Almost half of motorists know friends or family who avoid driving on motorways.
More than one in 10 women say that they avoid driving on motorways due to nerves. One quarter of drivers are even nervous when they know that family or friends are making a journey on a motorway.
New figures show that one in 50 people, 13,000 per day, planning a route on AA Route Planner are driving extra miles by choosing routes that avoid motorways as they are too nervous to tackle the multilane roads,according to the AA Charitable Trust
Yet, ironically, according to the latest Government figures, while motorways carry 21% of the traffic they account for just 5.4 % of fatalities, making them safer than other types of roads.
M-Phobia is increasing with not only the drivers who have always been petrified of motorways but also a growing number who do not understanding the new ‘smart’ motorways where the hard-shoulder is used as a running lane. To help these drivers overcome their fears The AA Charitable Trust is offering 2000 FREE “Drive Motorway” two hour courses.
Edmund King, Director of the AA Charitable Trust, said: “For drivers worried about motorways, help is at hand via the AA Charitable Trust. We have been working with AA Driving School experts to produce a two-hour free course ‘Drive Motorway’ which will help eliminate motorway fears and phobias as well as updating drivers on changes to our motorway layout and rules.
“One of our concerns has been the lack of lay-bys on stretches of ‘smart motorway’ where the hard-shoulder has been removed. The current rules state you only need lay-bys every 2.5km (about 1.5 miles) whereas we would like to see twice as many. The hard-shoulder can also be a very dangerous place but it is not as dangerous as breaking down in a lane of live traffic. If you do get stuck in a live lane the advice is to ring 999.
“Drive Motorway will give comprehensive advice on what drivers should do if they breakdown on such a stretch of motorway and will help alleviate fears about motorway driving.”
Drivers can apply on-line for the free courses on the www.theAA.com or directly at http://www.theaa.com/driving-school/improve-your-driving/advanced-driving.html – tabview=tab1
