Learners are 55% more likely to pass their practical driving test in Bolton than they are in Bury.
Driving test centres in these towns recorded the highest and lowest pass rates in Greater Manchester last year.
Twice as many practical car driving tests were passed in Bolton as there were in Bury from a similar number of exams.
But how can the chances of success be so different in two towns just six miles apart?
According to figures published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), Bolton’s pass rate was 58.6% between April 2024 and March 2025.
In Bury the pass rate was 37.7%, which is well below the national average of 48.5%.
Out of 5548 driving tests conducted at Bolton’s driving test centre 3250 people passed.
This compares to just 1643 passes in Bury from a total of 4355 tests conducted.
Owner of Bolton’s Darz Driving School Humma Dar said: “The roads are much simpler here and that’s what I get told by people from other towns.
“Chorley has a lot of roundabouts.
“We know there are a lot of hills in Bury – Bury is uphill and downhill all the way through.”
She said that learners from other Greater Manchester boroughs often try to take their test in Bolton for these reasons.
But a post-pandemic backlog has made it harder than ever access to a practical driving test.
The national average wait time for practical driving tests peaked at nearly 22 weeks in March 2025 –compared to an average wait time of just six weeks in early 2020.
In Bolton there is a six-month wait to take a test, with the next available dates in December and January.
Driving instructor Anas Muhammad from ProCarPass in Bury believed this backlog is a big reason for Bury’s low pass rate.
He explained that learners desperate to book a driving test have turned to apps like DriveBot and Testi which notify users of last-minute driving test cancellations.
As a result, desperate learners from all over the country have been booking their driving test wherever they can get one.
He said: “People just want to get a test anywhere.
“But most of the time when they book a last-minute test they fail because they don’t know the area.
“Every week I get around four or five calls from people in London who have a test in Bury and want to use my car.”
He also explained that because of the rising cost of driving lessons, many people turn up to these last-minute tests with little to no practice.
“If somebody hasn’t driven with an instructor, they are going to leave the centre straight away and fail.
“This is because they won’t do basic things like a six-point observational check.”
According to a DVSA survey of 5000 approved driving instructors, the most common price bracket for an hour lesson was £36 to £40 per hour.
Outside of Greater Manchester, Featherstone in Staffordshire has the unfortunate title of having the lowest pass rate in Britain at just 33.8%.
The Isles of Scilly boasted the nation’s highest pass rate of 87.5%.
Though only eight people took a test here last year, with seven passes and one fail.
Of the driving test centres that conducted 1000 or more tests, Dorchester topped the table with a 65.7% pass rate.
Feature image by Ben Winship
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