Luke from Spalding started his BIG TOM 5 day intensive driving course yesterday and clocked up some great driving experiences.
He drove across to Stamford which involved driving on some tricky roads.
First he had the thin road that runs alongside the river at Pinchbeck, it has varying maximum speed limits and narrows in places – the skill is in detecting in good time these higher risk points along the road. Next came the Twenty road to Bourne that is notorious for catching the less skilled drivers from navigating safely around the country road bends. There are many vehicles found in a ditch where the driver had lost control on a bend every year that goes by. This gave Luke the opportunity to practise the use of ‘limit points’ to know what speed he needs to safely approach at.
Having driven to Bourne, Luke then carried on westbound across to Stamford using the Ryhall road. Another twisty, hilly road that has some hotspots for nasty collisions such as the Witham-on-the-Hill crossroads. It also has many maximum speed limit changes so gave Luke the chance to practice observing speed signs and assessing varying driving conditions.
When he got to Stamford, Luke made use of some ‘circuit’ training which involved turning right at a tight crossroads with a steep incline on the approach, with a green filter arrow on the traffic lights, and also some particularly tricky ‘meeting situations’ where he had parked cars on his left, but very limited vision as to whether there were vehicles coming his way that he had to give way to. He practised some hill starts on the hilly parts of Stamford. He earned himself a short pit-stop for a toilet break and light refreshments.
That done, it was time for some dual-carriageway practice on the A1. Firstly, Luke had to merge on to the A1 with the approach being a double bend near Burghley House and getting out of the habit of doing blindspot checks when on the entry slip road. He practised doing some overtakes along the A1 to Peterborough making use of ‘chin to shoulder’ observations for the lane changes.
Luke was then able to practise the multi-laned, spiral roundabouts that Peterborough has plenty of, where he was practising ensuring he kept accurately within his lane at all times. Off we then went heading to Northampton on the A605.
Luke tried turning and emerging off of and on to a fast moving road: one example being where he had to take into consideration BOTH directions of traffic prior to emerging, and another example where he had a safe place to pause in the middle of the new road, which was a much safer and manageable road design.
Back he drove to Peterborough and made the opportunity to navigate the “Eye roundabout” which has 4 lanes on the approach and is known for being rather busy. And then heading back to Spalding using the new bypass.
And that was Luke’s first day of his intensive driving course. Driving in three counties of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. It gives an example of the type of experiences that can be provided to customers and goes a little way to demonstrating why these intensive courses are so popular.
To book up an intensive course with BIG TOM call 01928 508 833.
