Motorway driving

…edited by the Institute of Advanced Motorists. 126pp. 81/2″ x 51/4″. (Kogan Page Ltd, 120 Pentonville Road, London N1 5JN. £3.95).

Initially available only to IAM members, this book arguably should be part of the Institute’s own manual of advanced driving; but given that few casual motorists read that vital volume, a separate book at this low price may just get through to a wider spread of drivers.

This updated edition of the only work specifically on the subject should be read by all who use motorways, but probably won’t be; few drivers in the south of England seem concerned with lane-discipline, road conditions or safety distances. But everything in the book is simple good sense, in plain English, even if it does look a little padded out to make 128 pages.

Encouragingly, the manual reiterates the Police and IAM call for an 80 mph motorway speed-limit, and even suggests that “discretionary” passing on the left in certain circumstances should be made acceptable. I prefer the theory of a fellow motoring writer who believes that the offence of passing on the left should be scrapped, and a new one substituted of allowing oneself to be passed on the left, thus shifting the responsibiity to the centre-lane hogger. GC