Sorry in advance for the wall of text! Some background…
Enter me, someone who usually gets around by bicycle or public transport. I’m about 200 miles away from anyone close (besides my partner) and the trains, while fast and convenient, are expensive and quite limited at some times of the day.
So, as a solution, I decided I’ll pick up some driving lessons so I can drive to friends with a rental or my own vehicle, on much more flexible terms. Since I had some existing experience in various driving simulators (almost 200h combined), I decided why not?
Now, about the lesson.
The instructor was absolutely amazing, got me up to speed with all kinds of things I wasn’t familiar with, like adjusting the mirrors, wheel and stuff.
The car is a stick shift/manual, as that’s the norm here. To be honest, changing gears was the easiest part - it felt really familiar because of the simulators. However I really struggled with how much information you need to take in from around you during the actual driving, literally had to try so hard to not make my mind wander for even a second, because I’d lose track of the environment and stuff. It was dark too so that made things a little challenging.
I’d say a major stress point too is the fact that i’m operating a 2000kg SUV, not an agile 20kg bicycle.
On one hand I’m hoping things improve with time, on the other I really wish we had good, affordable public transport to begin with.
What are your thoughts?
I live in a car centric area so I honestly didn’t have most of the nuance of what a car was along with its deadly stipulations, all I knew is I wanted to drive so I didn’t need to rely on my parents schedules. It’s kinda crazy how I had little to no fear when I was learning to drive just because at the time I was unaware of the heavy machinery I was using.
The best way to really get comfortable with it is to start on backroads, parking lots, etc. that’s where I began. We also got lucky and found a horrible American style suburban development that hadn’t been developed yet which was good for turns, 3 point turns, etc.
The best bit of advice I can give you…drive predictably the road is NOT a place to be courteous. You cannot assume what people are doing, it’s important to watch them and be able to adapt. The amount of accidents or near accidents I’ve seen where the driver that was hit had stopped to “let someone go”. Seriously, the Car is the one place I think it’s okay to say “everyone is an idiot”, and to treat them as such. Sometimes you’re that idiot and it’s okay. Learn from it and move on.
You’re going to make mistakes, just observe other drivers, learn from them and you will be okay. If you’re ever too nervous to drive it’s okay to pull over, calm down, then try again. Driving while nervous is the last thing you should do next to driving while drunk and driving while tired.
One thing I eventually learned was, no matter how fast you try to go, you’re never going to save more than a minute or two which isn’t worth the added risk.