When you get ready to go out at night and need to drive, you should always make sure that both you and your car are prepared for the outing.  You need to make sure that you will be able to see adequately to drive and you may find that as you age you may need night time driving glasses.   Always allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness if you leave a brightly-lit building.  And it’s a good idea to make sure your windshield is clear on the inside of your car and the outside to cut any glare that may occur from passing vehicles in the other lane. 

The biggest priority of a night time driver is to make sure the lights on his or her car work properly.  Headlights, taillights, parking lights and turn signals should all be in good working condition.  Make sure that the headlights work in both positions – main beam and dip.  Use the proper settings on your lights when driving to help you see better.  Dimly lit or dark roads with little traffic can be traversed using your high beams.  When driving in town or on roads that are lit, use the dipped setting.  Always remember to dim your lights when on the bright setting to oncoming traffic so as not to blind the other motorists.

If you feel yourself getting tired while you are driving at night, stop the vehicle, get out, and take a break.  Fatigue can cause you to fall asleep at the wheel and if this happens you could get involved in an accident, potentially a fatal one.

Summer time is when the number of cyclist increase due to road events and we all prefer to use a cycle when it is not raining! Also due to the rise in petrol costs we are seeing more cyclists on the road with very differing levels of skill and experience. Due to this drivers of motor vehicles need to take extra care to judge their speed, as well as the road and weather conditions, from the new cyclist’s point of view. Some cyclists, particularly younger ones, have never driven a car, and so don’t recognise the problems that they can cause car drivers.

Cyclist do not have a steel cage around them like the motorist, passing too close can be disconcerting. In traffic, make sure that you don’t cut up a cyclist who is about to pass you on the near side, try not to cut across a cyclist when you need to turn left at a junction and wait behind the cyclist until the cyclist has either turned left or passed the junction. All of this and much more may seem to be common sense, which it is, and you will find reference to safe driving and cyclist in the Online Highway Code at the site of the Bill Plant Driving School.

The Bill Plant Driving School is in the top five in the UK and is recognised as being at the forefront when it comes to innovation in its approach as a driving school, offering many online services which help those who are learning to drive, including free Online Theory Test and the all important Highway Code online.

No matter if you have never sat behind the wheel of a car before Bill Plant will take you one step closer to passing that important driving test, whether this is at the Handsworth test centre Sheffield, or maybe you will be taking your driving test at Middlewood Road in Sheffield, we are sure that when you decided to take driving lessons in Sheffield you were relieved to find the Bill Plant Driving School. Their renowned approach of local driving lessons offering regional experience goes a long way when learning to drive in Sheffield. Collecting you within your local area whether this is Abbeydale or Tinsley, to name but two in the whole of the Sheffield area conurbation means that you will not be pitched into the hurly burly of Sheffield city centre traffic and your driving lessons in Sheffield will be pitched at the right level for you.

You may have successfully completed your driver training, just started off and enrolled at one of the Bill Plant Driving Schools, or like many of us have been driving for years. Maybe it is the latter category that could do with some refreshment on the pages of The Highway Code. Bill Plant has always been to the forefront in keeping up with the very latest in cars and constantly ensuring that the Qualified Driving Instructors are aware of new legislation, and checked to ensure their performance is kept up to hi high standard. 

So it is no surprise that this highly rated School of Motoring has made available online the full pages of the Highway Code that can be easily accessed through their online pages. The revision of these can help when taking the Driving Test, or help mature drivers keep up to date with changes that may have taken place over the years since they took the practical test. The online Highway Code is free to access, why not look at it today, you may be surprised how it has changed!

Whether your view on parking restrictions that are evident in every town and city is that they help the flow of traffic, or that they are revenue raisers for government, they are here to stay and they are becoming more restrictive in the way that there administered.

As of now, tickets for parking illegally can be issued in an entirely new way. No longer has the parking attendant to hand you the ticket, or fix this to the windscreen of your car. CCTV cameras are now being used to spot those drivers who stop on a yellow line, and this could be for literally just a few minutes. Photographs are taken and a ticket is sent in the post to the registered owner of the vehicle. Obviously you should avoid illegally parking your car, your Qualified Driving Instructor will have fully briefed you about this, and checking the online Highway Code will give guidance also. Avoid that ticket!

It is a sad truth that following on from our successful driving test, the longer we drive the more inclined we are to ignore all but the most basic of road signs. Even a “Stop” in large capitals painted on the road is often ignored; at the very best it will be treated as a give way sign.

Many believe that we are suffering from “signage overload” as there are an increasing number of instructions, many of which are unofficial, appearing on our roads. This often means that because of all the signs at eye level, we often ignore, or are unaware of the relevance of road markings, even when we see them.

We cannot stress enough the value of continuing to re-read the Highway Code, which can also be accessed online at Bill Plant School of Motoring. Road signs are there for a purposed and for our and others safety, simply put, the more paint that is on the road surface, the greater the potential danger.

When was the last time you sounded your horn? Many drivers rarely sound their horn at all, because they feel that it can be interpreted as being aggressive. We don’t mean blasting someone for pulling out in front of you or reminding the driver in front that the traffic lights have turned to green!

As you will find from the guide in the Highway Code the whole purpose of the horn is to warn other road users of your presence, they may not have noticed you or simply cannot see that you are an approaching hazard, your horn is a warning instrument. Remember that the overall principle is that the other road user should have time to hear the horn, recognise the risk and have time to react. Your horn should be used as you would your own voice, by doing this you won’t go too far wrong.

On the 31st January 2008, it became twenty five years since the law changed to make it compulsory to wear seat belts in the front of cars and seventeen years to wear them in the back. All students enrolling for driving lessons at the Bill Plant School; of motoring are made familiar with all aspects of safety when driving a motor vehicle, particularly the benefits of seat belt wearing in motor vehicles.

It may come as a surprise that recently released figures indicate that although we now routinely belt up in the front, many are not using seat belt when in the rear of a car, as many as one third of passengers. Drivers are reminded that it is their responsibility to ensure that all passengers must wear a seat belt; failure to do so can result in the driver being £500.00. Advice on the use of seat belts can be found on page 19in the Highway Code.

Information regarding the speed limit that apply to roads in the UK is clearly set out in the Highway Code and is something that is part of the tuition that every student enrolling with Bill Plant is familiar with.

However, reader enquiries in the popular press often ask, are there any guidelines for the police to follow when placing their mobile cameras close to signs which indicate a change in the limit? Well the short answer to this is no, because the police can issue fixed penalty notices for exceeding the limit anywhere within the boundaries and frequently do so as drivers exiting a limit, are prone to accelerate prematurely, so be warned and remember that the speed limit exists all the way between the road signs indicating the mandatory top speed.

Further demonstrating the forward thinking of our driving school, Bill Plant has now published the Highway Code in full as an addition to the already comprehensive web site, considered to be further evidence that this driving school offers its students the best from their offices throughout the UK.

All students will be familiar with the Highway Code, but what better than to look up that important piece of advice which can be accessed literally at the click of the mouse. The format for the Highway Code is simple with the introductory page divided into 24 main categories, as an example section 103 to 158: General rules, techniques and advice for all drivers and riders.

The online publication is comprehensive and fully covers the Department for Transport’s current printed version, although in the case of any court proceedings, whether civil or criminal, is the only one which should be replied upon.