Night time driving test

SingleSue

When I was learning to drive I had lessons (not all by design) in the dark, light, snow, fog, ice, rain and wind. In fact on the day of my test it was a real pea souper in my town and piles of snow laying around everywhere in the test town!

amandacat

I’ve been driving about 20 years and passed my test while away at uni. I’d never done any night driving while learning. After passing I’d only ever driven in the dark to work which was a few miles on a lit road. One night at 8pm after my evening job finished I drove home to see my parents, this was about 3.5 hours but a lot was cross country rather than motorways. I had a used Fiesta at the time, the old type with the choke and no power steering!  But to get to the point, I remember coming off the motorway on to a single unlit carriageway in a rural area and being plunged in to darkness. The worse thing was I didn’t know how to turn on my full beams so I ended up driving about 100 miles without turning them on. That said I managed just fine and felt safe enough plus I had good vision at the time. I don’t feel any lessons in the dark would’ve helped apart from me knowing how to use my full beams.  Now I’m in my 40s despite all my driving experience, I actually hate driving at night now because my ageing eyes have led me to experience glare and poor vision at night. I’m still just about safe to drive at night but it’s not a nice experience for me. I was more confident at night when I first passed my test. 

A_Lert

IMHO a good driving instructor will teach you to drive, not just teach you to pass a driving test!

Night driving is more challenging than in the daytime, but it's not hard to teach and learn.

Mercdriver

I was driving in London within a week of passing.  The longer you leave it, the more you build the fear

NBLondon

It's a good question....  and many good answers.  My first lesson was with snow on the ground (turning 17 in January being a factor) and some were early evening after dark.  But that was in a medium sized city so the first time I ever drove an unlit country lane at 1 am was a learning experience.   First time in London was not quite so horrible as I'd worked my way up via Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.   I'd say a good instructor should try and arrange a fair amount of variety if they can but it does appear that there are some people who only ever learn the area around where the test is at mid-morning and maybe they never intend to drive anywhere else.

treeroy

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is? If someone is worries about driving at night then surely they'd arrange to have a lesson or two in the dark, or go out with someone else accompanying in the dark?
test can't cover everything, and ultimately the way that a car works, the way that traffic works, and road works, is all the same in light or dark so it shouldn't matter.

renegadefm

treeroy said:

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is? 

I created the thread due to what happened to my partner who recently passed her test. 
Basically she done all her lessons during the day and obviously passed during the day,  but she wanted to use our car one particular day when I was working,  so I said well the only thing you can do is take me,  which meant having to take me in the dark as I leave the house at 6am. But she said she found it quite scary and daunting and would avoid it again if she could. 
It just got me thinking how many new drivers actually have never driven in the dark, yet will one day have to, as its obviously dark more often than extreme weather conditions,  you can avoid those more than having to drive in the dark.
I wanted to see other drivers opinions to see if they hate driving at night. 

almillar

renegadefm said:

My whole point was if drivers avoid or cant drive in the dark surely they shouldn't be driving at all,  albeit that sounds harsh,  but I'd hate to think their going to have accidents if their not feeling in control. 

Let us all know what your wife says when you tell her you think she shouldn't be driving!

Seriously though, she has been taught how to drive in the dark, the advice is in the Highway Code. Dipped beam, full beam. She should have the knowledge if she passed her test, what she lacks is experience and confidence. If she wants to pay someone to sit beside her while she builds these up, I'm sure instructors in the area would be happy to take her money.