B+E Licence test

Using the brakes activates your brake lights so those behind you know you are slowing. It may be obvious your are slowing but given the attentive span of some drivers, a little extra clue is not a bad idea. 

Surely driving a vehicle is not exclusively about slowing by brakes or by gears but a conbination of both depending on the circumstances? If you can see a speed limit some way up ahead, changing down a gear or two will make sure you are at the correct speed as you enter the speed limit. If you come round a bend and immediately see a speed limit you don't have much choice but to use just the brakes? How you slow down is very much a case of how you are reading the road ahead and planning how you might slow down in various situations. Whilst I may appear to be making the case for using gears to slow down you do have to do it in sympathy with the engine. Do people listen to engines anymore? Clearly if the situation demands a quick slow down it has to be brakes but there are lots of times where a slow down can be achieve much more smoothly by dropping down through the gears progressively.

David

I took (and passed!) my B+E test last month. It cost £335 (which included the £110 test fee) for the whole morning training with the test immediately after. I thought it was a bargain really, but I also think it's terribly unfair that others don't have to do it. I missed the 1997 automatic B+E entitlement by 1 year.

Rather than viewing it as a 'towing test' it's better to think of it as a full car driving test, but you just happen to have a trailer on the back, if that makes sense! Driving the car competently and safely is the primary concern of the test which means the trailer is consequently well positioned/controlled. Therefore, they aren't specifically testing for 'towing'.

... and if you didn't miss it by one year, you would still have paid the money and done the test?

.... I definitely wouldn't have paid to do the test if I already had the entitlement, but the lesson beforehand was helpful. I suppose it would be cheaper to take a CC towing course if you already have B+E on your licence but I didn't have the choice.

Surely driving a vehicle is not exclusively about slowing by brakes or by gears but a conbination of both depending on the circumstances? If you can see a speed limit some way up ahead, changing down a gear or two will make sure you are at the correct speed as you enter the speed limit. If you come round a bend and immediately see a speed limit you don't have much choice but to use just the brakes? How you slow down is very much a case of how you are reading the road ahead and planning how you might slow down in various situations. Whilst I may appear to be making the case for using gears to slow down you do have to do it in sympathy with the engine. Do people listen to engines anymore? Clearly if the situation demands a quick slow down it has to be brakes but there are lots of times where a slow down can be achieve much more smoothly by dropping down through the gears progressively.

David

Write your comments here...Correct,you drive ahead,not just in front.