Are You The Best Driver You Could Be?

Last checked 31 August 2026

Here is a question most of us never ask after the day we pass: are you the best driver you could be? The test shows you are safe to go out on British roads alone. Plenty of people argue that is where learning to drive actually starts.

What You Can Actually Do About It

• Pass Plus — still running, still DVSA-endorsed. A minimum of six hours with an approved instructor covering town, rural, night, all-weather, dual carriageway and motorway driving. Typically £150 to £200 depending on where you are. Some insurers give a first-year discount for it and some do not, so ask before you book if that is the motivation.
• IAM RoadSmart Advanced Driver — around £210, covering six to twelve sessions with an observer, plus the advanced test and membership.
• RoSPA Advanced Driving Test — the test itself is around £65, with group training available separately. RoSPA regrade you periodically, which is a useful discipline in itself.

Learner drivers have been able to take motorway lessons with an instructor in a dual-control car since 2018 — it is permitted, not compulsory. Anyone who passed before then very likely met their first motorway alone.

Motorway Driving

Plan ahead: know your junction rather than waiting for the sat nav to tell you. Speed limits are limits, not targets, and 70mph is not always safe. The two-second rule from the old safety adverts still works, and doubles in the wet.

Do not be a middle lane driver — return to the left when it is safe. And on the all-lane-running stretches where the hard shoulder is a live lane, look further ahead than you think you need to: a stopped vehicle in lane one is a real possibility, and the drivers who deal with it well are the ones who saw it early.

Remember Who Else Is Out There

Roads are busier than when most of us learned. Expect the unexpected, do not assume a road is clear if you cannot see that it is, and accept that plenty of drivers will not signal properly.

The Highway Code’s hierarchy of road users, introduced in 2022, is worth reading if you have not. It sets out that those who can do the greatest harm bear the greatest responsibility — and it changed the specifics on giving way to pedestrians waiting to cross at a junction, and on passing distances for cyclists and horses. A lot of drivers have never read it.

Two Wheels And Four Legs

Give cyclists proper room — the Code asks for at least 1.5 metres at speeds up to 30mph, and more above that. Cyclists are entitled to ride away from the kerb, and often safer for doing so; it is not their job to move over because you are quicker.

Animals can appear from anywhere. Slow right down and give a wide berth to horses, and be ready to stop for a dog on a country lane.

The Habits Worth Being Honest About

Driving one-handed. Forgetting to indicate because the road is empty. Overconfidence on a route you drive every day. Swearing at a learner, having been one. An elbow out of the window, eating on the way to an appointment, music loud enough to drown out what is happening outside.

We all see it daily, and collisions come out of it.

Why It Matters More For Some

Drivers aged 17 to 24 accounted for around 19% of car driver deaths in 2025, well out of proportion to their share of licence holders, and young men in that group are roughly four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured as drivers over 25. It is the reason Northern Ireland introduces graduated driver licensing from October 2026, and why Great Britain consulted during 2026 on a minimum learning period before the test.