IAM calls for tests to take in A-roads
A-roads should be included as part of the practical driving test, according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).
Learner drivers will begin to be tested on motorways later this year to allow instructors to assess how they cope on faster, more demanding roads.
The IAM would like to see a similar approach taken with single carriageway A-roads, which in rural environments make up 82% of fatal and serious casualties.
Too many instructors concentrate on the basics such as parking, emergency stops and low speed manoeuvres, in the IAM’s view, neglecting to take their students on a wide variety of roads in different conditions.
Undermined
Simon Best, Chief Executive of the IAM, believes that efforts to make cars and roads safer would be undermined without preparing new drivers properly.
He explained: “More than half the cars on our roads are rated as four or the maximum five star in European safety tests, and the figure is even higher for new cars. Our roads are also getting safer in their design [but] we can only improve our cars and roads so far.
“The challenge now is to improve the humans that drive them, to continue our outstanding record of road safety.
“The roads where drivers, especially young drivers, are most frequently killed and injured are still not consistently part of the driving test. It is single carriageway A-roads where the real problem lies.”
In another change to the learner driver process, theory questions will no longer be pre-published from today.
The Driving Standards Agency hopes that its decision will prevent candidates from simply memorising the answers, resulting in a better understanding of driving theory.
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