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 one is all about not responding correctly to traffic signs. So when we drive, we can see traffic signs all the time. And with these traffic signs, they've all got meanings. And they help us. But what we tend to do sometimes if we fail our tests for this fault. Is, we are not actually adhearing to what the signs are telling us. So the first one is you might have a keep left sign, which is a blue sign with an arrow pointing to the left. You just go, don't do it and just stay right. that's basically the sign's telling you what to do, but. You haven't seen it or you haven't reacted to it and we stayed to the right hand side. So, you know, that's a quite. An obvious one. The next one ignoring a stop or a no entry signs. Let's start with a stop one first. So, you're coming up to a junction. The first thing is, recognize the sign, a stop sign. It's a different type of shape to the others. To again, it helps you identify it. But, a few people, think stop means really really slow . Yeah. So what happens is they approach the stop junction. And again, you've even got stop written on the road and a. A big solid white line going across to the emerging line. So there's now not giveaway line. It's a stop line. And people think they approach it and they go really, really slow. And they can see it's all clear. So they go. What it actually means it is stop means stop your wheels have to stop turning. To stop the car at a stop line. And you don't necessarily have to put the hand break on. If you do fine. It's it's okay. But make sure your wheels have stopped turning at a stop sign junction. And. They don't make every junction, a stop junction. They only make the stop junctions ones where I guess it's more difficult. You need more time to make your observations to know it's safe and that's exactly it. If you think about there's a stop junction there. Why is there a stop junction? Well, there's a reason. The reason is normally your vision is blocked either one way or both ways. Or there's something there that, You need to make sure you stop to make sure it's clear before you proceed. The signs are there to help you. They're there to keep you safe and a stop one is there for a reason, again. And it is normally because you can't see one way or both ways, so you need to stop. You might even because the vision is so bad, potentially even, edge it forward a slightly and stop again. Until you can see slightly more and then go again, but yeah, it's there for a reason. It means stop. Yeah, similar to a no entry. Yeah, no entry means you can't go that way. And I see this a lot not so much on learners, but on full license holders. When the sat nav says, take the next road on the left. . Oh dear what happens is They just go onto autopilot there's the road on the left, I'm turning and what they haven't done is notice the signs. Yeah. And again, the signs are there for a reason. What happens is it's no entry because it's one way. We spoke earlier, a podcast about positioning on the road, you know, one way streets. What we wanna be doing now is not turning in there because as we turn in there may be someone coming out on the right hand side of the road. Because they can. Yeah. I mean, if it's wide enough, you might even be meeting two vehicles oncoming. You could do so. Yes, this is what you're no entry means. It's because you can't go into that road. Yeah. I mean, I think that one's pretty obvious. We probably don't need to. Sell that one too much. I think most people will. Well, it it's to do with, I think personally that one. Is to do with Sat Navs Yeah. And not looking, not looking, keep looking. Yeah. Keep looking. Another one with signs is bus lanes. And again, these can be quite confusing because sometimes they have times on them. Yep. Um, but again, first off, Recognize the sign recognize the bus lane. And again, recognize this where it is what's happening. And, you know, this is what you need to do. Recognize the time it is the day. And then is the bus lane open or not? And that's how you would choose to use it or not. It could be all day. You know, it's a permanent bus lane, but sometimes they're at certain times, busier times a day, or maybe even during the day. And it finishes at seven o'clock in the evening. So again, be aware, whatever it is, be aware of those times of the bus lane opening. So can you use it or not? Yeah. And again, another sign is you might be, on approaching a roundabout and it says, the signs are clear in front of you. There's a dedicated, left hand lane. You can only go left at that roundabout in the left hand lane and what people do is they stay in the left hand lane to follow the road ahead. So, what you need to do is if you're in that lane, And it is a dedicated lane to turn left, turn left. If you try to follow the road ahead from that lane, you are potentially putting you and others in danger because they're not expecting you to do that. The signs have clearly stated what lane you need to get into to what direction you to go at that roundabout. So again, look out for the signs. Sometimes again, the road markings, aren't that clear? But if there signs there, you need to adhere to them. So yeah, just make sure you know, those signs and what they mean. Which leads us lovely onto. Speed limit signs. Oh, the ultimate sign. So again, you might be in a 30 and it changes to a national speed limit. Nice straight road. And what happens is you haven't noticed the national speed limit signs and you stay at 30. And then all of a sudden you've got a convoy. And what happens is you've got all these people behind you thinking, what are you doing? What's going on? we are in a 60. Come on. And they trying to overtake there's oncoming vehicles. So you're causing problems. So be aware of speed limit changes. Make sure you notice, 'em make sure you know what they mean and then carry on. Yeah. Let's go the other way. So you're now in a national speed limit and you are now coming into a 30 or a 40 But you coming down, you haven't noticed the 40 mile an hour limit. And you're now still doing 50, 60 miles an hour. You're now breaking the law. Yeah. The end of story. And it's gonna take you a while to get down to that speed limit. So you need to notice the speed change early. To make sure that you get your speed down. So when. Just before you are at that sign. You're at that speed limit. Don't start. At the speed limit change, I start slowing down. Because again, a lot of people think that, it's not it's when you are at that speed limit, you should be doing that speed limit. Yeah, should have been preparing in advance. Yeah. So in summary to all of this section is. Notice the signs. Yes. Some of them are not fantastically placed off trees might have grown in the spring and covered them. But start noticing signs If you're driving the same routes all the time when you're lessons or. If you've passed a test, you're driving to work the same route all the time. Just take a minute to see new signs that have appeared. To see if you are noticing all the speed limit signs, what do they mean? And again, same as the last episode when we were talking about traffic lights. All of this information is researchable. Yeah, it's all out there. If you've passed your test long while ago, the highway code has changed quite a lot and it is even changed recently. So again, it just make sure you are up to date. Cuz here's your responsibility. And that's what happens when you pass your tests? You, you are signing a declaration that you'll keep up to date with all the changes. So again, make sure that you know, these changes and it's, it's important. It may keep your license. 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.