Well done on passing your driving test, at your first attempt today, in Bedford, after taking your driving lessons in Bedford with ALPHA DRIVE.
Congratulations and best wishes from everyone at the driving school, as your look forward to many years of enjoyable and safe motoring.
For more information about the taking Driving Lessons contact ALPHA DRIVE on 0800 2118871. We also cover Sandy, St Neots and the local area for driving lessons.
The AA is warning learner drivers over online ‘booking services’ that add surcharges of up to 65% to arrange a driving test which learners can easily book themselves. A number of young learners alerted the AA after they unwittingly booked their test through third-party commercial websites that invite learners to enter their details and preferred dates for a Driving Standards Agency test. Learners are then charged over £50 for a theory test for which the DSA charges £31, with the difference being levied as an ‘administration fee’. Some sites add fees of up to £30 to book a practical test – on top of the standard DSA fees of £62 for a weekday test or £75 for a weekend or weekday evening – while bookings for extended tests attract booking fees of up to £40. Simon Douglas, director of AA Driving School, says: “These so-called ‘services’ invite you to type in the same details you would if booking directly with the DSA, only on a different website and at a hugely inflated cost. Some sites include ‘DSA’ in their Google search listings or web page headings, which can make it confusing as to whose site you’re on. More
(AD Comments ~ When you book your test, always make sure you are on the offical site. At Alpha Drive, we always offer to book tests for our pupils, if needed, and many other school would also.)
Well done on passing your driving test today, in Bedford, with just one driver fault, after taking your driving lessons in Bedford with ALPHA DRIVE.
Congratulations and best wishes from everyone at the driving school, as your look forward to many years of enjoyable and safe motoring.
For more information about the taking Driving Lessons contact ALPHA DRIVE on 0800 2118871. We also cover Sandy, St Neots and the local area for driving lessons.
The average motorist has the details of 200 of their journeys stored on the Government’s controversial vehicle surveillance database, new figures have shown. The records, which include photographs of private cars, can be secretly handed by ministers to the governments of other European countries or the United States. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act disclosed that 7.6 billion entries are currently stored on the police automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) database. The database is constantly fed pictures and details of journeys by Britain’s 38 million motorists as they drive past thousands of cameras across the country. It was also disclosed that the records can be stored “for as long as is operationally necessary”. It was previously thought most were destroyed after a month and none was kept for more than five years. Civil liberties campaigners last night called for the system to be scaled back and for a one-month limit on storing records. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it was “in discussions” with chief police officers over reducing the limit. However Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, who were sharply critical of the system before joining the Coalition government, declined to comment. ANPR was originally developed in the 1990s to monitor traffic and congestion charging. However under the Labour government it was gradually adapted for policing and anti-terrorism surveillance. More
(AD Comments ~ It is reassuring to know that we can monitor criminal activity with these cameras, but the downside is that it can feel like `big brother` is always watching you!)
Two Britons took their driving test for the sixteenth time last year – and one still managed to fail, it was revealed today. And almost 800 learner drivers sat it for the tenth time, new figures show. Of these only 236 passed. Just under half of those who attempted the test succeeded at their first go, according to the Driving Standards Agency. While a quarter got their licences on their second try. But 30 per cent of people needed to take three tests or more before they earned the right to ditch their L-plates. And infamous learner Maureen Rees, from BBC’s Driving School, will be pleased to learn that 17,500 people last year matched her in succeeding after seven attempts. The DSA says, on average, it takes about 45 hours of professional training and 22 hours’ private practice to pass. About 1.75million driving tests were taken last year. But only 800,000 were successful, according to a Freedom of Information request organised by the Sun newspaper. Although, even fewer are likely to pass in future after the DSA announced it would add ‘real world’ challenges to make the exam harder. More
(AD Comments ~ Thats a lot of tests in one year. Nerves can play a big part in test failures, but for high numbers of fails, the candidates would surely need more tuition and practice to succeed.)
‘Lucky pants’, socks and T-shirts, calming aromatherapy oils and a lucky champagne cork are among the good luck charms carried by learners to help pass their L-test, according to AA Driving School. Others seek divine intervention with prayer beads, bibles and religious medals, or superstitions such as saluting magpies – but in reality there is no substitute for good preparation, a nationwide survey of AA instructors reveals. More
(AD Comments ~ Little comforts can help ease test nerves. But the best way to keep calm, is to be confident/practiced and skilful with your driving, before arriving at the test centre.)
Independent driving will become part of the practical driving test in Great Britain in October 2010. It’s tasking the candidate to drive for about 10 minutes, either following a series of directions, following traffic signs, or a combination of both. To help the candidate be clear about where they’re going, the examiner can show them a diagram too. It doesn’t matter if candidates don’t remember every direction, or if they go the wrong way – that can happen to the most experienced drivers. From October, car test candidates (category B) will have to complete one reversing manoeuvre rather than two. The manoeuvre will be selected at random by the examiner from: turning in the road, reversing around a corner, reverse parking (either on the road, or into a bay). An emergency stop exercise will still be conducted on one in three tests. More from DSA and video
(AD Comments ~ This will certainly help new drivers to plan routes, and it is something that most instructors would do, on driving lessons anyway!)
The city will soon see the inauguration of the Automated Vehicle Driving Testing Track (electronically controlled with sensors), dubbed the first of its kind in Asia, for both four- and two-wheelers. Built at a cost of Rs 1.8 crore, it is funded by both the Central and State governments. The track, which is coming up near Ullal, Jnanabharati, off Mysore Road, is the brainchild of Transport Commissioner Bhaskar Rao. Rao had promised to build this track during a Bangalore Mirror campaign on traffic problems in the city in November 2009 after holding bad drivers responsible for the city’s traffic woes. While he had announced it would be ready in less than a year, it seems to be the one project that the Transport Department will finish ahead of schedule. The automated system will replace the present manual procedure followed for issuing driving licences and will be inaugurated in a couple of weeks. “We started this project after we received complaints from candidates that our inspectors were failing them intentionally. But we didn’t have any evidence to prove them wrong. This track will clear this particular problem as a candidate’s driving skills will be tracked by sensors installed under the track, which alerts the control room if someone touches the poles on the track. We can also give them a CD carrying the whole data of the test if they want,” Rao said More
(AD Comments ~ Will surely get to be common place all over the world in time. Its good idea to test basic vehicle control, but there still needs to be a human assessment of awareness/planning and other on road skills.)
The British driving test marks three-quarters of a century of helping keep people safe on the road when it turns 75 on Tuesday 1 June. The first car and driving licences were introduced in Britain in 1903. But it was not until 1 June 1935 – amid rising numbers of deaths as the popularity of the car increased – that a compulsory driving test was introduced. The first driver to pass was Mr J Beene and within a year, the number of deaths on the road had fallen by 1,000. In 1934, 7,343 people were killed on the roads and there were 1.5 million cars. The latest figures show there were 2,538 deaths on the roads in 2008 when there were around 34 million cars. Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said: “The driving test is not just a rite of passage, it has helped save thousands of lives on our roads. “The test and the learning needed to pass it are a vital part of giving drivers the skills they need to drive efficiently and safely. “High standards of driver training and assessment are an essential contribution to helping Britain’s roads remain among the safest in the world.” More
(AD Comments ~ Wonder how many of advanced age, who are there still driving today that haven`t taken a test)
Well done on passing your driving test, today in Bedford with just three driver faults, after taking your driving lessons in Bedford with ALPHA DRIVE.
Congratulations and best wishes from everyone at the driving school, as your look forward to many years of enjoyable and safe motoring.
For more information about the taking Driving Lessons contact ALPHA DRIVE on 0800 2118871. We also cover Sandy, St Neots and the local area for driving lessons.
A SHOCKED learner driver in Coventry was just minutes away from passing her test when it suddenly turned into a nightmare. Amie Cotton was one final manoeuvre away from a pass when she had to do an unscheduled emergency stop after she noticed huge chunks of scrap metal in the outside lane of the A444 on the outskirts of Coventry. The sharp-edged metal scraped under the car on the dual carriageway not far from junction three of the M6 at Bedworth causing £3,000 damage. As the car came to a halt she was then hit with another blow when her examiner told her she’d passed up to that point but would have to retake her test because it was deemed incomplete. The 18-year-old, of Redesdale Avenue, Coundon, said she was “gutted” at the prospect of having to go through the nerve-wracking ordeal again. She says she had no idea where the metal came from but suspects it had fallen off another vehicle. Amie said: “I was overtaking a lorry and I could see something on the road in the distance but didn’t know what it was. “Before I knew it I could see three or four pieces of broken up metal in the lane I was going into. “I hit the metal and then the steering wheel got really heavy and it was hard to control – it all happened within seconds. More
(AD Suggests ~ Driving tests can be stressful enough without these kind of freak problems happening. Lets hope the DSA show some kindness and provide another test, for the unlucky candidate.)
South Korean woman has finally succeeded in passing her driving test on her 960th attempt. Cha Sa-soon passed a written exam on her 950th try last year by spending about £11,000, including application fees. In South Korea, an aspiring driver must pass a written exam to get behind the wheel for a driving test. More
(AD Comments ~ She has done well to manage the driving test, in 940 fewer attempts than the theory!)
Girls need an average of 21 lessons before they pass their test, compared to just 17 lessons which men take, according to research by Confused.com. Men are also more likely to pass first time with less than 54 per cent needing another attempt, while 57 per cent of women have to go through it again. Women are also more likely to suffer from nerves and cry if they failed. But guys are more likely to try to befriend or flirt with the examiner in order to get their pass certificate. A spokesman for comparison website confused.com which carried out the study said: ‘’For years, people have argued over whether men or women are the best drivers. ‘’And men can now claim victory with these results showing that they are certainly the quickest learners when they get behind the wheel of the car. ‘’With women getting more nervous about their test though, maybe this explains why men have more success. ‘’And despite their confidence, it’s interesting to see that men are the ones flirting with the examiner, especially as it is stereotypically women who do are meant to do this.” The poll of 3,000 drivers revealed that the average guy passes his test at the age of 19 and eight months, while the average woman has to wait until she is 20 years and six months. More than one in 20 ladies even passed their 31st birthday before they were able to get behind the wheel of a car on their own. But men may have had an advantage as 23 per cent admitted to trying to act like a friend to the examiner to persuade them to let them pass. And despite women having the reputation for flirting with the invigilator, men are actually the worst offenders with eight per cent admitting they’ve tried it. Researchers also found that women are most likely to suffer with their nerves with 92 per cent saying they were terrified before their test, compared to just 78 per cent of men. Twenty-seven per cent of girls were so nervous, they kept apologising to the examiner throughout the test. More
(AD Comments ~ Not sure about just 17 lessons to pass, novice learners would generally take many more lessons to achieve a test standard level driving.)
The Mayor of London has challenged the Government to protect cyclists, by adding an element to the driving test which forces learners to pay more attention to bicycles. Boris Johnson wrote to Transport Secretary Lord Adonis after the death of the seventh cyclist to be killed in the capital so far this year, London’s Evening Standard reports. Thirty-one-year-old Zoe Sheldrake was killed on Monday morning on the A41 Edgeware Way. Her father told the paper that “she had been so safety-conscious” since he had recently bought her a cycling helmet, adding that his daughter had been spending a lot of time cycling in a bid to get fit and become a fitness instructor. Johnson’s letter said: “We feel that there is merit in examining whether the standard driving test for car drivers should be tightened further to ensure the needs of vulnerable road users are fully understood by new drivers.” It comes a day after the Institute of Advanced Motorists released its guide book, How to be a better cyclist, urging riders to “claim their lane”. According to the organisation, cyclists should “stay nearer, but not close to the kerb on long, even stretches”, but should take the initiative and assert themselves – where safe – when approaching a side road, moving further out to make drivers more aware of their presence. More
(AD Thoughts ~ The driving tests, both practical and theory, already examines candidates on how they handle cycles they encounter. Perhaps more education for drivers, inproved road layouts for cycles and education for cyclists themselves, would boost road safety further.)
Find out which part of the country has the best rate for people passing the driving test – plus take our online tests Londoners and those living in south east England are the least successful at passing the driving test, it was revealed today. Candidates from these two areas take an average of 2.1 attempts to get through the test, an AA/Populus survey of 20,109 AA members found. Learners from the East of England have the best pass rate – averaging 1.87 attempts before succeeding. The national average for the UK is 2.0 attempts, with those shunning the use of instructors taking an average of 2.3 goes. More info and the figures
(AD Thoughts ~ Some small regional differences, but clearly shows that not surprisingly those who have the help of instructors, are likely to pass quicker.)
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