You are listening to the Driving Confidence Podcast for drivers who want to be calm and confident on the road. We will be sharing tips, stories, and advice to beat driving nerves and anxiety and. Build your driving confidence whether you are just starting out as a learner or have had your driving license for years. If you want to transform how you feel about driving this podcast is for you. In today's episode, we're really grateful to NOLA for leaving us a message on our SpeakPipe page. I was going to ask for some advice about driving on motorways. Join in slip roads and allowing other people to join the motorway from slip roads as well. So let's start by playing a Nola's message so that you can hear what she asked. Hello, Tracy and Kev. My question is about driving on the motorway. I've never driven on a motorway because, any kind of high speed road, which I've driven on before, up to 17 miles per hour, I do tend to avoid and I just want to know how I can. Confident about driving on a motorway. I'd like some tips about driving at high speeds and also entering from the slit road and also allowing people to enter from the slit road, which I find very confusing and it makes me very anxious and very worried. I feel much more comfortable driving, stop and start traffic within in city, but I really, really feel like I need to, go onto a motorway and, I want some sort of tips about that. I pass. 16 years ago. But I'm a very anxious driver and I've had long periods of non-driving, so I've been doing refreshers lessons and that's been really helpful. And also just wanna say thank you for your podcast, cuz I've found it really, really helpful and it's really given me a lot of tips in order to get me back on the road. So thank you very much. Okay, Kev. So this one is really over to you. Yeah, I suppose. Really. So joining a motorway. Or I'm going to include jewel carriageways in this as well, because again, that's where slip. And the first thing to think about is what is a slip road for a lot of people don't really understand what a slip roads for they think. It was just for joining. What it actually does. It allows you to. Increase your speed. To the speed of the first lane that you're going to, to join. So that's called lane one. Which is the lane on the left-hand side of the dual carriageway or a motorway. And what you're using the slip road for is to build your speed up. So that when you come to join the Juul coterie on a motorway, your speed is already matched to the people that you're going to be joining with. That sounds quite straightforward, but then. It brings in more things for you to do. So when you're on the slip road, what you're looking for. Is you're looking for how long the slip pro is. You're going to get very indifferent lengths of slip proach. So when joining a Juul carriage way, the slip Pro-D might well be quite short. So you have to build up your speed quite quickly. Motorways tend to be slightly longer, but again, For a look, see how long the slip Pro-D. What you're then doing is you're following the routine. Probably heard of mirror signal maneuver. You're doing this as well on the slip road. So the first thing we're doing is looking for the link for the slip road. We're going to check on merit. See what's behind us. We're going to tell everybody what you want to do. So. I put a signal on. Then, what we want to be doing is again, wild, increasing that speed to the speed that we want. Is looking into lane number one, maybe lane number two. Cause there may be people coming back. And. Looking to see where the gaps are. Sometimes when you're looking in the mirrors, the gaps feel. Quite big. But if you actually use the, the middle mirror, it gives you a true reflection. So don't just use the side mirror. It use your internal or metal mirror as well. It will give you a different perspective to see where the traffic is. Don't just look once, look twice as a minimum. Because what you can do is you can judge again how fast the cars are going in that lane, but you want to join. Once you've done that you can make decisions as to where you want to join. And again, you're still increasing the speed. If you need to, to get up to that. Either the speed limit or the speed of the vehicles in that lane. And because you're signaling what you might find is that people move out into the next lane so you can join safely. Which is fantastic and, really helps. But again, if they're not what you might have to do. Is just decrease your speed slightly. He's coming off the accelerator. You don't want to break at this point. And allow that car to pass you in that lane and then join him behind him by accelerating and join safely in a gap behind that vehicle. Now that we've joined lane. Number one, what we want to do is continue the speed that we are keeping up with the flow of traffic. And what this does is just gives you a few moments just to compose yourself, because what you want to do is get used to. What is around you, what speeds they're going, where they are. What's the type of vehicles they are. And once you've joined that motorway or jewel carriage way. It normally takes. I'm going to say about 30 seconds just to notice everything. And then during this time, what you're doing is you're not. Overtaken anyone or anything, you'll just stay in that lane. Just noticing what's happening. Giving yourself a time to get used to the speed that you're doing. Because you might have been going on, town, traffic where it's like 20, 30 miles an hour. And then all of a sudden you're doing 60, 70 miles an hour on the motorway. So be kind to yourself, give yourself time to adjust to the speeds. The speeds of others. And then when you're feeling. Better. What you can then do is either overtake or just stay where you are. If you feel safe there. As long as you're keeping up with the traffic, you're not slowing anyone down. You okay. Yeah. And it strikes me when I'm listening. It does sound like a law. It does sound like a lot of things to have to look for. And to think about. But of course. When you've had lots of practice. It just sort of happened. Yeah. And I suppose the more you do it, obviously the better you get at it, the more aware you become. But also it's something that we don't do often. Most people. We'll drive around town. Countryside. They don't go on the motorways that often. Yeah. So it is new. So it can just be kind to yourself and allow yourself time to get used to it. How was, will. Not necessarily be doing 70 miles an hour. They might be going faster. So, what you want to be doing is using effective observations to join the motorway, knowing that it's safe for you. We've motorways. Now as well, I look for. Signs. Because what you might find as well is that you don't have to change your lens. You'd might not have to, you might already be in the lane that stays as lane. Number one. On the motorway. And again, use that time just to. Gauge what's happening around you. Notice where everything is. And then if you need to, you can overtake or use the lane number one to accelerate and, get up to the speed limit if you need to. No, no. The mentioned having refresher lessons, which she's found helpful was that. This is something that she could do on high refresher lessons. This isn't it. Doing some slip roads, still carriage ways. Motorways. And just having that. Reassurance of somebody else talking her through all the things that she needs to remember. And that might be that she, you know, she has someone else talking about food, but she could also talk herself through. Yep. You could also use if it's a speed thing, joining a dual carriageway or a motorway. What you could also do is practice. Accelerating, on a faster road. You might be coming off a roundabout, huge that to Xcelerate off the road, get used to putting your foot down a little bit more than what you used to. So there is little tips or techniques you can use. That are not associated with the motorway or jewel. Carriageway, there was other areas where you might want to. Okay. I know what that feeling feels like. Now when I put my foot down, I've got that. Yeah, we've got some jewel carriage ways around us where you can join from around about, so you don't have the slip rope scenario, but you do have the scenario of lanes and speeds. So yeah, that sounds like a really good tip choosing somewhere. Like that. Or choosing somewhere that, you know, has a longer slip road. Could be, yeah. There's also. Uh, you know, if you're joining a motorway, there might be something called the hard shoulder. And the hard shoulder is something where you, if you break down, it's used in case of emergencies. We've got a lot of smart motorways now. Where there isn't hard shoulders. There's a pull in places. If you would break down. But what you could do if you've got a hard shoulder and there is no space to join. The motorway. In lane one, it's used the hard shoulder. You want to be using it for a shorter period of time as possible because it's only used for emergencies. But you have that escape route to be able to join because what you don't want to be doing on a slip pro when you're joining a jewel carriage where how much weight is stopping. You need that momentum to get up to speed. So if you have to use the hard shoulder, because lane number one is busy and you can't. Join. Use the hard shoulder. You know, a lot of people don't think they can do that, but you can. Yeah, I didn't realize that. I'd never thought of that. Yeah. Use the whole jar. And again, you're using it for the minimum amount of time possible. But it will allow you to then join lane. Number one. Okay. So another thing I know Lou mentioned was, um, how to let people or other people in. Once you're on the motorways of. You're approaching the slip road. How do you deal with that? So again, this is once you're on the motorway that. It's effective observations. You might well notice as you're driving on a motorway or jewel carriageway that there's clues let's clues that you're approaching a junction. To come off. What that also means is when you just pass that. You're going to have a junction joining. So I slipped pro join in the motorway jewel. So that is the first point that. That triggers something that says, okay. What's around me. Let me look what might happen. So, what you're thinking of now is if someone was going to join. Could I move into my next lane to allow them to join safely. And the only way you can do that is by. Effective observations to the rear. That includes, not just looking in the right mirror, but also the internal or middle mirror. And making sure you know, where that gap is. To move over to allow someone to join. So that they can join and then you can move back into lane number one, to continue your journey. You might even find that you are overtaking them as they're joining. But again, that's fine. As long as we've planned and prepared for that moment before actually happens. What you're also doing on approach to that slip prote and that's joining is looking and you might be looking to see if someone's actually joined in as well. So, you know, Make sure that you are. Aware of your surroundings. And then you can make that decision. And the decision might be it's too busy. There's too many people overtaking me. So, what do you do in that situation? If someone wants to join. But you can't move out the way. Two options really. You either keep going as you are. And they use the people that are joined in. The motorway jewel carriageway from the slip road, they have to give way to you. Or the other option is just to release the accelerator, come off the accelerator slightly. So you're not slowing down too much, just very gradually. This allows them a little bit more space. You can then match your speed. To the car that's on the slip road. Allow them to join and then you can increase in, carry on. Your journey. Yeah. Looking for where are they going to join? Can they join in front of me? Can they join behind me? Because that was the other thing. If you've got lots of traffic in front of you, but nobody behind you. Then you can adjust your speed so that hopefully, like you say. They give way to you. So they join in behind you. They don't always have to join in. In front of you? No. You'll find that most situations are different. So you have to make different decisions based on the situation. And that works. You know, all the time while you're driving. The way I've always described it to the kids. There's like a zipper. And so it's the same way that zip works. It's. Trying to bring two lanes together. And so it's just trying to match gaps and cars to each other. And you. You match your speed. So that you can zipper in, in front or behind each other. Yeah. And that's. You know, when you're joined in from the slip road, that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to be part of that zip. But what you're also doing while you're on the Juul, carriageway, motorway. And someone's joining is either allow them in front. If there's space, if there's not enough space. Or that might be something happening. And allow them in behind you. You know, again, you're just trying to evaluate the situation as it develops. You might find the person on the slip roads going really fast. Well, if that is the case, he's probably going to overtake you. Or undertake you as the case may be. But again, that is fine. As long as you've. Left that space. It's allowing you the time and the space to make those decisions. And it's done well before you actually get to that point. Hopefully your decision making. Is all done by then, but it can be that the decision will change depending on the speed of the cars that are joining. So, again, just bear that in mind. And make your decision based on what you can see. Also the more space you've got around you. So bearing in mind that two second rule. Making sure That you have left a big enough gap in front of you. In theory. You're just adjusting now. Aren't you? In from behind. Exactly. And that's what you want to be trying to do all the time is, I describe it as driving in space or driving in a bubble. And if you can do the endure. Your bubble, doesn't pop. Or you drive in space and you feel you've got some room for maneuver. You're going to be safe. I mean, some people call it defensive, driving but it's it's, it's about planning. And noticing what's around you to make those decisions. So the other thing that. In fact, the first thing that I know the mentioned was speed. Yeah, we've done it the wrong way. Round red. Haven't we. Anyway, think about. You've joined the motorway safely or Joel carriageway. And now it's about speed on the motorway. What speed should you be doing? What is a safe speed? Now, we've already touched on a little bit of this already, where you are. Driving in a bubble, driving in. Uh, space. And. How do you do that? Well, what you're doing is you're looking as far ahead. Possible. But also behind you as far as possible. So again, noticing what's happening with speed of cars. Um, is someone breaking up ahead? Noticing what's happening. But on a motorway as well. Or dual carriageway. What you need to know is what's happening to the sides of you. Because what you want to be doing is being seen. And, you want to be seen, but also see. So using your effective observations as I called it. Looking in front. Behind to the sides. Notice what's happening in. And then. Anticipate in what might happen. So we've talked about the two second rule or ready. What is the two second rule. Some people don't actually know what it is. They just think, oh, Okay. Two seconds. And there's loads of versions of this, and I love people that. Come up with our own version. But basically what you do is, and you can do this on the single carriage where, you know, you can do it while you're driving. Normally. It's picking a spot. That's stationary, a tree. Uh, lamppost, whatever it may be. And when the car in front of you passes that point, that you've chosen. What you do is. You allow a two second gap, so you don't pass that same point. For two seconds. Pull it phrases that people use is, only at fall breaks. The two second rule. And that craze takes you two seconds to say. Yeah. Other people use. One pink elephant, two pink elephants. You know, whatever works for you. As long as it's a two second gap. Yeah. Good dry conditions. You know, this is what we're talking about. That. So you drive in, in space two second wall for the color in front. But also put the two second rule in. For cars behind you. A lot of people don't do this. So. You got a safety babble. And a safety bubble is not just in front of you. It's also behind you. So do the same when you pass something. How in two seconds did the car or vehicle behind you? Past that same point. It also keeps you thinking about driving as well. So you're not thinking negative. You're always thinking about what's happening. I said about being seen. And this is, on the motorway. Drive in. In a place where other people can see you. So you might know. Blind spots on cars. But also blind spots on an average. Love is. Big, but the blind spots are also as big. So when you're passing the lorry. There's going to be certain points on that. Overtake maneuver. But the lorry won't be able to see you. So what you want to be able to do is get past the lorry. Or hold back. You know, you're getting, it's a judgment call on what you want to be doing. But you want to be able to make sure that other people have escape routes. So if something happens, they can pull out and it doesn't cause you any problems. And again, this is continuing all the time. People think because you're going in the same direction, it should be easy, but it is. But there is rules to look at. And then people say about what speed should I be doing on the motorway? Well, that depends on other vehicles. You know, if it's busy. You're going to becoming slower. Yeah. The trip we've just been on. We've covered all speeds from 70 miles an hour, right down to stationary. And what you're doing is I mentioned anticipate. Looking further ahead. You can anticipate what people are doing. You might see. There's some overhead signs saying speed change. We get quite a lot there. On small motorways now where there is variable speed limits. If we notice them early. What we can do is we can adjust our speeder. So we don't have to get to those signs and harshly break, because again, what you might find is that Constantino effects. Where one person will break charge, which causes the others to break even harder. And the people beyond them even harder still. And all of a sudden you have a concertina effect. So, what you're trying to do on motorways is use the brakes gently. Glenn your journey ahead so that you don't have to use the brakes. He that two second rule go in. And again, trying to adjust your speed. So that you're always at a speed. That is keeping up with traffic because you don't want to be a hazard. Yeah. I think. When you're all traveling at the same speed. It doesn't seem quite so fast. If you're the person who's traveling a lot slower than everybody else. That really changes the way that the driving feels. So I'm thinking of the example when I was driving with my spare tire, because I'd had a puncture. Um, so there's a limit. You can only drive. Uh, at a maximum. Normally 50 miles. So I was driving between 40 and 45 miles an hour. On the Joel carriage way. No, actually, that was quite a scary experience because I wasn't traveling at the same speed as the rest of the traffic. On that piece of Joel carriage way. The average is anywhere between sort of 58 to 70 miles an hour. By not driving. Speed. Felt like everybody else was flying past me and was getting up close behind me. Because I couldn't drive any faster. So when I normally drive that piece of road, I'll be driving. 65 miles now. And it all feels absolutely fine because everybody is going at the same speed. So there is a definite. Perception change in how it feels if you don't match your speed to the rest of the traffic. Yeah. It's others as well. Others are not expecting that to happen. They are driving on that road and they expect. Others to do the same as them. The speed limits, obviously, hopefully. But is that an expectation from others? Which causes the problem is. They've probably driven on that road. Blow to times every day. Go into work and nothing like that happens. And then all of a sudden something's there. It's like, oh, what happened? And it's, it causes panic. So yeah, so what we don't want to be doing is driving at speeds that cause others panic. Yeah. We don't want to be driving at a speed that causes us panic, Eva. But you mentioned that you felt panicked because, or that feeling wasn't right, because you were doing something different. Yeah. I actually had my hazard song for the whole of that bit of Joel carriage way, just so I could let everybody know. If they were, if they hadn't seen my speed, at least. There was a chance they would see my hazards. So it gave them some indication that I wasn't going at the normal speed. And that's, that's great. Isn't it? Because what you've done there is you've. You've warned others. That's all it has it like, you're born in others that your hazard order is a hazard up ahead. And, still, the others are not expecting it. And they might not be planning for that because they want autopilot. Drive. A speed. That is not going to cause other problems. But also drive at a speed. That's not going to cause you problems. And again, this might be the builder in practice. Practice with people. The where different times of the day. So you can get practice at driving at 70 miles an hour. Because people don't like. Driving at 70 miles an hour. Some people find that quite fast. But also, driving at 60 miles now, I might feel okay. But again, it's abandoned, isn't it? You know, what, what is safe or isn't safe. What's safe for you. What? Say for others? It is all different. And what you want to be doing is I'm going to repeat this again. It's just making sure you're not the hazard on those faster roads. And that fit that takes practice, practice going faster on single carriage roads. Right. Cisco and faster on Juul carriage. Ray's first. And then you can practice go faster. On motorways. Or it might be that you go out at different times, so you can practice on the motorway when it's not busy. That's another way of. Building up your confidence with speed. Yeah. Well, practice on the motorway when it's really busy. And then you don't go at any speed. There's always a. So that's look up, you've joined a motorway, dual carriageway, and you've driven on. The motorway now. And you've. Had the opportunity to let people on or let people off. You know, more, whatever made the case. But how do you come off of a motorway? You know, and this again, I think is, can be disorientated. The first thing is to think of looking for clues. And the clues are normally signs. You might have a sat nav go in as well. So that tells you. And it gives you in one mile. Take the next exit off. The signs might be there as well, but again, they pretty big. On motorways and dual carriageway, because you need to see him from a further distance because you are traveling faster. But also notice that the signs give you information. They tell you the distance, the junctions away. They tell you what junction number it is. And also the destination, if you came off at that junction. So there's lots of information to take in there. And again, knowing in advance, what junction you want. Can I help you? Build the confidence up knowing that you've got it right. Yeah, no, it's always, no, it's my next junction. I want. Fantastic. So, again, this is part of the learning. Of coming off the motorway. So notice the signs. Yeah. And what we want to be doing is. Getting into the correct lane. If it's a motorway, it's always the left lane. Getting into that lane. In good time. So you don't have to slam the brakes on closer to the junction. You don't have to worry too much about, can I make it across these people going to let me, you've got a big distance. To move over. And if you're in lane free, for example, and you need to get into lane number one. Do it gradually, don't just move from lane number three to lane number one, because again, that might cause problems. Go from lane number three. To lane number two. Uh, just see what's happening, make sure, you know, maybe even look over the blind spots over the shoulders, just to make sure you can see everything. And then move into lane. Number one. On your left-hand side. So you're prepared early enough. To come off the junction. And again, what you're doing is your looking well ahead so that you can see where the junction is. There might be countdown workers as well. You get the free hundred yards, 200 yards, 100 birds markers. And what also happens there is you're getting closer to the, the actual slip road. Notice the link for the slip road as well. You might notice it goes up. You might notice it goes down. You might notice. It's quite sure. Both. If you can know. The end of the slip road, it might be traffic lights. It might be a roundabout. It might be just a, another road that leads somewhere. So. Notice the length of the slip road. And then when you can do the mirrors and the signal to tell people that you're coming off. And as you're coming off. That is the point that you want to start slowing down. You don't want to slow down too early on the motorway. Because again, people might not be expecting it. So use the slip road to reduce your speed. That's again, as another tip for us to put out there. A jewel carriageway is a slightly different you might have to because I'm slipped. Pros are so small. So again, By noticing the link for the slip probe. You can make those decisions early. And tell people what you want to do cause you don't want to be heartbreaking. Just, tell people you're slowing down just by. Gently touching the brakes, which put the brake lights on. So people then know what you're doing early. Well, you also want to do on the slip roads. And again, it confuses quite a lot of people. Is imagine that you've been driving on the motorway for about two hours. And you've been doing 65, 70 miles an hour. If you're lucky enough. Not had any problems. You've got used to that speed now. And that speed feels okay. So what you then want to be doing is noticing what speed you're doing on the slip road. Because you may well slow it down to what you think is 20 miles an hour. It probably is actually faulty. Because it feels. So slow compared to what you've been doing. So. Notice what you're doing, what speed you're doing. And what's happening up ahead on that slip. You might also want to know which way you go in. As well as, especially if you're coming up to a roundabout. You're going left or you go and write. Which way you want to do. And use the slip road. To adjust your position in the road as well. So you can, you're getting used to. Where am I going? What am I doing? Early enough. Yeah, you're no longer going straight ahead. Like. Like you were on X way. You need to think about things in a different way. Yeah. And again, use the satellite, the satellite. Nev might actually give you directions and tell you which lane you need. But again, use, use everything to your advantage. Yeah. Um, prepare and plan before your journey so that you know, as much about what you're going to need to do in advance. So it doesn't come as a surprise. Exactly. Yeah. So thank you once again, to. NOLA for sending us your message. Given us a topic for the podcast episode. I hope that's been helpful. I hope that's answered some of your questions. A little bit and hope that's been helpful for other people as well. If you've got a question that you would like to ask, then that would be great. If you'd like to leave us a message on our SpeakPipe page, all the details are in the show notes as always. Along with all of our social media links and contact details. So Kevin, this is the last episode of this season. And we're going to take a break for a few weeks. Yeah. So, um, I catch up on previous episodes. If you need to is, is my little tit. We've covered so many different things. So. There's so many more that we've got planned. Uh, to talk about. Yep. Definitely. So just go back. I have a little look. What have you missed? What haven't you listened to yet? And there's over 60 episodes in the bank there for you to have a look at. So. There's bound to be something to keep you going until we come back in a few weeks with a new season. So that just leaves us to say. Until next time. Have a great day, whatever you're doing. If you have enjoyed our podcast, did you know, we can also help you get back on the road to driving confidence? If you want to have the feeling of being safe. Be able to go shopping without relying on public transport. Create more time in your daily schedule. Become a confident driver. Visit friends or relatives that live further away. Drive to and from places of work. Feel safer when driving on faster roads. Then our coaching packages will help you create the easy to follow action plan to your driving confidence. Using our unique drive Calm system within our coaching sessions backed up by the free access to the confident drivers website and all the wonderful tools and techniques it has to offer. You will feel confident that you can take that first step in getting back driving. So if you'd like to find out more information, go to the confident drivers website.