Nearly 1 in 5 Drivers Nervous Driving on Cornwall Roads

If your stomach tightens a little when the A30 runs out and the road narrows to a single hedged lane with a tractor somewhere ahead, you have plenty of company. New research suggests almost a fifth of UK drivers feel the same, and Cornwall is about to see a lot of them.

The RAC has predicted the biggest summer getaway since 2022, with around 14 million drivers on the move and Cornwall named among the areas set for the heaviest holiday traffic. A separate survey from Scrap Car Comparison has now put a number on how many of those drivers feel out of their depth once they leave the main roads.

The Roads That Make Drivers Nervous

The company asked 2,000 UK drivers to rate their confidence across a range of everyday driving tasks, several of which are exactly what a Cornwall trip throws at you.

Some 18% said they do not feel confident on narrow, winding country roads, which is precisely what waits once drivers turn off the A30 and head for the coast. One in five (21%) said they are not confident on unfamiliar roads, something almost everyone visiting somewhere new has to deal with. Put those together and a good chunk of the summer’s visitors will be tackling single-track lanes, blind bends and passing places they have never seen before.

Cornwall’s coastal villages and beaches sit at the end of some of the tightest lanes in the country, so it is worth a little patience if the car in front slows to a crawl at a pinch point. The nearest city in the wider study, Plymouth, actually came third nationally for driver confidence, so plenty of the traffic crossing the Tamar should be well used to it.

Breakdowns And The Summer Heat

Getting there is only half of it. With the summer heat raising the risk of breakdowns, the survey also found a lot of drivers are unsure about the basic checks that keep a car on the road.

Nearly half (45%) said they are not confident replacing a headlight bulb, 41% would not be happy changing a flat tyre and 37% are unsure about checking their brake fluid. None of those are jobs you want to be learning on a hot verge on the A39 with the kids in the back.

What You Can Do Before You Set Off

Matt Clamp, car scrappage expert at Scrap Car Comparison, says a bit of preparation goes a long way, and that refresher lessons are worth considering for anyone heading somewhere unfamiliar.

“Refresher lessons are becoming a popular option for experienced drivers, not just learners,” he says. “A few hours with an instructor can help rebuild confidence in specific situations such as motorway driving, parking or driving in unfamiliar areas.”

His broader advice is not to dodge the roads that make you nervous, because avoiding them tends to make the nerves worse. “Nervous drivers often avoid the situations they find most difficult, whether that’s motorways, busy roundabouts or city-centre driving,” he says. “The challenge is that avoiding them can sometimes make confidence harder to regain. The key is not to avoid the situations you find challenging, but to gradually build experience in them so they become familiar again.”

A few simple checks before the drive down cover most of it: tyre pressures and tread, coolant and brake fluid levels, working lights and wipers, and a look at where the jack and spare (or repair kit) live. If a warning light is on when you set off, it is far cheaper to sort it at home than halfway along the A30.

The full findings, covering all 17 cities and every task surveyed, are available via Scrap Car Comparison’s Cornwall page and on its research page. All data was correct as of June 2026.