As your behind the wheel lessons progress, so will your skills. As you begin to get a good hold on some of the more rudimentary tasks, your instructor will guide you into more and more complex tasks and situations. Driving is a very complex task that is always different every time that you do it and it is constantly changing even as you drive. It would be impossible for anyone to teach you everything about all of the situations that you are likely to be confronted with. There are simply too many variables. Your instructor will be trying to get you as much driving experience as possible over the six hours that you will have with them. They know their area roads very well, and they all have their favorite routes depending on what they want to teach you on a given day. They will do their best to get you as much experience as possible, but you will definitely need to supplement on your own.
The Secret to Being Safe
In order to be prepared for as many contingencies as possible, you need to experience all of the following situations and many more. You also need to experience these situations multiple times over many months and years to really be good at handling yourself on the street. The secret to being a really good and safe driver is that there is no secret. It takes a lot of practice, a vigilant commitment to safety and following the rules, a dedication to staying alert and remembering all of the different little things that you can do to stay safe. A big part of being a safe driver is driving defensively so that the other driver won’t get you into trouble. Believe me, even if they are not your fault, accidents are trouble. At first the challenge is to learn the skills and the rules. After a while the challenge becomes a matter of your mindset and adherence to the safety rules. Far too many of us get complacent after we have been driving for a while, Always keep in the back of your mind the thought of how dangerous driving can become in a slit second. All that it takes is one wrong move by you or another driver.
Some Important Practice Items
Below is a simple list of items that you can practice while you are out driving with your parent or guardian.
- Use of turn signals – always, every time you turn or change lanes anywhere.
- Hand over hand steering – both directions, no palming, no shuffle.
- Lane position – always keep yours.
- Speed Control – not too fast, not to slow, never too fast for conditions.
- Proper hand position – 3 and 9
- Right turns – mirror, turn signal, blind spot, move to furthest right lane, yield to traffic and pedestrians, check blind spot again, turn into proper lane when safe to do so.
- Check your blind spot – quick glance over your shoulder in the direction that you are turning to check for traffic that doesn’t appear in mirrors. You should be looking out the rear, side facing window.
- Left turns – Mirror, signal, blind spot, move left if possible, yield to oncoming traffic, roll forward into intersection with wheels straight, glance blind spot, turn into proper lane when safe to do so.
- Proper following distance – 4 seconds
- Checking mirrors – every 6-8 seconds, just a glance
- Proper stopping points – Crosswalks, stop lines, before entering traffic, far enough behind the car in front of you to see where their tires touch the road.
- Visual habits – scanning the road.ahead for danger, scanning left and right also for traffic on cross streets and alleys.
- Lane changing – check mirrors, apply turn signal, check blind spot, go.
- Pulling to curb to park – mirror, signal, blind spot, pull to within 1 foot of curb, put in park, apply parking brake, turn wheel properly (up,up and away).
- Pulling away from curb – mirror, turn signal, blind spot, go.
- Backing in straight line – first pull to curb, then check mirrors, put vehicle in reverse, look out back window, proceed along curb at slow walk speed for 50′.
- Backing while turning right and left – back up slowly in a parking lot and turn to the left and right to get a feel for how the car reacts in reverse.
- Making a Y turn – see post on Y-tuns
- Shared turn lanes – often used when turning left, shared with oncoming traffic.
- Traffic signals – red stop, green go, yellow slow down and caution, green arrow has right of way, red arrow must stop, no turn on red arrow, yellow arrow yield right of way, proceed with caution.
- 4-way stop – first to arrive goes first, if all arrive simultaneously then furthest right goes first.
- Angle parking – mirror, signal, blind spot, pull into parking spot, back out slowly, looking out back window toward traffic.
- Parallel parking – see post on parallel parking.
- Backing out of driveway – look both ways, look out back window, back into lane of travel.
- Freeway driving – on ramp, speed up to match speed of traffic on freeway, mirror, signal, blind spot, merge into traffic at same speed, off ramp same except leaving traffic and don’t slow down until on ramp.
- Rural driving – Similar to city, watch lane markings, watch for machinery and slow moving vehicles, watch for speed limit changes.
- Rail Road crossings – approach with caution, foot hovering over the brake, glancing left and right to look for trains. if there is a train, you stop, but never on the tracks, never try to beat a train.
- Pedestrians, farm animals and machinery – give plenty of space and the give the right away.
- Roundabout – yield to traffic in the roundabout – see roundabout post.
- Passing – check lane markings for legality, check far ahead for no oncoming traffic, mirror, signal, blind spot, move out, pass car, mirror, signal, blind spot, move back into lane.
- Being passed – use caution, possibly slow a bit once the other car is along side if needed.
- Control braking stop – practice emergency stopping when there are no cars in sight to get the feel for it. Both on dry roads and slippery roads. Understand how the car will react.
- One way streets – turning from and into proper lanes.
- Uncontrolled intersection – identify it from afar, use caution and hover foot over brake, more major road has right of way, but expect no one to stop.
Get out there and practice as much as possible, get into new and different situations. Always keep your cool, always practice safety and follow the rules, always drive defensively.