The short answer
Three of the twelve special drives must take place in darkness or twilight. They train seeing and being seen: using your lights, dealing with dazzle from oncoming traffic, judging distance without daylight, unlit roads, and spotting pedestrians and cyclists. Part of it takes place outside built-up areas.
The night drive is the most underrated of the special drives, and the only one whose scheduling depends on the season.
When it is dark enough
What counts is the actual light, not the clock. Twilight is enough. In practice that means a night drive in Düsseldorf starts no earlier than about 10 pm at midsummer, and in November or December already in the late afternoon. That is why these three hours are effortless to book in winter and need planning in June.
People who begin in spring often reach the special drives exactly when the nights are shortest — and then wonder why the last three hours are the slow ones. We now raise it ourselves as the basic phase comes to an end: put the night drives in first and arrange the rest around them. In that order it is much easier than it sounds.
What changes in the dark
- Distance: without surrounding detail the eye misjudges gaps systematically — usually as larger than they are
- Speed feels slower than it is. The rule is never to drive faster than your headlights reach
- Dazzle: look away to the right-hand edge of the road, not into the light
- Main beam: use it where it is allowed — and dip it in good time
- Pedestrians and cyclists in dark clothing, a constant theme on Düsseldorf's side streets in winter
Why not only in town
Because lit streets remove exactly what this is about. Part of the night drive therefore takes place outside built-up areas, on roads with no street lighting — where your own headlights really are what decides how far you can see.
Glasses, contact lenses, night vision
If you notice halos around lights at night, or that signs come into focus later than they should, tell us and have it checked by an optician. It is common and usually easy to correct — and it is a point the eyesight test alone does not fully cover.
How all twelve special drives divide up is a post of its own; the rates are on the price page.
What to take away
Night drives are not a formality at the end of your training, they are the only hours in which you learn how far you can actually see. If you start in spring, book them early — otherwise the sunset decides your test date.