Driving Test Routes

As your confidence builds as a learner driver and you have covered the basics it will be time to find your local test routes. A quick search on the internet <Test Centre Name> test routes will usually provide you with a link to some driving test routes, potentially in a PDF format with the street names. If you are a whizz with street names and know your local area like the back of your hand this may work for you, for me I had to use a well known mapping tool and draw the routes on to the map.

Question - surely any route is good if you are driving?

Answer - Yes, but test routes will do just that - test you as a driver.

In the example above there are a mixture of:

• Difficult junctions

• Different road speeds, 30mph to 20mph back to 30mph

• Roads with bus lanes

• City centre driving with box junctions

• Pedestrian crossings

The driving examiner will not stick to a specific route, as traffic conditions may force them to change direction, but they will take you through road systems to test you. Being familiar with the difficult road systems around your test centre will make life easier for you in your test. My son drove a roundabout on his test that we had practised the day before. He said he was pleased we had covered it, and it was one we had found using the steps above!

The following pages look at some roads that were identified using this same method, when you look at your local test routes try to identify the following:

• What are the key junctions, is there a staggered junction?

• What on this road is going to catch me out, are there multiple changes of speed limit?

• Are there any strange signs or something from the highway code that I should be mindful of?

Let's jump into an example - Staggered Junction

Staggered Juntions