Buxton driving test centre

The 50 mph roads are what makes Buxton different. About a seventh of the mapped roads within a couple of miles carry that limit, and they run out of a town where almost everything else is 30. The transition is the marked bit in both directions: getting up to a speed that suits the road once the limit rises, and losing it again in good time on the way back in. Driving a national or 50 limit road too slowly is a fault, and it is a common one on tests that spend most of their length at 30.

Junction work is straightforward by comparison. There is one mini-roundabout in the area and nineteen sets of lights, so the roundabouts that matter are the conventional ones, with Cavendish Avenue, Harpur Hill Road and Trent Avenue among the named junctions. Approach lane, observation and a signal that goes on for the exit rather than after it will cover most of what is asked.

The rest is ordinary town driving on Fairfield Road, Bench Road, Dale Road and Spring Gardens, with Bridge Street and Station Road linking them. Parked cars narrow several of these to one working lane, so meeting oncoming traffic and deciding early who goes first comes up repeatedly. Only nine schools sit within the same radius, which is fewer than at most centres, so the school run is less of a factor than the general traffic.

Manoeuvres are usually asked for on the quieter residential roads off these, where the kerb is straight and there is parking on one side. The loops run between about six and eight miles.