Position the vehicle correctly during normal driving.
Correct and safe driving is focused on dealing with a continuing group of situations, each requiring a routine which needs to be followed and usually a choice to be made. The results of the decision is inevitably the difference between pass or fail.
The situations you might be faced with are numerous and widely varied. They include junctions, hazards, other cars, pedestrians, crossings, road marking variations, etc. The list could go on. But periodically there would appear to be nothing to accomplish except drive in a straight line.
When it is the case, I always tell my pupils - "When there is nothing else to deal with, cope with your speed and position". This ensures that you will always be concentrating on something, rather than nothing.
However, each year there are over 64000 cases of UK driving test failure due to bad positioning.
The driving test report states: "You should position the vehicle sensibly, normally well left. Keep clear of parked vehicles and position correctly for the direction that you intend to take. Where lanes are marked, maintain the middle of the lane and avoid straddling lane markings. Usually do not change lanes unnecessarily."
So what could possibly be wrong together with your position that could result in a serious or dangerous fault on a driving test?
I am not discussing driving on the incorrect side of the street, or mounting the pavement - in case you are doing this, avoid being going for a driving test yet. But there are several very common types of incorrect driving position that may cost you your test, which, with a little concentration and planning could be avoided altogether.
In my experience, there are four usual suspects when this fault has been given.
1. Driving Click for info to the kerb can be hugely dangerous given the incorrect set of circumstances. Debris collects in the gutter that could easily damage your tyres, particularly if there's broken glass or sharp stones. This debris could possibly be flicked out by your tyres and cause problems for pedestrians or property.
If it is been raining, puddles form in areas of poor drainage. It is now an offence to splash a pedestrian; you can be booked for common assault! Aside from the fact that the puddle could be concealing some other form of trouble; hidden debris or perhaps a pothole for example.
2. On another extreme, driving too wide could be equally undesirable. The closer you get to the centre line, the closer you are to oncoming traffic. Actually crossing the centre line would put you directly in the road of traffic and could easily result in a head-on crash if the other driver isn't paying attention. There are needless to say times when it's important to straddle or even cross the line, when passing parked vehicles for example, but when this can be a case, extra care has to be taken up to ensure the manoeuvre is carried out safely.
If you are on a dual-carriageway and eventually stray too close to the dividing lane line, you are putting yourself in peril from the vehicles approaching to overtake you. The slightest tap at higher speed could cause both you and the passing vehicle to leave the road.
The correct position for normal driving is 1 metre (or 3 feet) from the kerb. This puts you in a safe position, from danger on either side. Naturally you will see times when you should adjust this position, to deal with hazards, pedestrians, parked cars, etc. But you must always return to this safe position once the hazard has been passed.
3. I have heard the reason of the fault given as cutting a right hand bend. That's where the street ahead curves to the right, different from cutting the right hand corner into a side road. I've heard several of my pupils refer to this as "The racing line"... ! It can be alright in Formula 1 however, not on the general public road.
If the road curves to the proper, the chances are that the view of the road ahead is blocked by the corner. In the event that you were to take the short cut across the corner, you wouldn't see someone coming the other way until it had been too late.
Again, you should stay in position 1 metre from the kerb and drive round the outside of the curve. I ask my pupils to imagine a bus coming around the corner towards them... that keeps them over to the left.
And finally...
4. The most common cause of incorrect position if you ask me: Straight-lining a roundabout. This involves cutting over the roundabout instead of driving around it.
When you are coping with a multiple lane roundabout, you must imagine where the lane markings will be if they were painted completely around. Sometimes they're, but usually the markings end at the give-way line. The rest is left to the imagination.
If you can find two lanes approaching the roundabout, there should be two lanes going around it. Where you can find three or more lanes approaching, there are three or more lanes going around. It is vital that you stay static in your lane position as you travel around the roundabout so as not to move across in front of another vehicle.
OK if you are turning right at the roundabout, you will need to move across left side of the roundabout before exiting. But that is done carefully, with effective usage of the mirrors. Faults are given out when unplanned movements are made without due care and attention.