Learner Drivers Can Now Take To The Motorway
Learner drivers of the UK rejoice: your first taste of motorway driving will no longer have to be a buttock-clenching post-test experience. Thanks to a change in the law, drivers on a provisional license will be allowed to take to UK motorways, so long as they are with an approved instructor and using a car with dual controls
Doesn’t that sound more appealing? A recent AA survey found that eight per cent of new drivers put off their first motorway drive for six months, while 27 per cent of the 20,000 people polled admitted they found popping their highway cherry a frightening experience.
The test isn’t changing to accommodate a new motorway section - the law is merely about getting new drivers more comfortable with this initially stressful driving situation. Road safety minister Jesse Norman had the following to say about the change:
“Britain’s roads are among the safest in the world, but road collisions remain the second biggest killer of young people…Allowing learner drivers to have motorway lessons with a qualified road safety expert will help more young drivers to gain the skills and experience they need to drive safely on motorways.”
From today learner drivers are allowed on motorways as part of lessons with dual controlled cars.
— Surrey Police (@SurreyPolice) June 4, 2018
If you're out on the 🛣️ today please be good examples to them and keep left when the road is clear. Our @SurreyRoadCops will enforce this law.
https://t.co/00y19rLgPM pic.twitter.com/XThAsHtjHe
And just think, it could mean there’ll be a new generation of drivers who actually understand how lane discipline works…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
driving UK motorways every day the lane discipline especially in the south is terrible. 99% of the time its quicker to be in the LH lane than in either over taking lane. Personally i didnt find driving on a motorway stressful scary when i started and i am not quite sure why this has changed as you could do motorway lessons with pass plus?
I guess ill be doing this then
What? Were they not allowed to in the first place?
So you’re allowed to learn to drive on the road, but not the actual road?
I hope motorway driving will also form a part of the driving test where if the learner lane hogs he automatically fails the test
This is absurd…in my driving license practices from simple 1st gear rolls i learnt even highway and city driving along tricky roundabouts,why they don’t do it like that? After earning my L I could perfectly drive a motorway…if i can why a british learner driver can’t?
Uk road laws are quite outdated so its nice to see a change to let learners learn what needs to be learnt. Maybe the government can think about raising van speed limits to be in line with cars. Aperently the brakes on vans work better of the signs at the side of the road are blue rather than green.
Doesn’t concern me #murica
???
The second lesson I was going 140km/h.
I never understood why this was an issue in the first place. When I took my lessons over a decade ago (oh Christ I’m dangerously close to 30, help) I didn’t drive on the motorway, but I did drive on multi-lane carriage ways, which are exactly the same as motorways only without the hard shoulder. It never made sense that I wasn’t allowed on the A1M, but I was allowed on the A1, which is identical to the A1M and immediately precedes it.
Absolutely make no difference, this road is 60 in the UK so 10 mph more is nothing