was responsible for 10,000 road accidents in Britain in 2006, but research by the Transport Research Laboratory, in partnership with the insurance company Direct Line, has found that drivers’ impatience is still putting lives at risk.
The study found that more than 90 per cent of motorists were followed too closely when they observed the Highway Code, compared with fewer than 50 per cent when they drove the same route in their usual style.
Maggie Game, head of car insurance at Direct Line, said: “The increased stress caused as result of tailgating can lead to volatile situations on the road, and tailgating is responsible for approximately 7 per cent of road traffic accidents in the UK. By driving less erratically, with fewer gear changes, rapid accelerations and decelerations, the average journey time is 8 per cent faster overall. So improving driving habits could actually save time and money as well as lives.”
Of most concern was the conclusion that motorists who stick to the speed limits, such as novice drivers and parents with small children, were most vulnerable to bullying that often forced them into speeding themselves.
Researchers found that drivers’ heart rates went up when they were tailgated, suggesting that many drivers become stressed, which in turn can lead to an increased risk of accidents.
Bob Smalley, chief driving examiner at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “Our advice to people who feel threatened by a driver behaving in an aggressive way is to pull over and let them pass.”
When asked to rank the most annoying habits of other road users, drivers taking part in the study said that tailgating was the worst.
From : The Times Online
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August 2nd, 2008 Administrator
Britain’s drivers are opposed to the introduction of metric road signs, a poll has shown.
Around two-thirds of 18,500 AA members said they did not want distances to be shown in kilometres. About the same number also said they did not want speed limits to be measured metrically. Greatest hostility to metrication came from drivers in Yorkshire and Humberside. Young motorists also proved most resistant to suggestions that speed and distance should be measured in kilometers, wth 83 per cent of those polled in the 18-24 age group, saying they would oppose such a change.
Despite petrol and diesel now being sold in litres, more motorists wanted fuel to be distributed in gallons. While 34 per cent said they now accepted metric measurements on fuel pumps, 37 per cent called for the restoration of the gallon.
“Not only would going fully metric cost a fortune to implement in Britain it would also not go down well with a majority of the motoring public,” said Edmund King, president of the AA. “As a result of keeping an eye on increasing prices, motorists now seem to understand the fuel price in litres. It does seem odd that we buy our fuel in litres but think about fuel efficiency in miles per gallon. We appear to be an imperial-metric nation.”
But with foreign drivers entering the UK a year, he sounded a note of caution. However, when it comes to the safety of UK drivers and travellers we have to remember that with more than one million metric-minded drivers coming into UK each year many would benefit from having the metric measurements put up alongside our yards, miles, feet and inches, especially those driving large lorries under bridges.”
From : Telegraph website
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