The Learner driver progression thread

Scroll to see replies

Reply 2240

jus-mi

gd luck

Reply 2241

jenren22

Just treat it like any exam, oh well, if you do rubbish, you can always re sit :p:

. Im sure that will not be the case though. Just relax, and concentrate.

Reply 2242

gefmongoose

Hey all,

I've got one or two questions I'm hoping someone could help with. I've been taking lessons for around 4 weeks now (i've done around 8) and everything seems to be going ok. Because of where I live, I tend to be on quite busy roads and in city centres most of the time. On the whole things are going well, but last lesson my ADI took me on a quiet estate to practice emergency stop. Whilst driving around there, my mind went completely blank at closed junctions.
On the busy roads i've been driving on, it's generally always a wait at closed junctions - on the small estate, most of the junctions were very closed and the roads were exceptionally quiet. I'm not really sure why this threw me.
This is what I normally do:
Open junction
Mirrors, signal, reduce speed - if it's clear then into 2nd gear at right speed, observations - take the turn. If it's busy, stop at the line, 1st gear (hand break if a wait) then go.

closed junctions
Mirrors, signal, reduce speed, when 1-2 car lengths from line i'm crawling, so into 1st.
Should I now stop at the line regardless? or should I slow to a crawl if no cars are apparent and peep/creep? This is what I went blank on. Full stop/handbrake, then creep? or slow, crawl (near stop), but keep going - stopping only if needed?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Reply 2243

Sephrenia

I stop if needed - with lots of early observations, theres often a chance for a glimpse through a hedge or something. I come to a near stop, and pretty much hold myself on the clutch and gas.

Reply 2244

~Kirsty~

I think it depends on what you can see on approach, a true closed junction would mean you have to stop or crawl very slowly to enablke you to get a good view of whether or not it is clear.

Reply 2245

sauce

yeah, also at a very closed junction where you have to peep and creep have a good listen as well if you're unsure.

Reply 2246

jus-mi

well if im going from a major to a minor i would slow right down ..put it in first then go in slowly...especially if its a tight space....if going from a minor to a major i would definately....use my clutch control...creeping out with plenty of observation and again the car would always be in first gear...whether going in or out of a junction.....

Reply 2247

Sephrenia

In second for turning into a junction, first for turning out...

Reply 2248

sauce

Sephrenia

In second for turning into a junction, first for turning out...

In ideal situations(clear road) yes, in some cars, but in some diesels you'd have to go in first. I remmeber in my first instructor's car I had to. God he was a **** :p:

Reply 2249

~Kirsty~

It depends on the type of road your turning into too - i can manage 2nd in all the cars i've driven, except if its a huge hill, then i tend to drop to 1st. (i actually could get away with 2nd on some hills in diesels but needed 1st in the petrols - probably due to the engine sizes! :biggrin:

)

Reply 2250

Sephrenia

Lilian

In ideal situations(clear road) yes, in some cars, but in some diesels you'd have to go in first. I remmeber in my first instructor's car I had to. God he was a **** :p:

My instructors car hates first :p:

It almost prefers second to first for slow driving :p:

Reply 2251

sauce

Sephrenia

My instructors car hates first :p:

It almost prefers second to first for slow driving :p:

so did mine!! and so does my car now, it cries when I use first unnececcesarily and pulls back, im like easy girl lol

Reply 2252

Sephrenia

Lilian

so did mine!! and so does my car now, it cries when I use first unnececcesarily and pulls back, im like easy girl lol

Hehe indeed! I feel sorry for it :frown:

There again i feel sorry for my instructors car in general..it gets so much abuse from me :redface:

Reply 2253

Valjean

Eeeeep what a day! At the beginning of my driving lesson the speedometer wasnt working. Had to estimate 30 mph for a bit, but it randomly came back to life like half an hour later :s-smilie:

Then my instructor took me to a council estate to practise manouvres. During a turn in the road a crowd of chavs whom I'd never seen before began kicking the car and shouting and opening the doors and stuff. I locked the doors and tried to continue the manouvre without panicing, narrowly missing running one of them over. (damn) I would die if that happened on my test day. :frown:

Finally, I had my first time doing 70mph. I quite enjoyed the dual carrigeway driving and found it easier than I expected. Anybody else really enjoy that part?

Reply 2254

gefmongoose

Thanks for the replies all. This is a great thread!
The kind of t-junction in question was one of those on an estate which doesn't even have central markings due to how narrow the roads are (but still a 30 zone), and some of the junctions were so closed, you'd have to creep into the road just to see if anything was coming - and if something was coming along at 30 they'd have a lot of trouble missing you.

Reply 2255

Areontas

Had my first lesson yesterday! I launched straight in with some of the basic skills, although the accelerator does my head in because I can never seem to control it to begin with! Luckily my instructor handled the pedals when I was steering left and right, and my main problem with the steering was that I tended to over steer! Probably came across a tad enthusiastic. I enjoyed the lesson though... it's obviously going to take practice, but I'm glad I'm looking forward to my next lesson rather than dreading it (at least for now).

Reply 2256

coolguy456

Calzeh

Eeeeep what a day! At the beginning of my driving lesson the speedometer wasnt working. Had to estimate 30 mph for a bit, but it randomly came back to life like half an hour later :s-smilie:

Finally, I had my first time doing 70mph. I quite enjoyed the dual carrigeway driving and found it easier than I expected. Anybody else really enjoy that part?

Wow what was your instructor doing while all this was happening?

A similar thing happened to one of my mates, some chav deliberately flopped themselve on the bonnet of the car, lucky my mate wasn't going that fast or he might of done some damage :rolleyes:

My mate was so shaken up he couldn’t drive back!

Reply 2257

Valjean

coolguy456

My mate was so shaken up he couldn’t drive back!

He was trying not to retaliate and trying to keep me calm. :P I could see how much he wanted to get out and whack them. Usually I don't think much of violence, but they would have deserved it.

It's awful isn't it. I can't believe the stuff people get a kick out of nowadays - those kids are clearly going nowhere in life. Maybe they're jealous because it was quite a poor area and I don't expect many of the parents round there had jobs, never mind afford driving lessons. Maybe they just genuinely had nothing better to do and know no better. Who knows?