With the most congested routes in England, and the second most congested city in Europe, it is no surprise that many drivers find driving in London a daunting experience.

However, this shouldn’t put you off learning to drive in London. Your instructor would be able to build up your skills and help driving in London become less stressful. You can incorporate driving into central London into your lessons to give you additional practice in the most difficult roads in London.

Experienced drivers may also benefit from refresher lessons if they find they need more practice especially in Central London driving. Other ways to keep calm when driving in London is to plan routes in advance and take note of alternative routes in case of heavy traffic or roadworks. Make sure you leave plenty of time for journeys to minimise stress if delays occur.

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Black box covers are known to give motorists discounts on insurances which is why a lot of motorists, in particular young drivers, have opted for such covers. However, it has now been revealed that drivers who sign up for black box car cover can be hit with a £100 fine from their insurer if they speed.

Motorists who have opted for such policies are discovering that the reductions in insurance are impossible to get and that they are instead being subject to other fees. Sell your car, switch policy or breach the smallprint, and you could be hit with hefty penalties. Most insurers issue warnings if a motorist breaks rules such a regularly driving at 40mph in a 30mph zone. If these alerts are ignored and the driver carries on driving poorly, the insurer can fine them one a case-by-case basis. The fines can be as much as £100 and in the worst cases the insurer could cancel the policy altogether.

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It is a well known fact that car insurance costs for young new drivers are very high. In order to resolve this issue, a number of parents are committing fraud by pretending to be the main driver of a vehicle used predominately by their son or daughter.

The practice, named ‘fronting’, involves a low-risk and older driver insuring a vehicle in their name as the main driver, naming the higher risk driver, who will be predominately driving the vehicle, as the ‘second’ driver. Using this method, young drivers can avoid extortionate insurance premiums.

However, this practice is not as simple as it seems. It can have serious financial and legal implications. If detected, insurers can refuse to pay out for any claims and in such a situation the young driver could then be treated as ‘uninsured’ and could be fined hundreds of pounds, face prosecution and an automatic driving ban. They will also face higher insurance costs in future.

This practice is fraudulent and people should be made aware of the serious risks in engaging in ‘fronting’.

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Smart motorways are designed to make use of the hard shoulder and are managed by the Highways Agency regional control centres. They use CCTV so that Highways Agency traffic officers can be deployed to incidents if they occur and help to keep traffic moving.

Different types of smart motorway include:

– Controlled motorway – Controlled motorways have three or more lanes with variable speed limits. The hard shoulder should only be used in a genuine emergency.

– Hard shoulder running – The hard shoulder will be opened at busy times and the speed limit will be reduced. Drivers cannot use the hard shoulder unless overhead signs show that you can do so.

– All Lane running – There is no hard shoulder on these sections of motorway. Variable speed limits must be obeyed and no stopping is to be allowed on the motorway. If a motorists needs to stop in an emergency, they must use an emergency refuge area, motorway service area or leave at the next junction.

– A red X symbol will show that a lane is closed because of an incident or people working in the road.

Simon Bush of Britannia Driving School says, ‘Making use of the hard shoulder is a great idea overall since traffic will flow better with four lanes instead of three.’

However, Jane Hunt of Britannia Driving School argues, ‘I totally disagree with completely removing the hard shoulder – in the event of an accident, it is going to make people harder to stop and how are emergency services meant to get through?’

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