Road conditions: driving in rain
Driving in rain is something that you can be sure you will experience regularly once you are an actual driver, although depending where you live and the time of year you learnt, you might have experienced it surprisingly little whilst you were learning to drive.
Now, when it comes to driving in the rain, braking is most clearly affected. Indeed if you have to break quickly it can take twice or longer for you to be able to stop the car. The reason for this is that the grip of the tyres on the road surface is less effective when it is wet, and so in addition the wheels can lock up.
This means that you should brake less strongly than you would in ordinary road conditions, and pro rata you should adjust your speed to the road conditions and go more slowly in rain than you normally would.
If there are any visibility issues at all from the rain even if it is light, then as a first step you should use your headlights on dipped. And make sure the windscreen is always clean: some learners have never actually needed to put the wipers on until they have passed their test, and indeed to squirt the windscreen also to clean it.
Sometimes you might have to drive through water on the road, such as a ford.
Common sense tells you to look for the shallowest point in it, as far as you can tell, and indeed that is what you should do, before driving through it slowly. When doing so you should select first gear and keeping the engine speed relatively high so that you do not risk stalling.
It is recommended that whenever you've been through water like that you then test the brakes afterwards to ensure that they are not affected: to do this simply drive slowly with one foot on the accelerator on the other pressing gently on the brake. This will let you test that the brakes are still working well.
Related Articles...
Staying calm in your driving test
There is no doubt that many people get extremely nervous before the driving practical test, and whilst this can be frustrating or disconcerting, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Many people...
Tips on driving in the country
Driving in the country can be quite a different experience to driving around towns and on motorways.
Firstly, depending where you are, the road quality can be very variable and bumpy and...
What different cats eyes mean
There are market studs, which are usually referred to as multi-coloured studs or even more usually as cats eyes, along certain areas of motorways and optionally on other parts of motorways...
What to do at a box junction
The box junction is quite common but despite this there are a whole wide range of ways in which different drivers interpret what they are supposed to do at them so you will see different behaviours...
Things to look for when checking tyre condition
The tyres are extremely important elements of the car, yet many people do not think much about them when checking that their vehicle is roadworthy.
However, in addition to checking the amount...
Speed limits on motorways
The speed limits on the motorway are something that you will no doubt be aware of for cars, but is the limit the same for a motorbike? And what about if you are bus or a coach driver?
Another...
Testing your driving ability
The driving part of the test to assess if you are safe to let on the roads is called the practical test, and it lasts in the region of 40 minutes in total. The purpose is to assess if you can drive...
What to expect at a hazard perception test
The test has fourteen different clips, as outlined in the article entitled 'how to pass the hazard perception test'.
Each of those clips starts counting down from ten to zero, in order to...
Rules for learner drivers
The minimum ages and restrictions vary from one type of vehicle to another.
When you are learning to drive, you must ensure that the vehicle you are learning to drive in is roadworthy and also...
Why new drivers are more likely to be involved in an accident
It is a well known statistic that new drivers are more likely to be involved in accidents, and indeed insurance companies definitely know this as you'll see by comparing premiums as a new driver...
Back to home page of driving theory test questions