Modern driving seems to involve the minimum of signals and consideration for other road user, particularly those behind.

The BSM, as they were known back in the times when very few organisations of tv/radio programmes were designated by their initials, was based in Queens Road, near Carr’s two second-hand stores.

I think I had a course of six lessons at £0-17s-6d (75p) an hour and I believe I opted for an extra two prior to taking my driving test, which comprised one hour for the lesson and an hour to use the car for the test.

I recall they had a little dot on the back window, which you lined up with the edge of the curve when reversing the Morris Oxford round a bend. They also placed the mirror a little off centre so you had to move your head when seeking to check what was happening behind you, which would reassure the examiner you were in control and aware of all aspects.

You practiced an emergency stop in Station Approach, coming down from Watford Met, and a hill start over the road on Hagden Lane. You executed a three-point turn in one of the West Watford side roads and also reversed into one of them, lining up the black dot.

I passed, which came as a great relief to me and I looked lovingly at the certificate of success, which I was then shocked to see was signed by a Mr Sheehan. He had a habit of failing everyone, so the local legend had it. You lost less face, I suppose, when you failed a test but were able to say: “Of course it was bloomin’ Sheehan.” Probably he failed no more than any other tester but he was cited as the reason know-all young people had come a cropper, when probably it was his day off, and they were failed simply because they were not good enough by another tester.

After all, who could fault you if you claimed Sheehan had failed you.

Well I laid the ghost of Sheehan. He was not a very cordial individual and not one to relax you. It was down to nerves that I undertook a five-point turn, when I was proficient at accomplishing the manoeuvre in three. I asked him if I could have another go. “I am nervous for really I can do it in three,” I pointed out.

“I did not ask you to turn the car in the road a specific number of times but to do so with the use of forward and reverse gears,” he said to me somewhat laconically, and asked me to continue.

To my mind, I had all but blighted the test when travelling down Rickmansworth Road, past the Peace Memorial. The traffic was heavy and, as I laboriously but pointedly turned my head to check my rear-view mirror, the traffic came to a sudden stop. I turned in time to press the brake somewhat hurriedly to avoid running into the Standard 8 in front of me.

The tester let out a long breath and I “knew” I had failed, so I relaxed and tried to retrieve my fortunes during the rest, which was the bulk, of the test.

Had I known it was Sheehan, I would have driven straight back.

“You have come up to the standards of the Ministry of Transport Test,” he said when we finished the test circuit. “You must remember that you do not have to spend too long looking in the rear-view mirror, trying to demonstrate that you are doing just that.”

I nodded. I would have agreed to anything he said before he gave me the signed pass.

The instructor was pleased and he dropped me back to The Parade, where I told my colleagues in the West Herts Post the news. His final words as I thanked him profusely on getting out of the car were: “Remember! Signal first then brake. Signal-brake.”

I believe we were all told the mantra in those days but it seems to have disappeared from view. In olden days, that mantra was as familiar as a half-price sofa sale is now. Yet, seemingly, it has been discarded and you see it exercised all too rarely.

How many times do you see someone braking in front? Is it a traffic jam? A dog in the road? An accident? A breakdown? You wait for the clue.

Oh no, now I see. He is going to turn right.

Drivers seem cocooned by the belief that if you drive into the back of them, you will have to pay, so they do not consider you worthy of being informed. They probably do not even use the rear-view mirror. They just do their own thing. They brake and subsequently signal, which belatedly may then enable you to check your mirror and signal your intention to overtake the turning vehicle.

Consideration of fellow man in every-day life, is not high on the modern agenda. So signal-brake is as outdated, seemingly, as a Lonnie Donegan hit.

At least there is one benefit for the tendency to brake-signal. It is useful training for driving in France. There you are lucky if they signal at all. Driving in France on an every-day basis, is an education. The best way to prepare for it in my view, is to drive in Shanghai or Naples. If your taste for getting behind the wheel is still intact after that experience, then theoretically you are ready for France.

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