I'm sure I have read somewhere that an 'L' driver cannot take the DSA driving test in a car fitted with an 'automatic release' electric parking brake (eg some Renaults, Citroens, etc) because of the way in which these brakes simplify a hill start. You just press the pedal and go.
I can find no reference to this on the DSA website, however. Can anyone confirm this please -- if it is so, I would apreciate chapter and verse.
|
It's on the DSA website (search for handbrake): www.dsa.gov.uk/News.asp?id=SXBB3E-A782AE86&cat=492
"Electronically operated parking brake (handbrake)
...A number of vehicles are now being fitted with an electronically operated handbrake. Some of these are able to be manually overridden and operate as a conventional ratchet type handbrake. Vehicles fitted with these electronic devices that are presented for test must be capable of being manually overridden and operated as a conventional handbrake."
If I understand this correctly, you have to be able to apply and release the handbrake manually during the test (whether there's a "click-click-click" or a "shtoong!") so I assume that any "automatic" operation of the handbrake would automatically mean a test fail. Are there any driving instructors in the BR to confirm this??
|
|
Personally I think it was a bad idea to allow the use of starter motors and trafficators during the test. Use of the starting handle should be compulsory.
Edited by brum on 02/11/2009 at 20:33
|
Correct Bilbo - not permitted on a test as too few vehicles have them.
|
You need to demonstrate to the examiner that you can co-ordinate use of handbrake and clutch during a hill start, so any parking brake with an automatic release is not allowed.
|
|
|
|
|
Many thanks for the link, Bilboman -- that's what I was looking for -- and thank you to the other contributors for some useful points.
|
And what about taking the test in a car with park assist???
Or the ultimate driving aid - a chauffeur!
|
On re-reading the link provided by Bilboma, I find that it gets curioser and curioser. Bilboman supplied a relevant extract in the interests of brevity of course, but the full text reads:-
"One of the skills tested on a driving test (with vehicles fitted with a manual gearbox) is co-ordinating the parking brake (handbrake) with the clutch and accelerator when moving off. A number of vehicles are now being fitted with an electronically operated handbrake. Some of these are able to be manually overridden and operate as a conventional ratchet type handbrake.
Vehicles fitted with these electronic devices that are presented for test must be capable of being manually overridden and operated as a conventional handbrake."
Note the reference to "vehicles fitted with a manual gearbox" . Does this mean that automatics (such as mine) so equipped can still be used for the test? I suppose it would make sense in a way, since such candidates would obtain a licence restricted to automatics, but can they drive a car with a conventional handbrake?
The whole thing is typically ambiguous. Or is my senile decay getting senilier?
|
|
It reads to me as though a car fitted with an electronically operated handbrake that can't be manually overridden and operated as a conventional ratchet type one can't be used for the normal (manual transmission) driving test. An auto. fitted with a purely electronic handbrake may be used for an auto. test. If you pass your auto. test in a car so equipped, you may drive an auto. with either type of handbrake (but not any car with manual transmission, of course).
|
. An auto. fitted with a purely electronic handbrakemay be used for an auto. test.
Correct.
|
|
Are cars fitted with hill hold also unable to be used?
|
Are cars fitted with hill hold also unable to be used?
They would not be acceptable either.
It is probable that a test in a vehicle with an automatic handbrake would actually be conducted by an examiner, but even though a manual test had been booked only an automatic licence would be issued.
|
|
|
|
|
