When driving a car we need to continually
make decisions – how fast to drive, which lane to take, even
when to enter a roundabout. Make the correct decision and we will stay safe,
but make a mistake and we could cause danger. In this video I will drive a full driving
test route here in Bury St Edmunds whilst giving you a commentary of what I am
thinking about whilst driving the car.
This is quite a long video so we have indexed it
in case you want to jump ahead to a later section. Before we get started make sure you subscribe
to our channel so you don't miss our next video, also if you have any questions please comment
below and we will do our best to answer. Hi there, we're going be doing a full test route
today, and while we're driving along I'm going be pointing out all the things that I'm looking
for so just to give you an idea hopefully as you're driving along what you should be looking
out for. You should be mindful of road markings, pedestrians any hazards that might occur so this
is not a complete commentary on everything that I'm going to see. Sorry – just adjusting my seat.
It's going to be just commentating on things that are the most important.
There will be things that
you might see on the cameras that I don't notice or I don't talk about – I will notice them
but it's just about at that moment in time exactly what i'm seeing and what i'm having to
deal with. So we're going to follow a full test route – we're currently at the test center in
Bury St Edmunds and I'm going to be following the sat-nav. Normally after about three quarters
or 20 minutes the sat nav would be stopped and the examiner would then give you directions, but
in this case I'm just going to keep following the sat-nav the whole time, trying to talk in
between her wonderful instructions i'm sure. I know the route but every day is different –
driving conditions, people, volume of traffic etc. Hopefully there'll be some things to talk about,
it might just be boring.
So first things first I'm sitting here mindful of the weather conditions
– believe it or not it snowed yesterday, I was making snowmen – but today quite bright, it's dry,
it's not raining. The roads are a bit damp but not icy – it's well above zero so I haven't got to
consider ice or anything like that. Just being mindful probably the wheels are a bit damp, road's
a bit damp – might be a bit greasy but we'll just just have to compensate for that, and just
be mindful of it really so let's get going. Okay making sure everywhere is clear although
as you can see the car park is pretty quiet.
So if your test center is in a car park you need
to be mindful that you will potentially be mindful of pedestrians, and other cars – so even though
there is a very clear one-way system in this car park some people well a lot of people don't
take much notice of it. So don't expect people to do what the road markings say because they
don't always – so keep your speed nice and low and take your time be mindful of pedestrians,
be mindful of other road users in car parks. Lovely lady crossing the road in front of me
but plenty of time – I'm going slow enough. She's having a good look. So coming out here
this is a one-way road, but traffic does come from the right. So i'm turning left – two very
clear lanes here – obviously make sure we are in the correct lane for the direction of travel
we want to take.
Not much going on yet is there. The sat nav's asked me to cross the roundabout
2nd exit – which is normally a straight ahead, but actually it's a right turn for
us here and there's two clear lanes. Now obviously I was looking for the traffic
coming from the right – but be mindful that the roundabout is actually faded there so
not everybody gives way when they should. So if you're wondering why i'm in the right
hand lane to go straight on, there is a sign saying that it is straight on in the right hand
lane in that roundabout.
The road markings have faded. Normally we would go straight on
left lane, but there is a small white sign. She keeps interrupting me! Okay, making
sure it is clear so even though it went green people still might just step out.
Nobody is coming… really making sure my lane positioning on this roundabout, really
keeping to the left. Okay so I can hear the start of a siren – I saw a flash of blue
lights. Believe it's an ambulance, so I'm just going to carry on making progress but be
mindful of where that ambulance might be coming.
It is coming my way – okay i have an ambulance coming. I wouldn't
necessarily stop. Just checking that blind spot. There we go. Bit of excitement! So we're turning right at
this roundabout – a lot of exits nobody coming. Lots of mirror checks here, making sure that
there's nobody on our left trying to come up inside of us, especially here. Nice early signal,
over to the left making sure everybody knows I'm coming across. That is not an exit – that's an
exit to a sugar beet factory rather than a road. We are coming off this exit, so slip road.
Making good progress, building up speed. The slip road is there for you to match your speed and
then merge. Blind spot check, and we're on. My following distance – so it's not raining but I
do obviously need to make sure that I'm at least two seconds behind. I can check on this P sign
in front. Okay so I was three seconds behind and I need to take this exit.
I'm looking for my markers, then signalled in between three and two.
I'm
taking this exit and then turning right on the roundabout, so I'm just going to
exit straight into the right hand lane. I know I'm slowing down speed – it is a green
traffic light but it had been green for a little while so I didn't want to presume it was going
to stay green. Again it's been green for a little bit. So back there there was three lanes –
left lane was straight on back onto the A14, middle lane was straight on, and the right right
lane was right turn only. I chose the middle lane because it filters us through into this left hand
side nicely, being mindful of that box junction. It's not busy so there wasn't a lot of traffic but
in rush hour we wouldn't want to stop on it. This roundabout isn't a right turn, so on test
examiners actually correct the sat-nav here and tell us that it's a straight on second
exit. We've got a merge in turn – just checking on the right, making sure nobody's
coming.
Our traffic lights are going amber. So even though it might go amber you have to
wait until they're clear – but because this is a toucan crossing it actually goes red amber green
sequence rather than a flashing amber. There we go. She's gone quiet.. It's our local wolf – "good afternoon". I like to
say good afternoon to him. If you're not familiar with Bury St Edmunds, look up the legend of
the wolf. There you go a bit of local knowledge. That's what I do when i'm teaching
– give my pupils a little tour. You know like a tourist
information guided tour of Bury. It's pretty quiet today – traffic conditions.
I mean it's a Sunday, we're in lockdown Making sure that Mini stays
behind the cyclists which they did. Lovely so the road ahead of me is No Entry
so I must follow the road going to the left. Still like to check my left mirror – you never
know there's anybody sneaking up on the left-hand side, motorbike cyclist.
So this is a one-way road
indicated by our signs so I will use all the road. after 200 yards go straight on so
signs indicating we must turn left mindful zebra crossing and we are
also entering a 20 mile an hour zone nobody coming from there go straight on so
she says it's a straight on but actually this is a road off of this this sorry this
is a minor road off of this major road that would continue around that way so it's
good to indicate we're still in a 20 zone um doesn't look like it but hidden behind these
houses is uh is a school and hidden up one of these roads is another school so therefore uh
i know why it's the twenty it's not obviously okay so again straight on second exit mindful of
cars coming out there they always seem a bit keen cross the roundabout and take the second
exit very polite sat navs aren't they so this is a busy roundabout again really making
sure of our lane discipline here because a lot of people might be turning right to go into
town oh there's a puppy it's a dalmatian puppy there we go it's a bit wiggly the road markings along
here it's hard to see especially when it's damp and they are a bit faded and i think
they've done a bit of resurfacing work but um the central line kind of comes across and over
because of the allocated parking permit for the houses here not everybody realizes that though so
just being oh they've got the bmx's out why not okay so i'm continuing to follow the road ahead
so i'm choosing the lane that has the straight on arrow again mindful i'm approaching traffic
lights that have been green for a little while so still making progress but ready to
slow down without having to brake hard i'm resisting the urge to
sing normally when i drive i sing but i won't subject you to my singing today after 800 yards turn right that's a nice amount
of worn in there so also i'm not just listening to the sat nav so be mindful that they do
give directions and distance until the next junction or what they're asking you to do so
at the top of my sat nav it's currently says we are turning right in 500 yards so even though
she might they might not tell you in good time just check the top of that sat nav see that
you're aware of what your next turning's going to be and then listen for your voice
commands and nearer you get 300 yards turn right being followed by a very strange
blue car driver looks familiar it's my husband so this is a lovely junction this one
bit of a funny one this is one of our our special local junctions so i call it the egg junction because there's an
egg shape painted on the road so i'm looking there i'm going around the egg i'm checking there
and then i'm continuing across there we go how fun was that go on skip skip skip
doing some exercise in the garage why not humps for 400 yards not too bad these ones
but some of them can be horrible can't they really um quite tough on the car so if you
do see those signs you know it's not about slowing right down but just be
mindful that sometimes they don't look too bad and then they are this one's a
pretty good one on a zebra crossing so by school again wiggly lane positioning lines to making
sure that we are keeping to our row position mindful that the cycle lane has switched to our
side and the cycle line's got eight after 200 yards turn left oh okay i'll turn low the cycle
lane was a solid white line so we must not cross it rather than normally a dotted line where we
can cross it if we need to left but cycle lane on this road is a solid white line so we must not
cross it and if we did on our test we would fail nice wiggly little road so at some point during your test they would
ask you to do a maneuver or pull up on the left sometimes it would just be pull up on the left
and then drive on sometimes it would pull up on the left close to a parked car and then they ask
you to pull away again so at some point along here i'm going to ask myself to pull up on the left
in a safe convenient and legal place please so i'm going to mirror signal and i'm going
to choose i'm not going to do this one i'm going to do this one making sure i'm
not blocking those driveways which i'm not park so make your car safe cancel
your indicator and then you wait for the examiner to tell you to move on when
you're ready which i will give my blind spots i will indicate for my husband's benefit
as there's no one else around i wouldn't normally have indicated at the end of the road
turn right then turn left so let me know what you think about that one because i stopped not
quite in front of a junction but a little bit so be good to get your comments on whether you think
what you think about my position in there i'm not going to say anything turn right then turn left
so we're turning right at the end of the road nice clear road markings around here actually
now free sunday afternoon stroll bless him so no center marking but obviously uh
turn left then turn left solid left line solid lip sorry solid line on the left so
making sure i keep the other side of that nice and windy this one making
sure giving good clearance to cars examiners will be looking for that after
200 yards turn left then turn right so when it's safe to do so or avoid pothole when
it's safe to do so i'm using as much of the road as i can to make sure i give good clearance
checking my mirrors make sure turn left then turn right making sure there's no one no mainly
cyclists it's not wide enough turn left here we go then turn left got a funny story about here
genuinely on a lesson saw a man walking a pig not a little pig full-grown sized pig it's
crazy couldn't believe it it was on a lead actually was on a harness fully
grown man walking a fully grown pig it's amazing what you see when you teach
people to drive i actually had to stop the car i wasn't quite sure i'd actually seen it properly
never seen him since there we go turn left then at the end of the road turn right these lovely
people are far away enough but would be mindful if they were coming along oh nice and blind
here so kept my left lane position right but um kept nice and slow as well making sure
that i wasn't in the middle of the road but i was approaching slow enough to see can't
quite see because these lovely people walking their dog now i can and we're off so nice little
hill start there i'm in an automatic so it's not too bad obviously if you're in a manual you would
make sure that you were using your biting point and accelerator or gas just waiting for these
nice pedestrians you are more than welcome sir oh i like her pink peak on her hat oh it's a
baseball cap i do like it when people are polite again make sure i've got good clearance on these
cars turn left then turn right now someone's come in and they gave me a flash i didn't react
straight away and carry on i just wanted to make sure that they had definitely stopped and were
waiting for me but we'll say thank you very much very nice of them turn left then turn right oh i'm turning left here look at that
mindful i wasn't taking much notice also thankfully i wasn't zooming along was i
so now where we going to turn him right and there we go turn right that lady's hat said fred i don't know if that's her name massive pothole
look at that it's a nice one in it i think we'll avoid that at the end of the road turn left
okay we've got this gentleman on his bike okay he's still on the road turn left just making
sure i'm not too close to him wouldn't want to clip his ankles now would i oh it's nice and
clear again parked cars on the left so keep in my position until i can see around and make
sure it's nice and clear i'm over the chevrons because i need to but they are dotted white lines
so i can cross them after 300 yards turn right and again just like an examiner would this time
i'm gonna ask myself to pull up on the left in a safe convenient and legal place please so i will
and i'm going to pull up just before the bus stop and i'll drive on when i'm ready now again what
are your thoughts on i've stopped before the bus stop but what would you say if i had stopped in it
good to know what you think pop it in the comments and i am turning right turn right itchy eye so i've got zebra crossing i've got two
uh crossroads so i'm making sure that we're nice and clear no pedestrians and keeping good lane
position as well we want to make sure people can see exactly what we're doing now this is
one of those situations we're both heading towards each other mexican standoff now i can't
really go anywhere but if i stop before this big gap here they can use it should use it i
will say thank you didn't look too happy to really go anywhere so this is a good
example of who has the priority who has the right of way and actually neither
of us do um oh you stand back love thank you thank you everybody behind
themselves um yeah nobody has priority um it's just about being polite who got there
first if you um and also there is an element of who um who's got the nearest available gap so
if i had a gap to pull into i think it would be the right thing to do it but if they had a gap i
would expect them probably to use it but you know don't assume that people aren't going to do that
some people are very i'm just going to go for it so nobody had priority but
it's just about being polite and being safe and not assuming everybody's gonna
do what you would do okay cheers mate so can't really see very well but making sure i kept a
good left lane position until i knew it was safe she has a storage box and bubble wrap after 200 yards go left on the
roundabout and take the first exit okay again mindful of the cyclists
but she's got a nice clear road go left on the roundabout and take the first exit
this is a groovy roundabout i like this one so can't afford to go over the
end of your road on this one and it's literally take the gap if
you can see it take it and get going pedestrian crossing so now i'm looking at the
sat nav and i know she wants me to go straight on at the next roundabout and i know after 200
yards cross the roundabout and take the second exit then turn right and i know that this is a
straight on right hand lane against the roundabout and take the second exit then turn right so in
this situation get across into the right hand lane as soon as you can now this is interesting
i can go but i can see a queue of traffic on the other side of the roundabout because the traffic
lights were red so i can now see it's moving so i will make progress and go across straight
across but if i'd have gone when the traffic lights were still red and there was a queue i
potentially would have blocked the roundabout so i wouldn't have wanted to then you have reached
your destination okay so we're coming back to the end of the test route now and i've done a
couple of pull overs uh didn't do an emergency stop today um you might be asked to do that
um but what i haven't done is my one maneuver so what i'm going to do is if i was the examiner
i would be saying i'd like you to follow the road ahead you have reached your destination thank
you very much checking for traffic i'd like you to follow the road ahead and then at the end of
the road turn right choose any one of the bays on the left-hand side marked for the test center and
i'd like you to reverse into it finishing with all four wheels within the white lines there we go so
that's what i'm gonna do so there's no one coming but i am gonna signal left just so people know
what i'm doing i'm gonna pick my bae back there and then i'm gonna stop i'm gonna put it into
reverse and we're checking all around making sure our blind spots and i'm coming back and i'm
gonna do my turn in still checking my blind spots making sure all around that i'm safe there is
someone waiting for me that is my husband isn't he lovely being very patient my little girl's in
the car as well there we go using my mirrors but not relying on them making sure that i'm between
the white lines but get this right first timer no people there we go so i'm nicely in between
the white lines now i'm just straightening myself up because what you don't want to do is
have wonky wheels and end up with one of your wheels touching the white lines there you go i'm
still checking around that's my parking sensors and i'm happy with that make the car safe
okay so that was me driving a test route so that's actually only taken us about 25 minutes um
normally you would be driving for over 30 between 35 and 40 minutes but um because it's very quiet
today no traffic on the roads a14 wasn't very busy um so got round a bit quicker than we would do um
but hopefully you'll see you know driving along there's a lot going on a lot to take notice
of a lot to be thinking of with road position how to deal with different junctions obviously
other road users pedestrians do present hazards we had a blue light ambulance today so that was
hopefully good to demonstrate just to notice it be mindful where it's going and get out of its way
um if it was my loved one i'd want to make sure they were getting there as quickly as possible but
apart from that nothing really exciting but um hey it was a nice easy drive nice dry day and uh not
snowing so yeah hope you got something out of that and let us know in the comments about the couple
of places i stopped what you think about those um i'm not going to say whether i was right
or wrong i'll leave that for you to comment and decide so but yeah thanks for watching i hope
you enjoy the video and uh see you next time bye if you found this video interesting then please
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