Search for a Brighton driving test centre and you will not find one, because the DVSA does not have a centre in Brighton itself. Learners living in the city book their practical test at one of the two nearest centres: Lancing, on the coast to the west, or Burgess Hill, inland to the north. They are about the same distance from central Brighton and they produce completely different tests.
That choice matters more than most people realise. One is a seafront-suburb test at 30 mph almost throughout; the other throws dual carriageways and roundabouts at you. Picking the one that matches the driving you have actually practised is worth more than any amount of last-minute revision.
Lancing: a 30 mph test
Lancing's pass rate is 53%, above the UK average of 48%. SteerClear has 10 practice routes from the centre; a typical one covers about 9.8 miles in 37 minutes, with roughly three roundabouts.
The defining number is the speed mix: 89% of the distance is at 30 mph, with only 6% at 40 and 3% at 50. This is a suburban and seafront test — no motorway-style driving, no long fast stretches.
The roads that recur most: Chartwell Road, Winston Road, Western Road and Brighton Road are on all ten routes, with Marlborough Road, Brougham Road and Ham Road on six or seven, and Old Shoreham Road on four.
What that demands: sustained accuracy at low speed. Residential streets with cars parked both sides, junctions where you meet oncoming traffic in a gap only one car wide, pedestrians, and a coastal road where the 30 limit is easy to drift over. Examiners at a centre like this see far more faults for creeping speed and poor positioning than for anything dramatic.
Burgess Hill: the faster option
Burgess Hill has a 44% pass rate, below the national average, and its routes explain why. Ten practice routes, a typical one 9.9 miles in 27 minutes — about the same distance as Lancing in three-quarters of the time, because the roads are quicker.
The speed mix is the opposite of Lancing's: 41% at 30 mph, 29% at 40, 14% at 60 and 9% at 70. Nearly a quarter of the drive happens at 60 mph or more.
Add roughly nine roundabouts per route — three times Lancing's count — and the picture is clear. Jane Murray Way appears on all ten routes, London Road on nine, Charles Avenue and William Way on eight, with Station Road, Leylands Road, York Road and Sussex Way on half of them.
What that demands: confident lane choice on approach to multi-lane roundabouts, making proper progress when a limit rises, and safe joining and leaving of faster roads. A candidate whose practice has all been in Brighton's 20 and 30 zones will find this test unfamiliar in a way that costs marks.
Which should a Brighton learner pick?
Be honest about where you have driven. If your lessons have been in the city — the Lanes, Seven Dials, the seafront, Hove's grid — Lancing is closer to that experience, and its higher pass rate partly reflects an easier road mix. If you have practised on the A23, the A27 and out towards the Downs, Burgess Hill's faster roads will feel natural and its roundabouts will be familiar.
What you should not do is choose purely on the pass-rate number. A 53% centre you have never driven around is harder than a 44% centre whose roads you know. And both are bookable from Brighton in well under an hour.
Two more options worth knowing
Eastbourne (51%) is further east and roundabout-heavy — around eleven per route. Chichester (61%) is the highest pass rate in the area but a longer drive, with short routes averaging 6.7 miles in 17 minutes. Both are realistic if waiting times at Lancing and Burgess Hill are long.
A practice plan for either centre
- Drive the centre's exit first. Every route starts and ends there, at the two most nervous moments of the test.
- Learn the roads listed above in both directions — a junction that is simple turning left is often the hard one turning right.
- Match the speed mix. For Lancing, drill 30 mph discipline. For Burgess Hill, practise joining 60 and 70 mph roads and reading multi-lane roundabouts.
- Practise at your test time. The A27 at 8am and at 11am are different roads.
- Finish tired. Do your manoeuvre at the end of each session, because that is where it falls on the day.
Practise the real roads
The DVSA stopped publishing test routes in 2010 and examiners choose on the day, but the road network each centre draws from has not changed. Our Lancing and Burgess Hill centre pages list the roads that come up most and the full speed-limit mix, and SteerClear scores every practice drive live — speed, braking, cornering, lane position and observation — so you can see which junction keeps costing you marks. For the wider picture, see how driving test routes work and pass rates for every UK centre.