Today's episode is taken from our new podcast, Driving Test Tips, which is based around the top 10 reasons that people fail their driving test. However, the content of the episodes, isn't just for learner drivers as we hope that it will help drivers who want to build their confidence, fill any gaps in their knowledge, or maybe have a light bulb moment while they're listening. So this topic is not moving off safely, tell us a little bit more about this one. So in a previous podcast, I said, moving off safely on your test, you're gonna be asked to do it about four or five different times in different situations. So you're gonna be moving away from the left hand side of the road. And that's probably gonna be about four or five times, which I've mentioned, one could be on a hill, one could be from behind a park car, so you're doing what they call an angled start. One could be so that you don't block driveways. One could be when there's traffic behind you. Or a safe place to pull up on the left. You'll also be asked to pull up on the right hand side of the road. If that is the maneuver that you are gonna get on your test as well. So again, this incorporates moving away after pulling up on the side of the road. Or maybe even after you've stopped doing emergency stop as well. Yeah. Okay and less face it this is something you are gonna do every time you drive. you can't drive without being able to move away safely. So this one's pretty important. You're gonna do this every time you drive. Yeah. You can't get away from it. And I suppose this is where it's becomes important, isn't it? So if you think, of you're parked at the side of the road lets give you an example where you're parked at the side of the road and there's a car in front of you. So, what you've gotta do is you've gotta move away from behind that parked vehicle. And what you do is you check around there's, you know, there's nothing coming. And you think it's safe to go. So you move out around that parked car. What happens in that situation is you can't properly see around that parked car. So as you move away, we need to do it slowly. So that if there is a car coming towards you. You're not gonna slow them down. Cuz the position of your car, takes up more space because you need to move out and let the back of the car come past the parked car To move you back over again Yeah So you're sort of Swinging and the closer you are to the parked car, the more you are swinging, the tighter the angle is, and the more road you're taking up So we need to make sure we do it nice and slowly under control. And what we need to do is to make sure that there's no cars coming from behind, obviously. Cuz we've checked. Yeah. But make sure there's no cars coming from in front. If there is. Go at a speed so that you can stop. Allow that car to come past and then carry on again, because again, if you carry on and you slow those cars down. That's it you've failed because you've caused another driver to do something they don't wanna do. This one's interesting from a driver perspective. This isn't something I've thought about very much over the last few years. So, I guess as somebody who has some connections with the driving industry. I'm one of those drivers who, if I see this going on, I do slow down for the other person to give them room and space and I guess I'm controlling my own. Safety and the safety of my car and my passengers here as well as being terribly kind and courteous . But, yes, I hadn't thought about it that, if somebody else is making that maneuver, I shouldn't have to slow down for them. It should be. Them who match their driving so that I'm not affected at all. Yeah, cause your car is gonna swing out onto their side of the road. So in that instance, you are now on their side of the road and they have priority on that side. So if you think of it along those lines, it's like, ah, yeah, that makes more sense. Yeah. Okay. I am still gonna be kind and courteous and slow down for people. I'm not gonna stop just because I have priority. But, um, no, but this is what it's about you as a driver, recognizing those hazards. But yes, this is, for you as a driver. Make sure it's safe to move away from behind a parked car. And, you know, we mentioned about. You controlling your come for the oncoming vehicles. What might happen is you're in a test situation. And basically what's happening is, like I said, you're gonna be pulled over four or five different times. On the left hand side, and each time you just check your mirrors, you don't check your blind spots. And again, a lot of people say to me, well, what's the point of checking my mirrors. I can see what's happening behind me. But those blind spot areas are massive we don't see driveways, we don't see people coming out, walking across the road. We don't see people walking on the left hand side of us, either that pull out, walk in front of us. So we need to make effective observations again I mentioned that again, and this includes blind spots this includes all around your car. Make sure it is 100% safe before you move away from that left hand side of the road. It comes, it all comes full circle doesn't it? Observations. How do you know it's safe? Exactly and it's again, if you're thinking of one of your maneuvers we mentioned earlier about pulling up on the right hand side. And what happens is you go to move away from the right hand side of the road this time. And again, there may well be an oncoming vehicle. But what happens is we move away anyway. And again, we've slowed someone down. Slightly more awkward on the right hand side, because your vision is blocked out by the parked car. And that's the reason why you moved back at least two car lengths. This gives you enough space to be able to see round that parked vehicle, what we need to do is we need to make those proper and effective observations before moving away from that right hand side of the road to join the left hand side. Again, if you think in another, it's not a maneuver, but it's an exercise that you may be, be asked to do is an emergency stop. You go through all the processes, you do the emergency stop. Fantastic. The examiner says to you. Whenever you're ready and it's safe to do so drive on. And people go. Right. Okay. And all I hear is the last bit drive on. So they're fantastic they go into gear one they get the biting point, they release the hand break and off they go. And what they haven't done is they haven't checked all around them. They haven't done those blind spots and mirror checks before moving away. And that's one of the reasons. And as I'll give you a little story here, it's one of the things that you really need to do as drivers, because if it happens in real life, and this happened to us, we was near a school, uh, a child ran across the road to get his to his mate on the other side of the road. And my student was fantastic. And stopped the car brilliantly. No harm done Hand break on secured the car. Okay. You ready? Yeah. Fine. Okay. So whenever you're ready and it's safe to do so move on. So done the blind spot checks we looked around and just as we were about to move away. The mom of the child that walked out in front of us or ran in front of us. She also ran in front of us now as well. So it's, it's one of those things that. Keep checking on a, an emergency stop it's happened for a reason. Mom, probably just saw what had happened. And now worried about the child. They're not worried about you. So that's one of the reasons why you need to make sure you do these checks make sure you know, what's happening all around. All the time. Yeah. No, that makes sense. And also cuz people behind you don't know what's just happened so they might be trying to overtake you and yeah. And certainly situations like that, where there's just lots of people, lots of things. Yeah, just make sure it's safe. We hope you found that useful. If you did, don't forget to share it with others or leave us a review. You can find the other reasons that people fail their driving test in our spinoff podcast series Driving Test Tips, if you'd like to listen to them all in one place. Search driving test tips, wherever you listen to your podcasts or find the links in our show notes or on our website, www .confidentdrivers.co.uk/freetools And so until next time, Have a great day, whatever you are doing.