in this video i'm going to show you how applying a one-size-fits-all policy to driving situations
is not always the best idea in fact it could cause you to fail your driving test
but first of all very quickly if you would like to support me on my mission here to make
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pinned comment and any support is greatly appreciated thank you in advance when doing your driving test
it's important that you don't apply a strict interpretation of the rules of the road to every
single driving situation because sometimes a bit of flexibility and common sense are going to be
needed for example a few days ago a lad sent me an email and he had failed his driving test and
this is his report sheet one of the things he said to me was that the tester said he was driving too
slow and the person that emailed me said the reason he was driving so slow was because it was
it was raining heavily all day and the learner driver assumed that because it was raining heavily
that he had to go extra slow to show that he was taking into account the conditions
so he said to me in the email he was going 40 in a 50 zone and he was going 50 in a 60 zone now if
he said 40 maybe he's being kind there and maybe he was really doing 30 or 35 i don't really know
but that's what he said to me anyway and some people make a special effort to go very slow in
the rain but the truth is that might not always be needed and i'll explain why in a second but when
you're driving in the rain you also need to be very aware of your clearance in some ways that's
more important than making an effort to drive slow so apply the four second rule that means drive
four seconds at least behind the person in front of you and that way you're showing good clearance
and you're giving yourself some extra time to stop and break also be aware of your wipers
and use your dipped headlights and make sure you know how your demisters work because it's
important to keep your windows clear so you have a good view out the windows when you're driving
but not all rain is the same we do live in Ireland after all you may get some light rain you might
get some heavy rain so if it's just a little bit of light rain you don't really need to drive
all that differently then compared to the way you would be driving in the dry weather
now if it's heavy rain for example and you're on a bad road like with lots of potholes and
lots of puddles well then in that case you will need to be extra careful and you certainly will
need to reduce your speed by at least 10 maybe 15 kilometers because it all depends on the situation
but my message to you as a learner driver if you're doing your driving test in the rain is
think of the two extremes i just mentioned there torrential rain on bad roads and a little bit of
mist but not much more than that they are two very different scenarios and your driving needs to be
dependent on that if you take it upon yourself to drive 10 or 15 kilometers below the speed limit
in the rain then you are at risk of losing marks on progress i will stress it does depend
on the situation the tester will use his or her discretion as well but just because there's a bit
of rain out there does not mean you reduce your speed significantly remember you have to show a
good progress in the rain as well as in the dry weather so bear in mind is the rain heavy or is
it light is the road surface good or is it bad can you see a lot ahead of you or do you have
limited vision ahead of you and the answers to these questions should then be reflected
in your driving for example if i was a tester and i was testing somebody in the rain and the learner
driver doing the driving test suddenly decided to drive 15 or 10 kilometers below the speed limit
on what is a good and reasonable road with a good surface and you know a reasonably good view ahead
of you if a learner driver started driving like that i'd probably be thinking why is this person
driving so slow and do they not have confidence in their ability to drive in inclement weather
but also on this report sheet as you'll see the candidate lost marks on position as well
so he said to me that the tester said to him that he was driving too close to the left all the time
and in the email the learner driver said to me but Dane I thought you were always meant to drive
close to the left-hand side i was just applying what i thought was in the rules of the road book
well in general you do keep left of center but you must not think that you have to keep left
on every single kind of road because this rigid interpretation
is going to cost you dearly so if it's a good straight road and a reasonably wide lane then
certainly keep left of centre especially if it's a straight road or if it's a right hand bend
however if it's a narrow country road and it's a left bend let's say then the best thing to do is
to drive a little bit more central and that'll give you a better view of the road ahead and
the other traffic the other oncoming traffic i mean will have a better view of you similarly
if it's in a dual carriageway situation you need to be driving in the centre of your lane then
and not straddling the left or not straddling the center white line as i said it all depends on
the situation you need to be flexible you need to read the situation ahead and then use your common
sense and good judgment to apply a good driving position in a separate email over the weekend
a person asked me about revs using the revs on the car he was saying that he has a kind of a larger
vehicle and it needs some acceleration in order to move off properly but apparently a driving
instructor i think told him that you can't give it that much revs because it'll cost you marks
now again i'm going to paint you two extreme situations here okay let's say in that vehicle
you move off and you give it way too much revs you give it 3000 or 4000 revs just on what is a normal
flat surface or a slight hill that's way too much okay far too high and you will lose marks there
but if you move off and then you don't give it any revs and as a result of that the car starts
to struggle or chug a little bit or could be even at risk of conking out or at the very least is
going to be kind of slow and cumbersome moving off well then in that situation it's going to cost you
as well so very often the answer is somewhere in between don't rev it really really high
but don't give it no revs try and practice giving it gentle revs so you have like one and a half or
1500 revs on your clock and if you can practice this by keeping your
heel on the ground and just gradually practice building up the revs and that should be fine then
and in another email then someone asked me about crossing the continuous white line
in the middle of the road now as i'm sure you're aware if the white line in the middle of the road
is a solid line that's unbroken solid that means you're not allowed to cross that then apart from
in certain situations like for an emergency or maybe for access things like that but the
question arises then well what if there's a slow vehicle in front of you for example a cyclist or
a county council cleaning truck or something like that are you allowed across the continuous white
line then to overtake that hazard and the answer is yes you are if it's safe because remember
what's practical will always win out over a rigid and strict interpretation of the rules of the road
overtaking a hazard on a continuous white line at 50 or 60 kilometers is much more dangerous than
doing it at 10 or 15 or 20 kilometers so the two situations are very different if you're overtaking
a slower vehicle you are spending less time on the wrong side of the road so it should theoretically
be safer to do it now of course it's not ideal and it should only be done in certain situations if
you want to maintain a practical sense of driving and in order to show good progress for example
let's say you have a really slow vehicle in front of you like a council cleaning truck of some type
and is driving very very slow and you're considering overtaking it so my advice to
you is to judge the situation as a whole do not stare at the truck do not put all your focus
on the object that you're overtaking look beyond the truck a little bit so what i mean by that is
look out for other junctions that might be ahead because maybe that truck might take a left turn
or a right turn further up at those junctions and therefore you don't have to carry out an
overtaking maneuver then look ahead and see is the road widening a little bit maybe there's a hard
shoulder of some type or a lay-by or a kind of a parking area that the hazard whether it's a truck
or whether it's a cyclist can kind of go into and therefore that means you don't have to overtake
him then you can just continue on as he moves into the left so you'll see here what i'm trying to do
is i'm trying to encourage you to read the road ahead in its entirety don't focus on the hazard
and sometimes you may not need then to actually overtake the hazard as a driver you're going to
have to make on-the-spot decisions in your lessons and in the test my advice to you is judge every
situation in its entirety and always remember that no two situations are the same sometimes you
will have to use a bit of flexibility and use your common sense as always it depends on the situation
so if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and i'll be back very soon with
another driving lesson video i'll be doing some live streams again from the month
of june so i hope to see you there as well thank you for watching i'll see you soon.