Driving myself mad Testing times trying to get on the road

A Clean Air Zone, liveable neighbourhoods and rising parking charges have made life ever more difficult for Bristol's drivers. But, as Alex Seabrook reports, getting on the road in the first place is a frustrating journey...

- Alex Seabrook

THE hardest part of learning to drive this year has not been clutch control nor navigating through the minefield of city centre construction work.

There are two test centres in Bristol and I simply cannot book a test in either one despite many desperate months of trying.

Learner drivers have struggled to book tests since the pandemic, first due to a backlog that built up and then due to that backlog getting exploited by scalpers. Some parts of the country are harder than others to book a test, like London or Bristol, with more rural parts less difficult.

As soon as I had passed my theory test in March I began trying to book a practical test, and I have not stopped since then. First you have to pass the most complicated Captcha test I've ever come across, to check you're a human and not a bot. They make me doubt I am in fact human.

Then you have to wait about a minute while the website buffers, and finally you can choose which centre you would like to book a test in and when.

Except the next stage, 99 per cent of the time, is a message saying there are sadly no available tests that meet your requirements.

I tried booking in centres near Bristol - Newport, Weston-super-Mare, Monmouth, Cardiff and Barry - and got the same message. Eventually, after about a month, I finally booked a test 50 miles away in Hereford.

The advice often given to learners is to book a test anywhere in the country, and then try to change your centre closer to home. So since April, I've been trying to do just that.

During most lessons now my instructor takes me to Kingswood, so I can practise driving on the roads near the test centre there, which feels pointless, as I cannot change my test to Bristol.