To be petrified driving on motorways

Motorway driving is so much easier than city or country road driving (which can be bloody awful). It's literally just going straight. There's nothing to it.

Motorway lessons sound like the answer.

I live 3 motorways including the M25 from my family and have done since I was 19 years old, now ds1 lives the other way round the M25 so I’m very used to motorway driving and don’t have an issue thankfully….apart from the traffic, middle lane drivers and all that of course!

Driving in central London, that got me, I was scared! Wasn’t as bad as I anticipated but the lane changes, confusing road layouts and traffic were hard work!

I would take more lessons if I was struggling as I do think not feeling confident to drive on motorways would be limiting.

NRTFT - One tip I would give to you.... speed up on the slip road. I see so many nervous drivers treating it like a give way/stop junction. The slip is designed for you to get up to the speed of the traffic on the motorway so that you can merge into a gap. So get up to 60/70mph and be indicating so that a driver knows you are going to pull out into their lane and you are going fast enough you aren't causing them to break.

If you slow down or stop, this is very dangerous for the other cars joining the motorway behind you, dangerous for you as you risk not accelerating fast enough and also a lot harder for you to get out onto the motorway if it's busy!

Definitely book advanced driving lessons to give you practice and confidence going forwards.

I've never driven on a motorway either - just don't need to. I don't live anywhere near one and I can get where I need to go on A-roads, which I much prefer anyway.

Why do you think someone has to go on the motorway to drive properly?

I've never driven on the motorway and I passed my test nearly 10 years ago.

We don't have any nearby (the nearest is over an hour away) and when we do long journeys, DH drives as we take his (bigger) car so it's just never came up. I do drive daily on loads of narrow country lanes that most people hate though!

Yes, I just won't do it end of.

I'd much rather go the long way round too

@lanzerotelady
I don't need to with the job I do and I've no plans to ever 🤣

I don't drive on motorways. My nearest in the M25 and I HATE it. Had a bad experience and it has stayed with me.

Happy enough to drive on the motorways in other countries but can't get past the mind block. I just drive the long way round.

I used to be exactly the same. I also did breathing exercises to stop the panic setting in (for no reason)

I didn’t want to give into my fear and anxiety. So I just kept going on the motorway when I needed to and not avoiding it.

it does get easier. Now I don’t get the panic feeling, I take it all in my stride. I actually prefer it now as it’s just driving in the same direction as all the other cars, no turns, roundabouts or lights. Much easier!

Don’t give up. Keep going and it will get easier. If I can do it honestly anyone can I was terrible.

Driving is driving🫤

I'm the same! I wouldn't even do the drive so you are braver than me! My mum is the same so I've got my driving anxiety from her. I only drive locally. I would push myself if my husband wanted me to do more of the driving, but he prefers to be the driver (gets passenger sickness) so I don't.

38 years of "driving" and you haven't been on a motorway

Are you actually driving or just going through the motions going on the same roads?

OP I have the same problem. I don’t know why and wish I could do it!

It's never too late to have a crack at sorting these things. Tell her about exposure therapy rather than the defeating oh mum's got a small world. Early 60's is too young to be talking about someone like they're a doddery failure.

Honestly it’s easier. I was a very nervous driver and I completely empathise with the fear.

However, where I live there are motorways to get everywhere, even short journeys and it’s honestly fine, a lot easier than ‘normal’ roads

Get up to speed, don’t hesitate with joining / lane changes and it’s fine.

My wife was like this when we first got together and refused to drive on the motorway unless she absolutely had to.

I am the opposite and prefer driving on motorways and country roads to towns, having learned to drive in Norfolk before moving to Leeds. With family in rural Norfolk, Devon and Scotland, her refusal to drive on motorways massively restricted what we could do as it was impossible to access many of those places easily on public transport, and led to arguments as I was not willing to drive everywhere all the time whenever we wanted to visit friends and family.

Eventually she agreed to give it a try, first a couple of hours of driving on the A1 when we went to visit family in Scotland, and has gradually built up more and more. And once when I was unwell with the flue at the end of a holiday, she had to drive from Luton airport back to Leeds and said "this is such an easy drive" and that she didn't know why she had built it up so much!

Now she regularly drives from Leeds to Cambridge to see her best friend, and drove down to Devon this Easter on her own! I couldn't be more proud of her.

Making the switch to a more powerful and bigger car has also helped, previously we had a 1.2 Fiesta and now have a 2.0 Diesel Seat Leon, which is far better to drive on the motorways and feels much safer. I would say though to start off with small stints and maybe some lessons, but motorway driving is generally far far easier than town or city driving.

I'm 55
Passed my test at 17
Never driven on a motorway in my life 😫
Drive everyday for work
I feel your pain

Oh god, I would love to have your motorways , we have glorified dual carriageways as excuses for motorways and they are hell to drive on. That and country roads and B roads, no street lighting, mud everywhere, animals loose, people wearing black with no lights walking along the side, getting blinded by oncoming.......

First time I ever drove on a "proper" motor way, we had crossed over to Liverpool heading to London, DH got us out of Liverpool and I took over, till the last services before the M25, he got us to destination in London. Coming home it was an early start and we were crossing from Scotland, I did London to Gretna and he took us the last bit

Yes I was crapping myself at first but once I had got used to having traffic all around me, I was fine, even when the hard shoulder was opened up on the M40 it was scary but ok

I have the sat nav within eyesight ( I dont like the onboard I prefer google maps ) . I have everything I might need to reach for within easy reach so I can grab a sweet, a drink, a tissue without taking eyes of the road for a second . Minute I feel like its getting monotonous , I pull in at a service station, stretch my legs

There was a time there going through the menopause when brain fog was at its worse and my nerves were shot, that I started to avoid driving. Only I live rural so I had to get back behind the wheel. I had someone pull directly out in front of me in the summer , I needed to do an emergency stop, I had my Granddaughter in the car. No one hurt, no harm done, but again it knocked me back and I was getting palpitations when anywhere near traffic. I saw a counsellor connected to the surgery and she gave me affirmations to tell myself, and I will say I am still tense, Im back out driving

I live in the north of Scotland where there are no motorways. I passed my test 5 years ago and drove on a motorway for the first time this year.

I was anxious about it but found watching YouTube videos of people having driving lessons on the motorway really helpful. I obviously never had the opportunity to have that type of lesson. I'd suggest choosing ones that don't have clickbaity titles or visuals. A lot of these content creators have cameras that show the rear view etc.

I don’t like motorways either but have driven on them before factoring in comfort breaks and if necessary someone with me.

@pooballs

The point is that it's not actually any different on motorways, in fact the lanes are wider, the roads tend to be better quality, the curves are more gradual, it's actually easier on the motorway for any distance beyond local. If you can drive on a roads, you can drive on motorways

I am too. Im autistic and I struggle with the quick decision-making and judging speed & distance. I also catastrophize which isn’t great on a motorway!

I went on numerous advanced driving courses before accepting that it’s just something I’m never going to get comfortable with. I walk wherever I can and then get public transport but I do live in a central area.

I don’t really live near a motorway but I do have a major A road near me which practically is a motorway. I learned to drive on it and so when I passed my test and could then drive on a proper motorway I couldn’t understand the difference! I only discovered recently that some people never drive on a motorway type road until they pass their test, as not everyone has a major A road near them that is similar.

I use the A roads. I just allow the extra time