I Drove Bedford’s Driving Test Route And I’ll Never Be Back

I took on the Bedford Driving Test Centre and honestly… I’ll never be back. From the moment I arrived, the test centre facilities were a complete shambles, but then I drove the Bedford test route…. In this video I rate and review the entire experience — from the car park and ‘waiting room”, to the tricky Bedford roundabouts, junctions, and road layouts. If you’re learning to drive in Bedford, preparing for your Bedford driving test, or just curious about what makes this centre so awful, this is the inside look you need.

Whether you want to know the Bedford driving test pass rate, see what the routes are really like, or get tips for handling the nerves of such a tough test, you’ll find it all here. One thing’s for sure: after driving it myself, I won’t be rushing back to Bedford anytime soon.

**Download driving test routes here – and use code DSTV20 for 20% off
www.drivingtestroutes.uk

Why am I standing in the middle of a car park? This is the new worst driving test center by far. By miles. By so many miles. We’ve left the planet. We’ve bypassed the moon. We’ve hit Mars way before Elon. And then we’ve flown all the way back to England. That many miles times a million. This test centers. So, as always, I’m going to rate and review the test center, the area, the difficulty, the facilities, give you an overall score at the end. And straight away I’m going to tell you that the facilities at this test center are below zero. The scale goes from 1 to 10. If I had the infinity sign, I’d give it minus infinity. But I don’t. So minus 100. Facilities are minus 100. Let me tell you why. Because there are none. Nothing. Absolut nothing. Like, okay, Francis, there’s got to be a waiting room. No, there isn’t. There is not even a waiting room. Oh, but there’s got to be a toilet. You’d think there isn’t. Uh, left out of the test at a car park. There’s a car park. That’s it. You don’t you get no points for for having somewhere to put a car coming for a driving test. So, the other thing about Bedford Driving Test Center is it’s really hard to find. I asked in two different buildings and none of the people knew where Bedford Driving Test Center was. If this 100 yard turn right what she said if this doesn’t get incredible scores right for area and difficulty this might be the worst driving test center I’ve ever been to a if it is that’s going to be a great title I’m going to walk you through and talk you through what I would do if I was coming for my driving test here and I wanted to pass so that you can pass your driving test more easily and if you’ve passed your driving test already and you’re just interested in what Bedford ‘s like I’ll show you that, too. So, straight away, we’re out onto quite a busy road, quite fast. We’re turning left at the end to the town center. So, I’m going to wait for Go left on the roundabout and take the first exit. I can see some road markings. There’s a solid white line, so I’m going to wait before I move over to the left. You can drive through bus stops, but you can’t drive and cross a solid white line for no reason. That’s a solid white line across a hatched area. So, we need to wait for that to finish before we can merge across to the left. So, what I was expecting from Bedford was a bit like Milton Kees vibes. It’s not that. I mean, yes, we’ve got roundabouts, but that’s about where the similarities between Bedford and Milton Kees end. I’m excited for this because I really wanted to show you Milton Kees driving test. And as someone on Instagram warned me that I was not going to be impressed, I’m less than impressed. I’m visibly furious about how poor the facilities are at Bedford. Do better. Did Okay, I didn’t show you and I didn’t video it, but there’s a building the size of a spacecraft hanger and we couldn’t find anywhere for a waiting room. No. Checking mirrors as I set off on this roundabout. Bloody hell, we came a bit close. Jesus Christ. How much lan you need for your little blue car? Merging. Checking my right mirror because something could be merging around me. Motorbike, cyclist, other car, someone in a small blue Hyundai. Do you know what? Bedford might be redeeming itself because greenery, you know, we like that calming influence. Y cross the roundabout and take the second exit. Calming influence and vibes. This is a real driving test route at Bedford Driving Test Center. You know, I always bring you the proper driving tests thanks to driving test Roots UK. I’ve got a link in the description if you want to practice driving test routes, which you should do if you have your driving test coming up. Cheeky discount code there as well. Check it out. Let’s go towards the town center in Luton. Okay. Flashing amber light means ah this drive Johnson’s is not moving. Drive Johnson’s. Let’s go. Flashing amber light. This one’s confusing a lot of people. Flashing amber light means the same as a zebra crossing. Notice that the amber lights on the left and right side of a cross the roundabout and take the second exit. Like here the lights flash on the left and right side of an of a zebra crossing. A silver Mazda fail. Um, and it’s exactly the same on a flashing traffic light. Pedestrians have priority. Let them go if they’re still crossing. If there’s no one crossing, then we can crack on. Oh, that’s a slightly interesting road design. Cancel the signal and planning ahead. Red traffic light coming up, so there’s no point yeeting my car towards the red traffic light. So, I’m just easing off the gas. Now, it’s turned green. I’m back on the gas to speed up to the speed limit or the appropriate speed of the road. Little bit of a hazard on the left. All of these parked cars mean I can’t see the pavement. So, I’m just reducing my speed a little bit. You can see that in the corner. Is it that corner or that corner? It’s one of the corners that you can see my speed. Plus the map. Make this video extra helpful again. 300 y. Keep right then keep left. Interesting. Again, the lights have just turned red, so I’m not going to keep accelerating. How good is my planning ahead? Because as soon as I see the red traffic light or the lights turn red, I’m off the gas. I’m slowing down. That’s going to make my stop as smooth as possible. And your one job, your one job on a driving test is to impress your driving test examiner. They’re probably going to be impressed by smooth safety. And just be nice to them. Driving examiners are lovely for the most part. If you’ve had an experience with a driving examiner at Bedford Driving Test Center, I’d love to hear from you. What are the examiners like? What’s the driving test like? What’s learning to drive like in Bedford? Who was your driving instructor in Bedford? Who do we need to recommend? Who do we need to avoid? Maybe if we need to avoid them, don’t shout them out. No. Do you know what? Expose. If you’ve had a bad driving instructor in Bedford, let everyone know. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Is he going to stop on a box? Oh. Why would you risk it? Back wheels on the box. Instant foul. And also, if that camera up there, I don’t know if you can see it on the camera. On my camera, there’s a camera up there. Might be might not be pointing at the box. Instant fine. How much is it in Bedford? Don’t It’s £65 in London. That’s if you pay it within 14 days. If you pay it over 14 days, it goes up to double. £130. That was quick maths. Here’s a top tip for a yellow box. If you are if you can see the traffic starting to move ahead, I can start to move because I know that the white car is going to be moving in a minute. Don’t have to wait for the box. Wait for it to be clear after the box. I know that it’s going to be clear by the time I get to the back of this Suzuki Baleino. We are entering the town center. It’s got Town Center vibes. Oh, interesting. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to clear this box. So, I’m stopping before it. Oh, that’s so lucky. Because the V like the traffic’s moving, but the van stopped to let his mate out. I would have got stuck on a box, got a massive fine, and failed my driving test. If you’re not sure, you are perfectly okay to stop before a box, even if the traffic then moves on afterwards. Green light. Let’s go. Is Bedford at all what you’re expecting? Look at this. how old this is. See, see, it’s not like Milton Kees at all. I was expecting Bedford to be like Milton Kees. I don’t know why. You kind of have a have a preconceived idea of what a place is going to be like before you go there. Have you ever had that or is that just me? Like you go somewhere on holiday and you’re like, “Oh, I know what this is going to be like. I’m expecting XY Z, but then you get ABC.” This is what I’m getting from Bedford. I was expecting like everything in Milton Kees is glass buildings and extremely modern, very efficient roads. This is not an efficient road at all. This is not glass buildings. Nice high street, though. I’ve heard this a few times where people say, “I’d love to get stuck in traffic on my driving test.” You’re very unlikely to get stuck in traffic on your driving test. Stuff like this, yes, maybe. But actually, to get stuck in traffic where you’re not moving, is very unlikely. The examiners pick routes and design routes where you’re not going to be stuck in traffic. Otherwise, they can’t complete a driving test. I’ve heard one or two people say, “I got stuck in traffic. I got held up by road work. So, I got held up by, I don’t know, a funeral and then the examiner was stuck there with you so long that they turned you around. You came back to the driving test center and passed. That’s very unlikely. What would you rather if you were actually on a driving test? Would you rather stop start stuff like this or would you rather just a nice flowing road? I think if it was my driving test, I’d prefer a nice flowing road. Wouldn’t that be easier? A nice flowing road where you’re like, “Oh, yeah. Everything’s just going as I learned it.” Instead of like, “Oh, nah. I’d rather not get stuck in traffic. And also, it’s a it’s a set route. Your driving test is a set route. So, if you get stuck in traffic, your driving test takes longer. We don’t want that. We don’t want that. Sure. If it goes over a certain time, then they’ll cut your test short. When you drive, red light, handbrake on or handbrake off. So, I got my foot brake on, my clutch down, I’m in first gear. Or neutral, foot off the foot brake, foot off the clutch with the handbrake on. Every driving instructor is different, but here’s the best advice. I’m not going to tell you which way to use. I’m going to tell you whichever way is most comfortable for you. You can do that because the test is not that deep. The test is just testing if you’re like safe at controlling a car. Not how not the things that you’re doing. It’s not like it’s not that like, oh yeah, he’s steering with one hand. Is that allowed or is it not allowed? Of course, it’s allowed. But it’s how your is your steering inputs making the car do what you want it to do is by you having the handbrake on or not having the handbrake on making the car do what you want it to do. People love to over complicate the driving test and I’m not here for it. I tell you why that’s a stinky lorry stinky bus. Let’s use the left lane because that’s my driving lane. That’s the overtaking lane. I’m I’m telling you why it’s not helpful to over complicate the driving test and add in extra rules that aren’t actual rules because then it overhypes it. The main problem with the driving test, the main problem that people have with the driving test is nerves, anxiety. If we can make it, if we can make people feel that the driving test is really chill, cross the roundabout and take the second exit, no problem. If we make people feel the driving test is chill, it’s not overhyped, it’s just a test of if you can drive or not, and if you can drive, you’re going to pass it, then I think people are going to feel better about it. So, I always try and make people feel like it’s just driving. Can you drive? Yeah. Oh, but what if I don’t do my ham? Yeah, it does. None of that matters. It’s just driving instructors overhyping it. If you’re a driving instructor and you disagree with me, then you’re the problem. Interesting. Why is Bedford so busy? Who lives in Bedford? Like, everyone lives in Bedford. It’s so busy. What’s the time? It’s 3:30. Maybe that might be why. Ready for that as well. I’ve noticed sometimes people have a problem with amber lights. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to be ready as you approach a green light to stop for it if it changes to amber. But there comes a point which is called the point of no return where if it turns now, you’re going to ignore it. And the point of no return is different based on your speed and the following car. The following car’s distance to you. If there’s a car following you closely behind and the light turns amber, we’re not going to slam our brakes on. If there’s no car behind you, you’re going to make a little bit more effort to stop for the amber light. But if your speed is high enough that to do to stop for the amber light, you’d have to do an emergency stop, then we’re going to completely ignore it. That’s the point of no return. I’ll show you on the next one. It sounds like there’s loads to think about on a driving test. But if you’ve learned to drive, then just by planning ahead, just literally just by planning ahead, you can pass so easily. If you’ve planned everything out, you can’t get it wrong. How can you go wrong if you’ve seen everything? The bus is just starting to indicate. So, I’m now planning to do an overtake maneuver. Oh, no. He’s not pulling in, taking a turn. Just cuz there’s a bus stop up ahead. That’s what I assumed, but I don’t know the bus routes around here. So, speed limit is 30. I’m going to increase my speed to 30. That’s safe along here. There’s minimal hazards. Park cars are really far away from me. I can see all the pedestrians cuz the pavements are really clear. Zeba crossing. Scan the pavements. Left side is clear. Right side. Oh, there we go. If I wasn’t scanning the pavements and I was just looking at the road, I would have definitely missed him because he was behind a parked car. Massive planning ahead. This is literally the secret to passing your driving test. There’s no there’s no like, oh, driving test is difficult. Just plan ahead. What’s coming up next? Van on the left. Are they going to pull out? I’m ready for it if they do. Looking at the satnav, roundabout coming up, too. So, I’m now processing in my mind, oh, I need to do something on a roundabout. So, I’m ready for that. After 300 y, go left on the roundabout and take the first exit. Yeah. Ready for it before she even said it. Driving is so fun. Honestly, driving is the best. If you don’t have a driving license yet, I promise you, however hard it is, and take the first exit. Cool. However hard it is to get a driving license, however hard it is to bag a test, however much you hate your driving instructor cuz they’re an do you know what? If you hate your driving instructor cuz they’re an just get a new driving instructor. But however much pain and torture learning roundabouts and parallel parking is, it’s so worth it. Driving is the most fun thing. If you can think of anything else that’s more fun than driving, I’d love to hear it in my comment section. Car’s coming a bit lively. All right, that’s a good gap. Let’s go. Bedford is the cheerlest place to to take a driving test. Honestly, this is not hard. Few roundabouts. This is not hard. If you’ve done a driving test or you learn to drive in Bedford, tell me in my comments what’s the hardest thing about driving in Bedford. Let’s have this as the biggest resource for everyone taking their test around here. Bedford’s nice. This bit of Bedford’s nice. The town center is obviously busy, but any town center is busy. Any town center’s got traffic. Bedford might be redeeming itself from having the worst driving test center in the galaxy. There’s test centers on Uranus, which is minus°. If you went to Uranus for a driving test, you’d die because it’s so cold. But they’ve got better test centers than Bedford. Mirror signal. Where’s that car going? Got it. 30 mph. Big sign. Average speed check. Do you know what Bedford loves? An average speed check. Not that we’re speeding, but Bedford loves off an average speed check. So, as I’m approaching the traffic light, I’m thinking, are you going to stop? Are you going to stop me? And there’s my point of no return because I’m doing 30 miles an hour. There was nothing behind me. So, my point of no return can be a little bit later. It can be a little bit later down the road because I can break a little bit harder if there’s no one behind me. But what I don’t want to do is emergency break. Get right on the roundabout and take the fifth exit. Cool. So, I’m moving into the other lane. So, I’m ready for it to change to amber. Ready for it to change to amber. 3 2 1. Now, I will not react if it changes because at that point, especially with a car maybe 20, 30 m behind me, I’m then going to have to emergency break and affect them and take the fifth exit. Make sense? Easy roundabout. Third exit. What did you say? Wasn’t really listening. But when she says anything, the satnav, here’s my biggest satnav advice, right? I get quite a lot of questions about satnavs because a lot of driving instructors don’t have one. And if your instructor doesn’t have a satnav, they can’t properly teach you how to take a driving test because it’s a big part of the driving test. Look at the screen. You have to look at the screen because 40 miles an hour. Let’s go. Because the voice guidance can be quite misleading. Like she’ll say in 200 yards turn left. Which one’s that? How do I know what 200 yards is? Am I gonna get a trundle stick out and measure it? Of course not. But when you’ve got the screen and you can see, oh, in 200 yards, turn left. Yeah, that’s the third one. Because there’s two black lines be before mine. That’s makes it more easy. So when she says something, just use that as a prompt to look at the screen and then we’re good to go. This might be the easiest, chiliest driving test ever. Not easy. There’s roundabouts, but look at this road. We’re just driving along this road for 400 yards. We’re going to cross a river and then we’re going to turn left. That’s not hard. Bedford’s going to Bedford. Turn left. Bedford’s redeeming itself right here. Right here and right now. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. There were Is that swans? Oh, nice. There were lily pads and stuff. That’s a nice river. Okay. Area scores going up slightly. 30 mph. Turn left. Mirror signal. Breaking. Breaking. braking, choose a new gear, lift the clutch, and turn 20 mph. That’s not pedestrian priority either. I would have liked to let her go, but I’m on a driving test. It’s nice to be nice for sure. Oh, we’re driving. Wow. What is this on your driving test? Oh, Bedford area score has gone up hard. It’s nice to be nice to people. Yes, if I wasn’t on a driving test, I probably would have let her go. But on your driving test, you need to make sure that you demonstrate you understand the difference between a crossing and an island. That was an island. Pedestrians don’t have priority on an island, just a crossing. And there’s only two types of crossings. The two types of crossings are the zebra crossing and the traffic light control crossing. Cross the roundabout and take the first exit. If it’s not one of those two, then it’s not a pedestrian crossing and we shouldn’t give pedestrians priority on a driving test, but obviously it’s nice to be nice at other times. Cross the roundabout and take the first exit. Wow. This is What river is this? This is so nice. Look, the swans are taking off. Oh my god. Are you joking? Okay, I’m not annoyed anymore about Bedford. I’m really not annoyed. Beautiful houses. This area is nice. This is definitely the nice bit of Bedford. All of it’s not, but this is the nice bit for sure. Look at how nicely they’ve done the flowers. I hope the camera’s picking this up because that is dreamy. All of it’s 20 mph. So, how can we go wrong at 20 mph? I know. I know. People are going to be like, “Well, 20 mph is really annoying.” 200 yard, right? Nice. Riverside pub. Bloody hell. It’s annoying if you’re a proper driver, but if you’re on your driving test, 20 mph is a dream because I have to drive slowly and I get more time to think. Go right on the second exit. No problem. If every has if every hazard’s coming at me much much slower, I’m much much less likely to mess it up. So, thank you Bedford for making it 20 miles an hour. One thing though, there’s a lot of speed changes, lots. So, you have to be really good at spotting signs. I’ve done some videos after 100 yard. I’ve done some videos about how to be better at spotting. What is this? A roundabout. Turn left, then take the third. Don’t stop on a pedestrian crossing. Okay. One, two. I’ve done some videos about how to spot speed signs because I had a had a guy Liam or I’ve got a guy Liam who wasn’t very good at spotting speed signs, so I wanted to help him with it. If you’ve got that same problem, check out the other channel, Driving School TV Lessons, where I give actual people driving lessons. It’s not just me messing about anymore. It’s a new thing. So, go head over there. Driving school TV lessons. If you’re learning to drive, that will be really, really useful for you to watch other people’s driving lessons, too. Check it out. Yes. 100 yard, turn right, then bear left. Mirror signal. Oh, I want to come back here. This has got some nice little spots. Riverside bar, nice restaurants. Wow. Bedford, you’re doing bits. Interesting. This is why it’s really important to spot signs. Oneway road left. It’s very important to know when you’re on a one-way road because then you know where you can position yourself. So, if you’re missing signs, like signs are actually really important. If you’re not spotting road signs, you’re going to miss crucial bits of information. Cost loads of money to put up a road sign. They wouldn’t put it up if it wasn’t really important. Okay. I started off unimpressed with Bedford. I’m now very impressed. I’m telling you now, I’m never coming back here for a driving test because like no rating room. Where am I hanging out then? On the grass. I spoke to some instructors outside Bedford driving test center. And I was like, where do instructors hang out here? And he was like, yeah, we just hang out in under this tree. This is our this tree is our waiting room. And I was like, what do you do if it’s raining then? And he said, this tree is our shelter. If he saw Southoun driving test center, he’d lose his absolute ass because South End is the best waiting room, best test center I’ve ever been to. The facilities there are mad. The facilities at Bedford are non-existent. Oh, absolute muggage. Getting mugged. You if you’re an instructor at Bedford, you’re getting mugged off. Swear down, bro. I know of like one driving test center in London in London that doesn’t have a toilet and I think it’s a travesty at Bedford. They don’t even have a seat. They don’t even have a building. Oh my god. Cool. I think we’ve got a flavor now. Bedford driving test center. I’m about two minutes away from can we even call it a driving test center? I don’t know. The shambles that they call the car park of Bedford driving test center. Uh so let’s give it some scores. Facilities obviously minus a million. Turn right. Can I give it any less? Just think of the biggest number you can think of. Minus. That’s how low the score for Bedford’s driving test center facilities are. The area is pretty nice. I’m going to give the area an eight. It’s calming. It’s great. There’s bloody rivers and streams. What more could you ask for? I know. Forests and seaside. But for a test center without forest and seaside, you know what? 8.5. How can you? That river was beautiful. Driving along there on a driving test, you’re not going to be distracted because it’s your driving test. It’s just giving you calming vibes and influence. The difficulty, I can’t give it very 10 is perfectly easy. One or zero would be really difficult. I’m trying to find the perfect 10 driving test center. 10 for facilities, 10 for area, 10 for difficulty. So, difficulty of Bedford is that the speed limits keep changing. The roundabouts aren’t tricky. The roundabouts aren’t mad hard, but there are a lot of them. So, practice roundabouts. But if you’re not great at spotting signs, then again, like I said, you need to head over to Driving School TV Lessons, turn left and watch the lesson I gave Liam on checking out and how to spot speed signs. I took about 20 minutes with him on a lesson and he was great at it. But yeah, no butts. That’s the hardest thing about Bedford is speed signs. Turn left. There’s junctions, there’s roads, that’s it. Like Bedford is not difficult. So overall, I’m going to give Bedford driving test center ah do you know what? For the facilities though, I can’t give it a high score. Really, I can’t. In all honesty, I want to cuz the roots aren’t difficult and the area is really nice, but for that shambles of a facility, I want to give it one. Like, deep down in my heart, I want to give it one because I really need the toilet and I wanted to use the toilet before I came and did this route. But because I want to make useful content for you guys and I want to tell you that Bedford is nice for a driving test, I’m going to give Bedford Driving Test Center a six. It would have got way more if the facilities were up to scratch. That’s it from me. If you’re learning to drive, this playlist will help you massively with your learning to drive journey. Look at this. 30 to 20. And if you want to see everywhere else that I’ve been on my driving test exploration of England, click this one that’s on my body. I’ll see you in the next one. Thanks. Peace.