Driving Lessons Bolton/Road Trip  

Road trip anyone?

So you’ve passed your test?, now you want to get your mates in the car and get on driving!

Where to go? Shall we go Blackpool?, or Alton Tower’s?

But hang on a minute, what would you do if the car broke down on the way?, call Mum or Dad?, why not save them a trip and do some basic checks to ensure the car is in as good a condition as can be.

You chuck your mates in the car and start driving, no one knows where you are going or what risks are on the way!, your mates start screaming at you that you’re in the wrong lane and distracting you, the music is on full blast and you are finding it hard to concentrate.

All of a sudden a warning light comes on with a warning sound, it is starting to make you panic, the safest thing is to pull over in a safe place, or the best thing to do is follow some simple advice. 

Start with the tyres, have we enough tread depth?, remember 1.6mm across the central 3/4, all the way around with no cuts or bulges!, just spending a couple of minutes doing this simple check could prevent a blow out at high speed, don’t forget the spare tyre!, or find out how to use the inflation kit if there is no spare tyre.

Don’t forget the tyre pressure as well as an incorrectly inflated tyre will over heat at high speed, remember in the user manual or on a sticker around the driver door fuel cap.

When’s the last time that you checked the oil in the car?, takes all of 60 seconds to do and the worst case is that the engine seize’s then that’s a new engine right there.

Driving lessons Bolton

Quick check that all the light are working, we don’t want an other road user to misinterpret your intentions.

Each one of these could land you with a fine into £5000 and points on your licence. That quick check and its peace of mind.

Ok so let’s plan the journey, Ever been there before?, what about roadworks, they have a habit of popping up when not expected, so use a website that checks it for you, such as 

https://www.rac.co.uk/route-planner/traffic-news/

The sat nav is only a guide remember, its always safer to do some route planning the night before to understand tough junctions or multilane roundabouts, I use google earth for this as it allows you to zoom in on each junction, also get a street view for checking what the road signs/marking are like. 

https://earth.google.com/web/

As boring as this might sound, give responsibilities to your friends to help you all get there safe and in one piece. What about giving the front passenger the responsibility of keeping the volume under 50% max volume?, who could give you directions and help with those lane disciplines?.

Don’t forget it is each of your responsibilities to act in a way that does not effect the driver or vehicle. Passengers are as liable for fines if they do something that causes a crash.

All of these things I go through with you on your driving lessons Bolton, just some simple steps to ensure you get there, have a great time and then get home in one piece.

When you have gained the experience on the roads it will make things much more interesting and you will really start to enjoy driving, going further and further, or even drive in another country, but don’t forget it is for you to be aware of the driving laws in that country.

Most other countries also tend to drive on the other side of the car and the road.

Watch out for next weeks article on ‘driving abroad’