According to figures released this month more than 6,400 motorists used DirectGov to tax or declare their vehicles off road on Christmas Day. The busiest time was between 10 and 11am when 585 people used the site. The least busy time was between 4 and 5am when only 13 people used the site.

In addition, 143 people used the service in the first 15 minutes of 2012.

New research has revealed that British people have so little knowledge of the Highway Code that two thirds of us are totally confused by basic road signs on a daily basis.
The latest study found that one in three drivers admitted to simply following the car in front if they were unsure of a particular sign, with more than half of us simply ignoring road traffic signs.

Motoring expert Quentin Willson said he was shocked that 28.6 million motorists appear to be baffled by road signs.

He said: 'It's worrying to think the vast majority of British motorists have not got a clue about the road signs they see every day. 'Signs are in place not only to help motorists navigate the road, but also for safety, and not taking the time to learn the most basic of instructions is lazy and irresponsible. 'There's only a few pages of road signs in the Highway Code. It's not War And Peace and reading five pages could one day save your life.'

Turn in the Road (can be more than a 3 point turn)

You may have to do a turn in the road where the road is narrow or your vehicle is difficult to steer.

Remember on your test, you could be asked to do a "turn in the road" so you will not get any faults for doing the manoeuvre in more than 3 turns if the road is narrow.

Watch the Video below to help you on your way!

Practice makes perfect, so get plenty of practice from a Approved Driving Instructor.

Tough new measures to crack down on drivers who abuse the disabled parking system - including a new Blue Badge design which is harder to forge - has come into force on 1st January 2012.

Previously, Blue Badges were made from card and handwritten but from the New Year disabled drivers will be able to apply for an electronically printed badge, much like a driving licence. The new badge will have security features such as a unique hologram, digital photo and serial number allowing parking attendants to check for genuine badges more easily through the windscreen.

Blue Badge fraud is estimated to cost the UK £46 million a year and it is generally accepted that reform is urgently needed. The new badge is part of a wider crackdown on misuse of the scheme to ensure disabled parking spaces can only be used by those most in need.

Increasing the motorway speed limit by 10mph will raise death rates, obesity and asthma levels, outweighing the economic benefits, experts have warned. An editorial in the British Medical Journal by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine criticises government proposals to raise the limit on all motorways in England and Wales from 70mph to 80mph by 2013. The Government argues that deaths on roads have fallen by 75 per cent in the past 55 years because of advances in car safety and ministers think increasing the speed limit makes sense as “almost half of all drivers break the current limit anyway”. The researchers challenge all of the Government’s arguments. They question the basis of the suggested economic benefits, given that the higher limit will not extend to heavy good vehicles. Their main concern draws on research which links an “exponential” increase in crashes resulting in injury and death to a rise in speed limits. In the US, higher speed limits introduced in 1995 resulted in a 16.6 per cent increase in deaths due to vehicle accidents.

Drivers have been urged not to take to the road with heavy colds as tests show their reaction speeds are worse than people who have downed four large whiskies.

Motorists afflicted by heavy colds or flu suffer a major loss of concentration when behind the wheel, putting themselves and other road users at risk, a new report showed.
With the winter flu season hitting Britain, the latest research shows that driving ability is estimated to drop by over 50per cent when motorists are under the weather.
This is the equivalent of downing over four double whiskies - a level of driving ability that an insurance company would expect to lead to an accident. .

A learner driver on her first lesson has been jailed for two years for crashing and killing a nine-year-old girl.

Driving test repeat candidates more likely to fail

Some people are simply not cut out to get behind the wheel of a car, official statistics suggest. Nearly 300 would-be motorists took their driving test for the 10th time in the past year. Just 88 of them passed.When it came to the 67 drivers who tried for the 12th time, 11 were successful. All eight people taking their 15th driving test failed.

The Driving Standards Agency’s figures for 2010-11 show that the traditional advice – “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” – does not ring true for some drivers. The pass rate falls the more times candidates sit their test.

It remained steady for the first three attempts, at between 46 to 47 per cent, before falling sharply. It stood at 44 per cent for the fourth attempt and 41 per cent at the fifth go. Just over a third of people taking their test for the sixth time were successful and for people who kept going it kept getting worse.