Theory Test news buletin

Revision for the driving theory test has just evolved to the next level with the arrival of the pioneering 'Demon Road: A Theory Test Novel'. OUT NOW and available to buy here at the official www.facebook.com/TheoryTestNovel website, also available ...directly from the publishers at http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=1740 Book Signing tomorrow, sat 9/6/12 at Waterstones in the Oracle Reading for those in the area between 11 - 3pm. Please come, would love to see you there. Blog postings will resume normal service shortly, many thanks for following.

Motorways part 6 - Undertakers

Whilst we are waiting for the tow truck this might be a good opportunity to recap the three situations where it is ok to pass on the left. I have mentioned all three in different posts as the situations arose but now let’s bring them together. (1) Remember the one way street? This is the first scenario where you may pass on the inside of another vehicle (but just to be clear, I am not suggesting you mount the pavement to pass, no, for this undertake to be legal the one way street must have two lanes and the other vehicle must be in the right hand lane of the two). (2) The second scenario where you may pass on the left is when the other vehicle is positioned toward the centre of the lane and waiting to turn right, again, overtaking on the left here must not involve the pavement in any way. If the gap between car and curb is insufficient then you must wait for the car to turn. The last scenario where you can pass on the left is the one I mentioned shortly after we entered the motorway. (3) When all traffic on a multi lane highway has slowed to a relative crawl all lanes must flow without deference to each other. It is a curious irony of motorways that when traffic does grind to a walking pace for whatever reason, often it is lane one that will become the quickest lane to be in. In this scenario it is perfectly acceptable to pass slower moving traffic in the right hand lanes to keep the traffic moving.

That is our three scenarios then, and just in time as I can see the tow truck coming. What does it say on the side of it? can you see? Ahhh, this tow truck is from a branch of the ‘Flea Pits’. That’s interesting, in ‘The Demon Road’ the Flea-Pits have a lot of branches and are a well known MOT & service company. I understand they began as a family company and when I had the opportunity to speak to the head of the family I asked him why he had chosen to call his garages the ‘Flea-Pits’. His answer staggered me and I guarentee it is going to take you by surprise too when you get your copy of the theory test novel from www.facebook.com/TheoryTestNovel and learn the reason yourself. http://twitter.comtheorytestnovel

Motorways part 5 - The hard shoulder and the emergency phone

The temperature gauge is rising, it looks like we might have a problem with the vehicle. Hopefully we can reach a slip road or services where we can leave the motorway and get the fault fixed. It is important to do vehicle checks before a long journey as constant speeds increase the risk of a breakdown(remember this). Ahh, to bad, the engine is overheating, there is an emergency refuse area ahead so I am going to pull us over. The hard shoulder on motorways is there for emergencies and breakdowns only(remember), unless an ATM specifies otherwise (we will get to that later) right now we must put on our hazard warning lights to let other drivers know we are broken down and a potential hazard, (after-all, we don’t want a sleepy coach driver or truck driver who has exceeded his/her legal nine hours a day driving allowance from drifting onto the hard shoulder and side swiping us) For this reason also it is important to leave the vehicle (through the passenger side) and await the breakdown recovery truck from the embankment.

Now we are pulled over and at a safe distance from the vehicle with the hazard lights on I need to ask if you are a member of an emergency breakdown recovery service? Ah, Ok, not a problem. Now we have a choice of how to proceed, most people these days will have a mobile phone with them making the emergency breakdown phones less important than they used to be, however, mobiles do tend to run out of battery life just at the worst time. Motorway emergency phones have other advantages, they can tell the police (In some area’s emergency phones are now linked to the highways agency, remember this) your exact location. If you definitely wanted to use your mobile then you would need to take note of the number on the nearest marker post to identify your location (remember this). In this instance, as you are not yet a member of a breakdown recovery service, I will walk to the nearest emergency phone and call through our position, the operator can then take care of a call out truck for us. Wait here while I follow the arrows on the marker posts to the nearest phone...

Ok, that’s taken care of, a local recovery service should be here within half an hour, did you see how i used the emergency phone by the way? When using emergency phones on the motorway always stand facing the direction of the oncoming traffic so that should one of those aforementioned sleepy drivers (or a driver distracted by talking on his mobile) drift onto the hard shoulder we you will see it coming and get out of its way before it takes you out. Do you remember how many times using a mobile whilst driving increases the risk of collision..? Phones 4 U. I would hate to live on only in somebody else’s guilty conscience, how about you? www.facebook.com/TheoryTestNovel http://twitter.com/theorytestnovel

Motorways part 4 - (Jubilee special) the crown jewels of the motorway

You have probably noticed the cats eyes (or road studs) embedded in the road between the centre white lines, and how they light up when caught by headlights. These studs are there to guide your way in sub light conditions such as heavy rain or fog but in multi-lane environments such as motorways, studs have different duties. Just because this is a jubilee weekend lets think of these studs as the queens foot soldiers. It is convenient then that HRM has five different regiments of foot guards and there are five different stud colours in use on UK motorways. Each colour of stud has its own position on the motorway so that should you find yourself in heavy fog, for instance, and you lose track of your position on the motorway then you can use the colour coding of these studs to reorient yourself and establish your position(Assuming that you can remember the position of each colour) You must hand it to the DFT for this level of consideration in keeping you safe.

So then, we are currently in lane one on the motorway but it's daylight so the studs are less visible, hang on a mo while I usher in a fog bank and some black clouds (you can do that when you’re a writer you know) Ok that’s more like it, now we can switch on the lights and see the coloured studs reflecting back at us. On our left you can now see(1) Red studs lining the hard shoulder. In keeping with our theme of the five regiments of foot soldiers let’s consider these red studs to be the Welch guards (given the red dragon of the Welch flag). When any exit or entry slip road joins the motorway there is a temporary changing of the guard as the Red, Welch guard, studs turn to (2) Green studs which I will assign as the Irish guards for their green flag. This change from red to green studs occurs only for the length of merging between the slip road and the motorway. I am having a bit of fun with the regiment theme here but just to be clear, it is not intended as a memory technique so it might help you here to relate these two colours to traffic lights, when the lights/studs are green you can exit/enter the motorway, when the lights/studs are red you will find only hard shoulder and no exit point.

On our right the stud colour turns (3) white/clear, lets assign these studs to the Coldstream guards. The purpose and position of these white studs is to be the lane diveders in-between the three lanes. On the far right of the motorway where lane three meets the central reservation are the (4) Amber studs which I will assign to the Scots guards for no better reason than the Scots are famed for the production of amber liquid whisky. (Well let’s face it, their flag was not coming to my rescue on this one) There is one more stud colour, or combination, that comes into play on a motorway and you can expect to see it at road works. These studs are a combination of (5) Red and Amber. Remember the traffic light sequence where Red turned to Red/Amber before turning to Green? This is an intermediate colour between stop and go which is perhaps most fitting for use at road works as they are instructing you to be vigilant and prepared. By a process of elimination we have only one regiment left so we will assign the roadwork studs to the Grenadier guards.

And there you have, laid out before you, the crown jewels of the motorway. You may well be still wondering how you will remember the positioning for each of these five differently coloured studs, and in the spirit of The Demon Road: A Theory Test Novel I have devised a very simple yet incredibly effective memory technique for just this purpose, I highly recommend you purchase your copy from www.facebook.com/TheoryTestNovel to find out what it is, you won't be disappointed. http://twitter.com/theorytestnovel

Motorways part 3 - The speedy and the sleepy

The lack of a stimulating environment on a motorway can often make you drowsy, this can be exacerbated by other factors such as the monotonous background noise of wheels on tarmac. You are advised to keep your windows closed to minimise this noise, but ironically when you DO get drowsy it is advised you open your windows to let in some fresh air. What to do when you feel drowsy on the motorway is a popular question and you will be invited to choose more than one answer, (1) opening windows is a quick fix only until you can (2) leave the motorway by the next exit and find somewhere safe to park up and rest for a while (20 mins approx). Hopefully that next exit leads to a service area where you can (3) get some bad coffee or (4) walk around for a while. While you are at those services be sure not to indulge in a heavy meal as this will also make you drowsy all over again. Ever see your dad and granddad falling asleep after Christmas dinner?  Mine too. The science bit, when you have a big meal, (granted, you may not have Christmas dinner every time you stop at a motorway services but how about a full English? A Kentucky?) your body needs to commit much of its resources to digesting all those complex carbs (which is why you will feel drowsy whilst it performs this task) That won’t be in the test.


Leaving the motorway at the next exit is always advised when you are feeling drowsy, it is also the answer to another popular question of how to take a call from your mobile while driving. Don’t by the way. If you really need to respond to a call then find a safe place to park before answering that itch. On a motorway this will mean leaving at the next exit, a safe place to pull over is NOT the hard shoulder this area is reserved for breakdowns. Talking of mobile phones a statistic to keep in mind is that you are 4 times more likely to crash if you choose to answer the call whilst driving. Think of the advert phones 4 you as a way of remembering this as it is in the DSA’s question bank.


We will be leaving the motorway in about two or three posts from now but if our journey along the motorway was a longer one then travelling at a constant speed will normally improve journey time (remember this). Speeding and trying to get ahead of the game is often false economy as our road network gets ever more congested. When you find yourself with such a person tailgating you (driving too close to your rear bumper) they are often doing this to try and bully you into going faster or moving out of their way. This person will be carrying stress and you remember what I said about transferring stress in the previous post? I want you to become a more professional driver than that tailgater by not enter into a conflict. (Assuming you cannot reasonably return to lane one) the only thing you need to do in this situation is extend your own safety gap from the car in front. The reason being if the car ahead brakes suddenly you can now brake a little more gradually in the extra space you have given yourself, thus preventing your tailgater from colliding with you. www.facebook.com/TheoryTestNovel http://twitter.com/theorytestnovel

Motorways part 2 - Lane disciple and the golden rule

What is the golden rule of the motorway then? How annoying is it by the way when writers answer a question you didn't even ask by first posing the question? Very. Good job there is none of that poor writing style going on here. The golden rule is simply this: keep left unless overtaking. The current speed limit for cars on UK motorways is 70mph and the speed limit for HGV’s & cars towing caravans is 60mph, and unless you aim to be an ultra cautious driver this means you will be overtaking frequently. The golden rule also extends to moving out to lane two where a slip road joins the motorway and there is a vehicle on the approach. Incidentally, if you’re wondering how you will remember all these different speed limits then GREAT NEWS there is a really effective and simple little rhyme in ‘The (yep it’s another plug) Demon Road: A Theory Test Novel’ it gives you the speed limit for every type of vehicle on every type of road. Did I mention that before already? If so well all I can say is, the rhyme is so good it’s worth repeating.                                                                            

It is often a complaint of car drivers that one HGV using lane two to overtake another HGV in lane one can cause a bottleneck and arrest the free flowing movement of motorway traffic, but, at least in this scenario lane three is still available because HGV’s (and towed caravans) are forbidden from using lane three (Remember this) so other (non restricted) motorway traffic can use this lane to get past. While the right hand lane is NOT for HGV’s and (towed caravans) the left hand lane is for ALL vehicles.

In previous posts I have mentioned two scenarios where it is permissible to overtake on the inside (undertaking) there is one more scenario where this is also allowed (but this isn’t it). It is unprofessional and poor lane discipline to use lane one to undertake somebody else hogging lane two (two wrongs don’t make a right. Right?) However, I didn’t bring this point up without reason, if we end up in slow moving traffic on a motorway then passing on the left becomes allowable (and actually, in such scenarios where all three lanes are crawling lane one often becomes the fastest moving lane). I will be recapping the three scenarios where passing on the left is allowable in an upcoming post (that’ll be something to look forward to then)... www.facebook.com/TheoryTestNovel   http://twitter.com/theorytestnovel

Motorways Part 1 - the prohibited and the sliproad

Have you noticed the biggest drawback to driving through towns? It can take an eternity to get anywhere but we have a destination to reach and I’m sure you’re keen to get there so you can pass your test. I propose we cut this town loose and hit the motorway for a while. Problem is... being a learner driver you aren’t allowed to drive on the motorway so I humbly suggest you let me take the wheel until we reach our exit. Great, there’s a motorway sign now, let’s do this.

Because traffic flow is much faster on a motorway hazards will develop faster giving you less time to react and an error here could easily be fatal. It is for this reason learners are not allowed to drive on a motorway until hazard perception and concentration levels have had time to develop. It is not just learner drivers that may not take to the motorway but also different forms of slower-moving vehicle that would inhibit free-flow and become hazards in themselves. They are thus: (1) Cyclists (2) 50cc Motorbikes (3) Tractors (4) Pedestrians (5) Horses with riders. Of course, if you should ever come across one of the above then please give them a wide birth so they aren’t spooked or knocked over in your back-draught (Unless it is the tractor of course)

A word on Slip-road etiquette now, although I don't use this word in the traditional sense of 'after you old boy, no no, after you, I insist', you should try hard to eliminate, or prevent, competative driving from entering your modus oparandi. Take this slip road we are approaching now for instance, it begins with two lanes then merges into one as it takes us to the motorway. At the point of merging allow your fellow motorists to integrate equally, closing the gap so a driver in the other lane cannot merge ahead of you is a pointless and selfish act which transfers your own stress or bad attitude onto that of the other driver whom may then pass on the discourtious act to another driver and so on. It is also an undisciplined act which you will see many of in 'The Demon Road: A Theory Test Novel'. My aim in writing this book was not only to embed the theory test knowledge in your memory, but to share with you insights into the minds of what your fellow drivers.

OK, the purpose of the slip road then is to give us a run up to the motorway allowing us enough space to build up our speed to match that of the motorway traffic so we can integrate without forcing anyone to slow down. On this point it should be noted that it will be your responsibility to merge appropriately and not the responsibility of those already on the motorway to get out of your way. With the exeption of some HGV vehicles, however, (whom may not be able to get out of your way) most drivers will have seen your approach in advance and switched to lane two in order to let you merge smoothly. www.facebook.com/TheoryTestNovel  http://twitter.com/theorytestnovel