Young drivers feel unprepared for driving alone

Young drivers feel unprepared for driving on Britain’s roads after passing their test according to research from the Co-operative Insurance.

Almost one third of young drivers said they felt unable to drive alone after passing their test, and 14% considered themselves “unprepared” to drive at all.

The biggest hurdle young drivers said they were unprepared for was motorway driving (see table) and 21% said they had avoided motorways as a result. Overall, 64% of young drivers said they had avoided certain situations or manoeuvres as a result of lack of confidence in their driving ability.

Risk takers

Despite this, 90% of the young drivers surveyed said they had taken some risks while driving (see graph below) including speeding (43%) and text messaging (21%).

Young drivers accounted for 22% of all road deaths in 2011, and 24% of survey respondents said they had been involved in some kind of accident. Of these, 24% said it could have been avoided if they had spent more time learning to drive and almost two-thirds of all respondents said they were in favour of minimum learning periods for learner drivers.