Motorway madness!

It seems daft to me that the minute you have passed your test you are able to drive on a motorway, but you may not have actually been on one before! Motorway driving can be a daunting experience at the best of times, and is a skill that I believe should be taught to all new drivers.

Motorway driving

Once you have passed your driving test you are legally able to drive on motorways, which can seem daunting to inexperienced motorists – or even to people who simply don't need to use them very often – but the principles of driving on them are quite simple.

Along with dual-carriageways, motorways have the highest speed limit of any UK roads. The limit is 70mph, though of course a great many people drive along them much more quickly. There are a large number of drivers on the road today who don't cope well with driving on motorways.

People pass their test, go on the motorway for the first time where the speed and weight of traffic frightens them to the point that they either feel very uneasy about driving on motorways, or avoid them at all costs in the future. In my view this is often caused by lack of driver training.

Throughout a course of structured driving lessons a learner driver is taught all the key skills to be able to drive on today's heavily congested roads (roundabouts, dual carriageways, city centre driving etc.), however there is no legal requirement for them to have any tuition on motorway driving.

I recommend all newly qualified drivers to have at least a two hour lesson on the motorway, so they can learn: