Tips and Blogs

This Valentine’s Day, make sure you bag yourself a second date by driving safely and sensibly. IAM RoadSmart’s head of driving and riding standards, Richard Gladman, has put together five top tips to help keep yourself and your loved one safe on the road.

Making the wrong choice could be a costly mistake, and one you could regret for years to come. Richard Gladman, Head of Riding and Driving Standards for the biggest independent road safety charity in the UK, IAM RoadSmart, has come up with a set of tips to help you make sure you make the right choice.

Driving in front of, or even behind, a large lorry can be daunting. But there’s no need to panic as Richard Gladman, IAM RoadSmart’s head of riding and driving standards, is here to help with seven top driving tips to keep you at ease.

The start of a new decade has prompted many of us to try new things – a new job maybe, an expensive gym membership or the temptation of buying a new or used car.

Some of us have become victims of road rage at some point in our lives. If it happens it can easily leave you feeling intimidated and shaken. IAM RoadSmart has some useful advice if you ever find yourself in this situation.

You may recall that I wrote a blog in December reflecting on my step-daughter’s crash late at night on the M1 which resulted in her Mini being written off. Not a pleasant phone call to take, I can assure you!

All the media furore and ensuing debate about older drivers following the Duke of Edinburgh’s recent decision to voluntarily hand in his driving licence at the aged of 97 - and the crash that preceded his decision - has struck a personal chord with me.

It’s not every day you overhear someone recounting a tale of high-speed motorway driving, making contact with another vehicle at great speed, going in the wrong direction and seemingly being quite proud of it all.

As a bit of a naturalised southerner I often find myself coming out with phrases such as, ‘there are some cracking bits of road in Hertfordshire’ or ‘you don’t have to get far away from London to get to some proper driver’s roads’ and of course both of those phrases are true (honestly), but if pushed on the subject of my favourite road I need to go much further north.

What was your bedtime reading as a child? Depending on your era, was it the Famous Five, Winnie the Pooh, Ben 10, Spongebob, or something off an iPad? For me as a motoring obsessed youngster in the 80s, it was the latest issue of What Car?