Welcome to Steve's Driving School.
An AA (franchise instructor 149442) in learner driver and instructor training (DIT) please ask for me personally by quoting my instructor number.
We are based in Brierley Hill, West Midlands.
Steve first qualified as a Driving Standards Agency Approved Driving Instructor in 1978
On this web site you will find useful information and some of the mystery surrounding learning to drive will be unravelled. Before you start your training you will need an up to date Highway Code and a copy of 'Driving the essential skills'.
If you have a specific question please feel free to email me.
A brief history of the Driving Test
In the early days of motoring there were few rules or regulations. The first car and driver licences were introduced in Britain in 1903.
By the early 1930s motoring had become more popular and more affordable. However, rules and regulations were scant and drivers received only basic instructions before being allowed on the roads. Consequently, accidents and fatalities began to reach worrying proportions.
Early efforts to improve road safety in Britain included:
A test for disabled drivers was introduced in 1930
The first vehicle examiners were appointed in 1930
The minimum driving age of 17 and an urban speed limit of 30 mph were both set in 1930
The first edition of the Highway Code was published in 1931
Cats’ eyes were invented by Percy Shaw in 1934.
When announcing the introduction of the driving test Leslie Hore-Belisha said, ‘Driving is an art in which those who are engaged should, in the interest of their own and of the public’s safety, take the greatest pains to make themselves proficient.’
Decades later this still holds true and is summed up in the Driving Standards Agency’s maxim, ‘Safe driving for life’.
Why do we drive on the left ?
About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies.
Japan also drive on the left
click here for this explanation.
This strange quirk perplexes the rest of the world; however, there is a perfectly good reason.
Up to the late 1700's, everybody travelled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right-handed people.
Jousting knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him.
Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon.The reason it changed under Napoleon was because he was left handed his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent.
From then on, any part of the world which was at some time part of the British Empire was thus left hand and any part colonised by the French was right hand.
In America, the French colonised the southern states (Louisiana for instance) and the Canadian east coast (Quebec). The Dutch colonised New York (or New Amsterdam). The Spanish and Portugese colonised the southern Americas. So The British were a minority in shaping the 'traffic'.
The drive-on-the-right policy was adopted by the USA, which was anxious to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past
Once America drove on the right, left-side driving was ultimately doomed. If you wanted a good reliable vehicle, you bought American, for a period they only manufactured right-hand-drive cars.
From then on many countries changed out of necessity.
Today, the EC would like Britain to fall into line with the rest of Europe, but this is no longer possible. It would cost billions of pounds to change everything round.
The last European country to convert to driving on the right was Sweden in 1967. While everyone was getting used to the new system, they paid more attention and took more care, resulting in a reduction of the number of road accident casualties. Article courtesy of '2Pass'.
bravenet.com