15 driving tips for beginners and new drivers

We all react to the task of driving in different ways: some of us take to driving as if we were born with a steering wheel in our hands, while others find even short journeys enough to induce feelings of anxiety.

It’s perfectly natural to feel nervous behind the wheel if you’ve just passed your test or you haven’t driven for a long time. Driving is something that improves with experience – and experience breeds confidence.

We should all be constantly trying to improve our driving skills, so we’ve gathered 15 driving tips to help you become more confident on the road.

Carwow’s top 15 driving tips:

1. Plan your journey
2. Familiarise yourself with the controls
3. Check your car is running OK
4. Find the right driving position
5. Minimise any distractions
6. Observe and scan
7. Take your time
8. Give yourself space
9. Don’t let other drivers intimidate you
10. Get to know your most-used roads
11. Practice in new areas when it’s quiet
12. Take breaks if you’re driving long distances
13. Get used to driving at night and in all conditions
14. Read the Highway Code
15. Consider an advanced driving course

1. Plan your journey

Plan every journey you take, even if it’s just down the road to the shops. When you’re a relatively new driver, you’re still building up your driving muscle memory, so you need to focus on every journey. Plan your route and any potential alternatives, consider the time of day and how much traffic is likely to be on the roads, and check the weather. It’s also a really good habit to get into when you start driving.

2. Familiarise yourself with the controls

Spend some time learning about all the different switches, buttons and controls of your car. If you familiarise yourself with the controls, you’ll know where they are without having to look for them. It can give you vital extra reaction time if you suddenly need to use them.

Get to know the controls for the headlights, fog lights and hazards are, for example. With so much screen-based onboard technology in modern cars, it’s worth getting a feel for the climate controls and any common infotainment functions, to minimise distractions while you’re driving.

3. Check your car is running OK

You have enough to concentrate on when driving, so you don’t need to worry about whether your car is going to break down. You don’t have to be a trained mechanic to undertake a few basic checks that your car is roadworthy before a trip.

Check the coolant and lubricant levels – the water and oil. Check the level of the coolant – which prevents overheating in the summer, freezing in the winter and corrosion in the engine – when the engine is cold, making sure that the level is between markers for the minimum and maximum levels.

Ensure your car is parked on level ground and your engine is cool. Open the bonnet and find the dipstick (your user manual will show where it is): pull it out, wipe off the oil with a cloth and look for two marks on the dipstick, showing the minimum and maximum oil levels. Put the dipstick back into the tube then remove it again. If the level is halfway between the minimum and maximum levels on the dipstick, it’s fine. If it’s below halfway, you may want to add some oil. If it’s below the minimum mark, you need to add oil. Replace the cap and the dipstick, and close the bonnet.

The brake, clutch and power steering fluids in your car also need to be monitored, so learn how to do these checks once a month, or before a long trip.

Of course, as we move to driving EVs, many of these checks will be unnecessary, but until then, ensure your car is running as well as it can.

4. Find the right driving position

Being comfortable behind the wheel is of crucial importance for your safety and wellbeing, so it’s important that you set yourself up properly in any car that you drive. Make sure you can reach the pedals easily, but have enough room to comfortably turn the steering wheel.

To adjust the steering wheel for optimal control and comfort, stretch your arm and see if you can rest your wrist on the top of your steering wheel. If you can do that comfortably with just a slight bend in your arm, you’re about the right distance from your steering wheel.

Sit high up enough to see a good amount of your car’s bonnet too, but not so high that it feels like you’re stood over the pedals.

Once you’re happy with your seating position, remember to adjust all your mirrors to fit in with your seating position.

5. Minimise any distractions

Confidence behind the wheel requires you to stay focused, so take some time to minimise any potential distractions before you start driving.

Clear out anything you don’t need in your car that could cause distracting rattles, avoid hanging anything from your rearview mirror and remember to turn your phone’s notifications off if it’s mounted in a cradle for navigation.

Ideally, if you don’t need to use it for navigation, put your phone well and truly out of sight. Nothing more distracting than a mobile phone. Drivers who use a mobile phone while driving are four times more likely to crash, injuring or killing themselves and other people. The best advice is not to use a mobile phone at all while driving, especially if you’re a new driver. Never use a phone in your hand and – although it’s perfectly legal – avoid using a handsfree phone as much as possible, because it’s almost as distracting.

6. Observe and scan

One of the most important skills to develop as a driver is to notice what’s happening around you. A driver’s eyes should be moving nearly every two seconds, because studies show that where your eyes move is where your brain focuses its attention. Having a fixed stare, on the other hand, reduces brain activity. Constant eye movement while driving makes for more alert driving and better driver attention to hazards on the road.

Good driving observation is seeing and noticing all that’s going on around you while you’re driving: it’s one of the best ways to avoid collisions. While moving your eyes, move your head as little as possible, because you tend to drift in that direction and take your eyes and attention off what’s happening in front of you.

The number one cause of road accidents in the UK is both drivers and riders failing to look properly. You read that correctly; failing to look is responsible for more accidents than slippery roads, poor manoeuvres, and many other things that your driving instructor warned you about.

Use your mirrors every few seconds to alert you to any emergency vehicles coming up behind you, for example, or to your side mirrors to see any road users approaching you from either side. An occasional glance at your speedometer, fuel and temperature gauges is a good idea, too.

You should be constantly scanning the road ahead: how far will depend on how fast you’re driving. At 20mph, you should be looking around 30m ahead; at 30mph, you should be looking 45m ahead, and so on. However, be sure not to look so far ahead that you don’t see a hazard right in front of you.

Stay conscious of the kind of roads you’re driving on and the types of hazards that could present themselves: in towns and cities, your scanning will include looking for any children who could potentially run out into the street or someone opening the door of a parked car; on a motorway, you’ll be scanning on any lane-changing ahead or queues building up around junctions.

7. Take your time

Getting to your destination safely is more important than anything while driving. If you start trying to rush things behind the wheel, you’re more likely to make a mistake, panic and potentially put yourself at a greater risk.
Be patient both with other drivers and yourself. Give yourself as much time as possible when approaching junctions, then pull away gently and with plenty of room to do so. Make sure you’re ready for speed limit changes well in advance, rather than having to suddenly brake at the last minute.

And remember the two-second rule at all times. While driving, choose a fixed point ahead – a signpost, road marking, tree, etc – of the vehicle in front of you. When the vehicle passes that fixed point, start counting (using a consistent timing method, like thousand and one, or Mississippis). If you reach the fixed point before you count for two seconds, drop back until you are two seconds behind, which gives you more time to react to any sudden change to the traffic flow in front of you.

8. Give yourself space

As we’re driving, there’s a lot going on around us all the time, so you need to stay alert, especially at junctions. Having enough time to react to any hazards is reliant on having enough space between yourself and traffic in front, behind and on either side of you. Give yourself plenty of stopping distance between yourself and the car in front. How much will depend on the speed you’re travelling at, but the two-second rule is a good guide. Being aware of the space around your car is also crucial for protecting more vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists.

9. Don’t let other drivers intimidate you

If someone is driving two inches from your rear bumper and looking to hurry you up, try your best to ignore them. Stick to your own driving and don’t let other people’s erratic behaviour dictate how you act.

If someone is following you too closely, try to increase the gap between you and the car in front. This gives you more room to slow down gently if a car ahead brakes suddenly, lowering the risk of getting rear-ended by the tailgater.

Even if you’re in a tiny hatchback and they’re imposing with a massive SUV, just remain calm and don’t feel pressured into speeding up. Adapt your driving to reduce the risk as much as possible.
Try not to stress at other people’s bad driving: it can put you in a bad mood and lead to making risky decisions.

10. Get to know your most-used roads

If you’re regularly driving along the same roads, such as your commute to work, it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with them.

Take some time when it’s quiet to drive up and down them, getting a feel for any potentially tricky roads or junctions. Uncertainty is often a cause for nerves, so knowing your local roads well can help minimise the pressure you feel when driving.

11. Practice in new areas when it’s quiet

Though knowing your most-used roads well is important, it’s always good to take yourself out of your comfort zone when it comes to driving, as you need to build up as much experience as quickly as you can.

Take some time on a quiet evening or weekend to drive to areas you never would otherwise. This is a good way to learn how to adapt to new and potentially unexpected types of roads and junctions, which will help build your confidence when driving around new places.

12. Take breaks if you’re driving long distances

If you’re taking a long drive, make sure you’re allowing yourself plenty of time for breaks. Holding your focus on the motorway for hours can be tiring, so it’s important to stretch your legs and refresh yourself now and then. The more you drive long distances, the more you build your concentration’s stamina, but you should always take a break every couple of hours, even if you’re an experienced long-distance driver.

13. Get used to driving at night and in all conditions

As we mentioned above, it’s always good to take yourself out of your driving comfort zone, so it’s important that you get used to driving in all types of weather conditions and at all times of the day or night.

You might have to drive through morning and evening fog, so you’ll need to experience driving slower, with dipped headlights, looking out for all road users and potential collisions ahead.

At night, judging the speed of vehicles is more difficult, so you should increase the distance between you and the car in front of you. If you can’t see ahead, slow down to give yourself more time to react to a potential hazard. If you’re on a major A road or motorway, keep an eye out for reflective road signs and road studs that can help in the dark or poor light.

And then there’s rain. We’re used to the rain in Britain, but if you learn to drive in the summer, perhaps you haven’t encountered rain during a lesson. Or you might not have driven with lots of wet leaves on the road in autumn.

Either way, get used to the windscreen wiper and washer controls, so you instinctively know what to reach for when it (inevitably) starts to rain, and which settings to use to switch the intensity of the rain.

The more you drive, the more experience you have of different situations, so you’ll be more prepared when you encounter one of them.

14. Read the highway code

There’s a ton of really useful information in the Highway Code, so it can be hard to remember every single section of it. However, keeping yourself familiar with the rules of the road can help your confidence massively.

If you know exactly what you should and shouldn’t be doing, it removes a layer of uncertainty that could potentially lead to nerves.

This doesn’t mean having to study it religiously: an occasional browse online will do – and you can search it by topic, so you can always brush up after experiencing something on the road and checking if you were doing the right thing.

15. Consider an advanced driving course

Improving your driving skills is the best way to improve your confidence behind the wheel.

Advanced driving courses are a bit like taking lessons again, but they’re more tailored to your exact needs. They will typically involve an assessment from a tutor, who will assess which areas of your driving to improve. They will then work with you to improve your skills and confidence in a way they feel would most benefit you.

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