When it comes to driving, motorists must ‘use it or lose it’, research has revealed. A recent opinion poll of more than 1,000 UK drivers found that more than half (53%) know someone who they think needs to retake their driving test, with a quarter (26%) thinking that we should all have to retake our tests every decade. More men (58%) than women (50%) know someone who they think would be a … [Read more...]
Call for crackdown on poor lane-discipline
Confused.com says four in five drivers have been tailgated while a third admit to hogging the middle lane. Despite a proliferation of poor lane discipline it remains a notoriously difficult offence to monitor. “Careless driving” includes offences such as tailgating, middle-lane hogging, undertaking and driving too slowly. Yet only 2,012 drivers fell foul of “careless driving” spot fines in … [Read more...]
Newslines 2 January
There were 30,500 traffic jams on Welsh roads in 2017 which cost drivers and the Welsh economy almost £278m, traffic analysts at Inrix reported. Wales' longest sustained traffic jam of 2017 was a seven-hour, 10-mile queue on the M4 motorway on 27 October and the westbound M4 before Brynglass Tunnel is the worst costing £14m in lost time. When it comes to the UK’s motorists setting their New … [Read more...]
Newslines 27 November
Speeding has reached a six year high. Figures from the DoT show 2.2 million drivers and riders were prosecuted last year compared to 1.6 million five years ago. There has been a dramatic rise in engine manufacturing in Britain. Production for UK models exceeded 126,600 engines in October which is a 26.3% growth and the highest ever for that month, and close to the 136,500 made for export … [Read more...]
Motorists drive out of way to avoid some moves
Motorists are going to great lengths to avoid basic driving manoeuvres which learners are required to carry out in order to pass their driving tests, according to research. The survey of 1,011 British motorists carried out by car leasing company, Vantage-leasing.com, has revealed that more than half (68%) of drivers will actively avoid parallel parking, and instead look for alternative parking … [Read more...]
Premium prices accelerate for motorists
Drivers in South Wales have been hit with accelerating car insurance prices as the cost ramps up by £87 (13%) in a year. Car insurance in the region has now reached £765, according to the latest Confused.com car insurance price index (Q3 2017), powered by Willis Towers Watson – the most comprehensive car insurance price index in the UK based on more than 6 million quotes a quarter. Car … [Read more...]
Younger drivers’ perfect storm over premiums
A perfect storm is battering premiums for younger drivers, says MoneySuperMarket. Quarterly data from MoneySuperMarket, reveals that young drivers shouldered hefty car insurance premium increases from July to September 2017. Of the three main factors affecting premiums in 2017 - changes to the discount rate applied to claims pay-outs, the increase in June to insurance premium tax (IPT) and … [Read more...]
Newslines 21 August
The UK’s biggest independent road safety charity IAM RoadSmart maintains that we will not gain the full safety benefits of self-driving cars until every car on the road is connected to each other – a statement that has now been backed up by a white paper produced by experts at the University of Michigan. Until then, IAM RoadSmart believes that the human mind holds the edge, until such point … [Read more...]
Successful students face learning to drive test
While learning to drive is an exciting rite of passage for many teenagers, it’s often an equally fraught time for their parents. And with only 13% of parents convinced they themselves could pass the current driving test without lessons, it’s easy to see why they’ve transferred their fears to their nearest and dearest. The research from AA Cars, which asked parents how they feel about their … [Read more...]
Newslines 11 August
JLR has reported a 14% drop in UK registrations. It has been a challenging market, the company said, but sales in China have grown and it’s still pushing ahead with massive R&D investment and adding 5,000 jobs, mostly in manufacturing. BMW is incentivising buyers and offering £2,000 trade in allowance against their latest models emitting under 130gkm. The deal is in addition to … [Read more...]