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  1. EU law requires that as from early 2011 all new cars will be required to be fitted with daytime running lights. Like those below)

    DRL daytime running lights

    Opponents argue that :-

                    It would increase fuel consumption and vehicle emissions;

                    It would lead to many more headlamp failures;

                    It could reduce the conspicuity effect of motorcyclists' voluntary use of dipped headlamps during the day; and

                    It could diminish the conspicuity of other vulnerable road users in general, such as cyclists and pedestrians.

    However In countries that already have DRL legislation, it was found that the opposition against DRL greatly subsided and that acceptance levels were generally high after its implementation. This can be said of experiences in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Canada.

    For the time being, Canada is the only country requiring the installation of DRL as mandatory equipment in all vehicles. A Canadian study comparing 1990 model year vehicles (the first ones to be required to have DRLs) with 1989 vehicles estimated a statistically significant 11% reduction in daytime multiple-vehicle crashes other than rear end impacts.

    DRLs were first made compulsory in Finland in 1972, and have since become law in a handful of other countries, including Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. For much of the 1980s and 1990s imported Volvos and Saabs were all that most of the rest of the world saw of daytime running lights, but the trend has started to move south.

    Now the laws in comparatively bright nations such as Italy and Israel require daytime running lights in certain weather conditions. Dipped lights are recommended in Sweden and Australia, and the French government advises drivers to use them on motorways. Even in Spain, Germany, Japan and the UK, where governments have so far held back on legislation, an increasing number of car manufacturers are offering DRLs as standard or as an optional extra on their flashier models.

  2. With less than a week to go before the clocks go back an hour, now is a good time to make an extra special effort to check that all of the lights and equipment on your car are fully working and in good order before starting your driving lessons. Make sure that the windscreen washer bottle is filled with a good quality and preferably winter proof screen wash. One that wont freeze up now that we are getting night frosts.

    Then make sure all of your external bulbs are working - the amount of cars we see with only one headlight, sidelight or brake light working is quite frankly scary. There is nothing worse than looking in the distance and thinking you have a motorbike coming towards you, only to realise at the last second that it's actually a car with only one headlight.

    Next make sure all internal bulbs are working, so all of your instrument panel and dials can be clearly seen and identified. Also check that your heater fan works. Having past 2 cars recently that it was obvious there's didn't because the inside of all the window was fogged up. This way you'll keep yourself safe and everyone else on the road.

  3. POP teen JUSTIN BIEBER has told how he cried like a baby after failing his driving theory test.

    The Canadian singer, 16, refused to get into his mum's car after flunking the exam - preferring to walk home in the rain and sulk on his own.

    Super-confident Justin had expected to breeze through the test and earn a driver's licence.

    That would have allowed him to get behind the wheel of his 16th birthday present - a Range Rover given to him by his mentor, RnB star USHER.

    But the teenager, whose hits include Baby and U Smile, failed to make the grade and flew into a strop as his mum tried to take him home.

    Justin said: "There was no way I was getting in the passenger seat, bawling like a ten-year-old. She kept calling me as I walked to the corner of the parking lot and stood by the street. I felt every car driving by was taunting me."

    The fuming singer admits taking out his disappointment on passing motorists.

    Writing in his book First Step 2 Forever: My Story, Justin adds: "Some girl drove by, putting on mascara as she weaved down the boulevard - but she sure had a driver's licence, didn't she?

    "Some dude cruised by in a truck, smoking a cigarette, which he tossed on the street like the world was his ashtray.

    "I bellowed after him, 'I hate you'! It felt so good. I bellowed at the next guy, 'I hate you too! And I hate you! And I hate you!'"

    Justin passed his driving test a month later in April in Atlanta, Georgia, and has since been seen driving an array of top-of-the-range cars.

    Seems like everyone is human after all then?

  4. Well now we are a couple of weeks into the new driving test, most people are begining to realise, that if your driving instructor is any good, then the "Independent Driving" part of your driving test, is something that you will have covered on your driving lessons anyway. Congratulations has to go to Josh Bradley, who took his driving test on the first day of the new tests at 11.11 and passed first time with only one driving fault. This made Josh the first Driver Training pupil to pass the new driving test and with only one driving fault, it was a pretty impressive way to do it as well!!

     Those signs you see on the roads and the large sign posts at the side of the road, hopefully are starting to become more meaningful to you as your driving lessons progress, and eventually they will help you become safer and better drivers than those around you.

  5. It never ceases to amaze me, that with visibility down to a bear minimum, with the fog and mist, you still see people driving around with either just side lights on or no lights at all!! Seriously what is up with these people??? <BLOG_BREAK>The other day visibility was down to about 60 feet and right at the last moment as the pupil was about to turn right, I saw this car appear out of the fog with just its side lights on.
    Thankfully I managed to hit the dual controls and stop us, but what was the idiot in the other car thinking? "Oh it's thick fog, so they'll be bound to see my incredibly poor side lights" WHAT AN IDIOT!!!

    Let me make this perfectly clear If its raining put your headlights on!!, If it's misty put your head lights on!!, If it's getting dark put your headlights on!!

    Infact the only time you don't need to put your headlights on is in the middle of august when its bright sunshine and 37 degrees in the shade.

    The other cause of this is the quite frankly stupid decisions of the car makers to make the dashboard illuminated at all times. Especially vauxhall, when we used the corsa's the amount of times I got flashed cos the dashboard was lit up but i'd forgotten to turn any lights on! Really what is the point of that? It just screams out TROUBLE. And strangely that's all it causes.