Over half of motorists would fail the driving test if they had to retake it.

That’s according to new research and also anyone who has seen what it’s like on the roads these days.

It’s the least shocking start to my column since I wrote the one about what I found a bear had done in Burderop Wood.

Looking back, there aren’t a lot of bears that near to the M4 so I may have followed some wrong ‘ens on a walk.

I don’t know if it’s been the year of having to drive less but it feels like there has been a drop in the standard of driving.

People have stopped indicating at roundabouts.

I know that I have a strange relationships with roundabouts.

I still remember the first time I tried the Magic Roundabout. There are so many different ways to get to your exit that it always felt like an A-level maths exam trying to workout which way to go.

I developed a cunning plan.

I thought I’d approach the Magic Roundabout and simply follow the driver in front of me in the hope that they knew what they were doing.

Thankfully they did and the expertly traversed the junction with me one step behind them.

Unfortunately they weren’t going to the same place as me, so I ended up on the wrong side of it. I gave up and eventually went the long way round via a junction of the M4.

Sorry Greta.

The research says the main reason we’d all fail our resits is that we don’t brush up on the highway Code.

It is regularly updated but most drivers never refresh their knowledge.

It’s a strange system when you think about it. We let people drive because they proved they could do it in their late teens.

There are many things that I could do in my late teens that I can’t quite manage these days. Thankfully very few of them are dangerous and happen in public.

The trouble is the test doesn’t fit reality. I have never reversed round a corner in my driving career.

If a three-point turn becomes a seven-point turn no one dies. If I tap the curb while parallel parking it lets me know where I am.

We need a test that most safe drivers would pass without revision. They could make it sit that again and again.

Don’t worry about it. It was only last week we heard that there’s a backlog of new drivers waiting to take their test.

There’s no way we could introduce retesting.

If they ever did let’s hope they give us a good indication first.