How do you want to learn to drive?

It’s really important that you consciously decide how you intend to learn to drive.  You could learn, use and apply the routines that I give, so that it triggers in your head the important components, or you could devise your own method of remembering the key methods of good driving, or you could learn by repetition of the same experience.    Read these 2 situations of what can happen on test:

1.       Pulling over.  On test the examiner says “Could you please pull over Louise in a safe, legal, convenient place”. 

Ok, where, where, where, can I park over there near that bus stop?..... oh I don’t know, I’ll pull over past it just to be safe.... how far do I need to legally be from that junction on the left?  Oh, I don’t know, I tell you what I’ll pull over past it just to be safe.  I know I have cars behind me, oh no, this is going to be tough.  How do I pull over without annoying everyone?  Why did he have to choose here of all places, it’s crazy round here?  Now I know I need to signal but which mirrors do I need to check again?  Can I pull over near those kids on the footpath?

While all those thoughts are whizzing round your head, although you have already started to slow down, you are in fact doing 15mph in 3^rd gear, the car is annoyingly pulling you along faster than you really wanted to be going as 3^rd gear is too high for 10-15mph. Because you’ve been considering all these other things, you have passed the bus stop, passed the junction and now you are back to square 1 wondering where to pull over.

Meanwhile, despite being patient initially, the driver of the car behind is beginning to lose it.  “Why oh why is this learner going so slow?  COME ON!!!  We do have a life you know, I know you are learning but I need to get on”.  Following a learner down the road at 15 mph when you have an appointment in 5 minutes is not much fun. 

Eventually the driver behind runs out of patience and overtakes you when he shouldn’t have really, right near a bend.  He forces a car in the other direction to veer sharply to the left. 

Not a nice experience at all.  You feel trash, the examiner has failed you for that, your friends and family will be disappointed, you’ve now got to work a whole lot of hours to pay for another test, you can’t go and buy that car tomorrow like you were hoping, you curse your instructor as he is clearly trash too. 

Why has this happened?  Well it happened due to the need of pulling over as instructed by the examiner.  But the real answer is that your mind was busy trying to apply the law in terms of bus stops and junctions, it was busy getting affected due to other road users, your mind was not clear on the actual MSM system of pulling over – so you were not practised enough in pulling over.  Variations of this routine include pulling over with a cyclist just in front of you, pulling over near a bend, pulling over on a hill, near a parked car, without a kerb, in the dark, to pick up a pedestrian, with a lorry right behind you, when it’s pouring with rain, at the direction of a police car, when you have a pedestrian wanting to cross the road, in a 40mph road, due to an ambulance behind wanting to pass on blue lights.  There’s plenty of material here to make this difficult.

So how well practised are you in doing this routine?  Have you experienced all of the above?  Have you given yourself enough time and opportunity to experience these situations?  You see how not properly learning the theory begins to have a knock on effect?  Your mind is troubling itself trying to work out the law with regards to the distance allowable near junctions, or whether you can legally stop near bus stops.... and that is inhibiting your mind applying the MSM routine.  Is it a surprise really that some learners stall because they did not dip the clutch soon enough to take into account the slower speed due to being uphill, is it a surprise some stop too far away from the kerb, or don’t apply the handbrake, or did not put a signal on to warn others?

2.        Approaching a roundabout.  The examiner says “Can you take the 2^nd exit to the left please?”

Right, right, ok, ok, 2^nd exit, let me look, 2^nd exit......now, remember remember remember, what lane should I be in, what lane?  Not sure yet, but anyway, what speed should I be at, not sure, tell you what, I’ll go into 2^nd, can’t go wrong with that. 

You put the car in to 2^nd gear at 35mph.  The car jerks violently when you bring the clutch up, it is making a loud revving noise, you come off the gas, it begins to slow.  That really annoys you and kind of frightens you too, ‘why did THAT happen?’, meanwhile the bus that was a nice distance behind you is now really close behind you because actually you are approaching this roundabout too slow at 10mph. 

As you approach the roundabout, you desperately try to identify the correct lane to be in but the rain is not helping you see the road surface and any arrows, are there any arrows?  You miss the roundabout sign post as a result, but as you approach, you suddenly realise how busy and big this roundabout is, and how fast the vehicles are moving on it.  That’s scary!   

I wish that bus wasn’t so close behind me, that’s really putting me off.

After one stall, due to THAT bus, you finally make it on to the roundabout and make the 2^nd exit – not quite understanding why THAT bus was flashing the headlights behind you on the roundabout.

The examiner explains at the test centre that actually, you had been in the lane that was dedicated for 1^st left only.  The actual lane you needed was lane 2 as shown on the green sign post on the approach to the roundabout and confirmed by the white arrows on the road surface of the lanes too.  The driver of the bus had been annoyed as you had held him (and the full bus of passengers) up on the approach, approaching too slow, only for him to then discover that you were in fact in the wrong lane for the exit you wanted.  The examiner could see in his mirror that the bus driver was actually really cross.  It’s a fail.

Couple of observations to make about these.

You can embrace what needs to be learnt here, so that you could then apply that system of driving anywhere in the UK.  It would not matter where you were driving, you are still able to use the same method that you’ve been taught, so that you drive round, safely, efficiently with due consideration to other road users. 

Or you could just make sure that your instructor conditions you to knowing what to do and when.  So you say to him, just tell me what to do and when and I will pick it up eventually.  Taking example number 2 above, if you do that particular roundabout enough times, and if your instructor tells you enough, eventually you will be able to negotiate yourself round.  What you need to be very aware of, with this approach to learning to drive, is that it only works on the roads you are familiar with.  You are not applying a system with this approach, you are driving by rote..... what you have been repeatedly told to do. 

Skimping on learning the theory though is extremely short sighted.  Not having any depth to your learning of the law, sign posts, stopping distances etc is a recipe for difficulties in the future.

So if there was one thing I would advise you do, it would be, accept to take the responsibility to make an actual decision of how you intend to learn.  Only if you weigh up the choices above, and make that decision (perhaps with help from your parents), will you feel like you own the way you intend to learn to drive.  If on the other hand, you don’t accept that responsibility then you are fooling no-one.  What you’re doing is choosing not to be held to account.  The ‘false’ option is to learn only the absolute minimum, as little as you can get away with, but then expect to pass the test comfortably and drive wherever you like in the UK..... simply impossible.

This is your choice, it’s your life, but make sure you know that whatever happens in the future will be as a result of the decisions you make.  I realise that at 17yrs of age, this will be perhaps the first time in your life you’ve had to consider this, and so it may not sit comfortably with you.  But if you resist any sense of ‘owning’ the learning that is required, then guess what...... you won’t learn – it’s as simple as that!