The Easiest & Hardest Places Your Most Likely To Pass Your Driving Test

Last Updated: 01/01/2020

When you’re preparing to take your driving test there are many different things that will be going through your mind as your try to give yourself the best chance possible of passing.

However, while you will be focussed on particularly manoeuvres and the basics of driving your car safely, research suggests that where you’re located could be a key contributing factor.

Pass rates up and down the UK are recorded and analysed frequently and one of the results of that is it begins to build a picture of where is the easiest place to pass your test and where is the hardest. Or, you may wish to term it likeliest and unlikeliest.

In 2018, there was a clear trend of the types of places where the statistics suggest you’re more likely to pass.

Locations such as Inveraray, Mallaig and Gairloch boast the highest pass rates in the UK with over 80% of drivers passing in each town.

In fact, Scotland occupies the top six spots for the easiest places to pass your test.

After that, theres the rural Welsh town of Llandrinrod Wells before the remainder of the top ten are all against in Scotland.

In contrast, the areas with the lowest pass rates are all in England – the entire top ten.

Two different regions of Birmingham occupy the top two spots before the likes of Speke, Enfield and Erith fill the remainder of the top five.

So, why is this?

Well, when you begin to look in more details at each of these places, the reasons why some have a higher pass rate and others suffer a low pass rate becomes quite obvious.

All of those towns and villages in Scotland and Wales that feature the highest pass rates in the UK have one thing in common; they’re all small, quiet, rural locations.

This means that when you jump behind the wheel and head out to do your test, you’re much less likely to come up against a lot of heavy traffic or find yourself in any stressful or dangerous road situations.

This means the driver should be more relaxed and in control, with less distractions competing for their attention.

Those places with the low pass rates are also easy to understand.

The top two positions are taken by The Pavilion and South Yardley; both are suburbs of Birmingham, England’s second city and one of the busiest road networks in the UK.

Speke is in third and located on the outskirts of Liverpool while also being the location for an international airport that has rapidly outgrown its original remit.

All of these things suggest one problem; traffic and a lot of it.

Rush hours can be incredibly hectic but even outside of these, the busy city locations will have many junctions, sets of traffic lights, road instructions and things such as bus lanes which may catch an inexperienced driver off-guard.

With all that taken into account, it’s easy to see why taking your driving test in a small rural location is much more likely to be successful.

Image Credits: Wikipedia