IAM research shows that 82 per cent of rural fatal and serious casualties are on single carriageway roads compared with just 18 per cent on motorways and dual carriageway roads*.

It's hardly IAM research, is it? The figures are provided by the police.

A-roads are the easiest part of the driving test-much easier than urban routes. The driving test does not reflect how people drive after the test. A roads involve higher speeds than urban routes, so injudicious actions tend to lead to more serious accidents.

Typical IAM, misinterpreting the data and drawing the wrong conclusions.

It's hardly IAM research, is it? The figures are provided by the police.

I've made no secret of my dislike for the organisation and examples like that only add weight to my point. Its not 'IAM research' its police statistics. All the IAM did was go on a website and cut/paste them, which any 12 year old could do.

As for the proposal itself, its made difficult by geography. The driving test is around 40 minutes long and in that they want to observe one reversing manouvere and as many different types of driving route as possible, they also want to include the 'independant driving' which is all well and good. But in some areas it'd take you 40 minutes just to reach the A-road, drive on it and come back to the test centre. The solution isnt an easy 'make the test longer' because then test fees would have to rise or else test centre's would go out of business.

On my driving test i had some dual carraigeway involved as the test centre was a 3 minute drive from one. On my first test the DC section took up nearly half of the test and it was a major relief because thats the easiest type of road to drive on, i still failed on something stupid elsewhere but thats not the point. The point is that rural roads are the most hazardous for all drivers mainly because your visibility ahead is at its worst on a rural road.

Instead of trying to squeeze all this nonsense into the test itself, they'd be better off incorperating the Pass Plus (which deals with such types of roads and is undertaken by the instructor, not an examiner) into a graduated licencing program. Make it so as you need the Pass Plus before you can take the practical test, then you know candidates have had tuition on such roads.

Edited by jamie745 on 24/01/2012 at 23:48

My instructor always said 'reversing round a corner doesnt kill drivers, bad driving does' so he was always keen to spend as much of our time as possible doing actual driving. It helped that i picked up the manouvere's very quickly anyway so we didnt need to waste time on them. I was more relaxed and focused with my instructor, on the tests it was all about watching the clock on the dashboard and hoping for the best. As it happens, due to where i lived it was easy to go out onto rural roads on lessons anyway and i had several hours on such things. The Pass Plus usually gives you a few hours experience on rural and 'unfamiliar' roads (ie roads you've never driven on before) to get you used to actually driving, not just memorising roads.

Isnt it best that we guarantee that new drivers have that experience rather than just cram a 10 minute countryside detour into the practical test?

That's not daft at all.

That sounded remarkably like you agreed with an idea of mine. Dont think i didnt notice. I saw you.