We look at our parents driving, or maybe an older brother/sister
and we think to ourselves, “That looks so easy, I must be able to do that”. As we learn to drive, realisations pop up
that hit us like a brick wall. How much
more difficult driving at night is, is one such example. The intricacy of the manoeuvres is another. In fact, the manoeuvres is a really good
example.
When we see friends and family performing manoeuvres it
seems so effortless. They are quite
happy to use the opening of a junction to enable a U-turn in one go. They bay park seemingly without giving it a
second thought. And yet, when we do our
driving lessons, the instructor seems to be really making a big deal out of
them.... what’s that all about?
The first thing to realise is that the manoeuvres that the
DSA test all of us on, in the driving test, have little in common to what the
vast majority of us will then do after we pass.
What could you be asked to do on test?
1.
A turn in
the road – turning the car round in a street without using any of the footpath
or anyones drive
2.
Parallel park – pulling up alongside a parked
car and tucking yourself behind it by reverse parking
3.
Bay park – reversing your car into a vacant bay
4.
Left reverse – reversing your car left, into a
minor road
5.
Right reverse* – reversing your car right, into
a minor road
*I do not know of anyone getting this one on a learners test,
it may have happened, but I don’t personally know of it. It’s in the recommended syllabus so it is
worth covering.
But the point is, how the DSA want these manoeuvres executed
on test is very specific. A long time
ago, I made a string of videos on my YouTube channel (“2010BIGTOM”) for this
very reason; you are welcome to go and have a look at them, they are very
regularly viewed because I think the test manoeuvres in general terms is one of
the great mysteries for learners. It’s
not really for me to express the right and wrongs of the stance the DSA take on
this subject but I will make one observation:
The attention to detail needed when performing a ‘test style’
manoeuvre is similar to that used by a writer when selecting his/her words. It is the same attention that a person will
give to exactly how/where they will trek up a mountain. It is the same detail to how a teacher will
structure a lesson. It is the same
detail to how a plasterer will plaster a wall.
The same attention to solving a Rubik cube. Nothing is left to chance. All these people doing those tasks, don’t “suck
it and see”, they are not “seeing how it goes”. An artist will spend hours on the most
minute of detail.
And so it is with learning the manoeuvres. You need to learn how to perform it
accurately (in terms of position), with control (in terms of pace) and with
regard to anyone around you (vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists etc) – and you
need to be able to do all of that in a reasonable timeframe too, in other
words, efficiently.
So it is no surprise really that manoeuvres can be a pretty
big reality check for learners. Don’t
get me wrong, I’m sure there will be learners that go to test that are not
prepared for all of the possible manoeuvres to the extent I have described
above. Some will be praying they don’t
get one or two or maybe even three.
Remember, you only get one manoeuvre on the test. But in order for you to be properly prepared
for what might come your way after the test, my advice is practise your manoeuvres to
do the following variations:
1.
Gradients/cambers
– you will be amazed how these CAN affect the pace of the car
2.
Tightness – narrow roads, wide roads, sharp
corners, wide corners; this affects the amount of steering you need to put on
3.
Busyness – on a quiet road, on a busy road, with
pedestrians and cyclists and buses to cater for and without
4.
Conditions – in the rain, bright sun, in the dark,
when there is and is not white paint, when there are and are not any double
yellow lines
5.
Near vehicles – try practising parking sometimes
next to a vehicle (numbers 2 & 3 in the above list of manoeuvres), and also
when there are no vehicles nearby.
6.
Real life – don’t forget to practise how you
will perform manoeuvres in real life too, although they may not follow the same
specific regime of the test manoeuvres, they must still be done safely, with
due regard to others and fully in control.
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