I have decided to learn to drive

Otherwise, I'm totally happy being unable to drive and taking buses/trains/cabs/whatever. And yet somehow I still feel like a childish selfish stick-in-the-mud for voicing the above. Should I tell them all to fuck off?

-- dog latin (doglati...), September 6th, 2004 3:16 PM.

Hooray for Thameslink!

this is exactly my biggest concern of all. I'm already pretty convinced I'll be a nervous and/or aggressive driver as it is, and if I'm not practicing on a regular basis, I fear I'll just be a danger to myself and others, pure and simple. That, and if I pass my test, i'll then feel obliged to drive completely unnecessarily, just to try to prevent the above scenario, and that goes against my principles of using public transport/feet whenever possible.

So again, it comes down to sevenish days around Christmas and - as mentioned - moving house, the occasional holiday etc.

How I'll feel once I have children etc I'm not sure, but right now it just seems a little pointless and unproductive.

So, now I'm thinking about buying a car. While I passed with only 1 minor error (brushed the kerb as I pulled over), and was confident for the first few months after passing, I am now completely lacking in confidence behind the wheel, so I think I'm going to get a couple of lessons prior to making the purchase so I can relearn parking techniques and also do some motorway driving (the M8 is kind of essential to driving in Glasgow, running through the city centre as it does).

This is a long and convoluted way of saying: I don't think you should learn to drive unless you're going to do it regularly afterwards, in other words Archel and Sicky OTM.

My last test failure I thought I'd passed :o(

You can get those crazy proximity gadgets for the boot of the car

29 counters of speeding i bet ;)

x-post Ken, if you get more than a certain number in any one area, you fail so by getting that many errors and still passing, Mark must be fairly shit, but not totally shit, at everything. Acceptably shit?

There are some people who learn to drive, and don't lose their confidence when they don't get behind the wheel for a while. The majority of people do lose their confidence after a period of non-driving, so if you think that you'll fit in this category, then I'd seriously reconsider leaving it for now, at least until you're in a position when you'll be able to stomach the vast cost (don't forget you have to pass you're theory test before you can even book your practical, and some areas of london have a 4 month waiting list for that) and know you'll probably be behind the wheel a bit more often.

Having said that, being a friend with a driving licence makes you very popular in London, particularly when friends are moving and want to do it on the cheap by hiring a van. Parallel parking a van is a whole different kettle of fish, however.....

To parallel park, move your car three or so feet from, and half a car's distance in front of the car in front of your parking space. This is very important - if you are level with the car, you're losing several feet by the time you actually start turning - you need to use this extra space because your car isn't capable of turning at right angles.

Start reversing slowly, and when you are just clear of the back of the front car, turn your steering wheel quickly so you are pointing the back end of your car at where you envisage it ending up. Then reverse in a straight line until the front of your car is clear of the back end of the front car. Then turn the wheel quickly a corresponding amount in the other direction. Continue reversing slowly until you are perfectly parked.

What you shouldn't do is keep turning the wheel as you reverse - it makes judging the correct position almost impossible. It's also key to go as close to the protruding wing of the car in front, both when initially reversing (i.e. diagonally) and during the final reverse (straightening up).

Once you get it, it's like learning to ride a bike. But the technique has to be right.

If I ever end up married with kids I can see it as a necessity but until then I can't see myself learning.

Also I imagine it as being really hard, but then I think of all the fucking morons out there who can drive perfectly well.

Also I imagine it as being really hard, but then I think of all the fucking morons out there who can drive perfectly well.

haha yeah!

If there's no hurry to get it done, and you don't have a problem taking a week or so out of your schedule, then it's definitely the way to go. You don't need lessons before you do the theory, just cram the highway code and use the internet to find example tests.

As a result, I am now a very nervous occasional driver. It's the prospect of having to park that freaks me out most. I can't bear the thought of people watching me as I come horrendously close to other cars and hold up traffic.

If I ever started driving again regularly, I'd need a refresher course I think, at least for manoeuvres like parking and reversing around a corner (does anyone actually do the latter?)

People who can drive are much better in bed.

nobody ever reverses around a corner N. and as someone who drove for 2 years without ever being able to parallel park trust me there's always a space you can just drive into.

Spoken like someone who has never lived in Lincolnshire.

Or attempted to use Central Trains on a regular basis..

Coming back to Charlie's question, I'd like some information too, because I'm going to learn to drive so I don't go INSANE trying to commute next year. Can you recommend good (national, if you're in the UK) driving schools?

I have managed this long without a car, but I've relied a great deal on people who do have cars. You may not need one to live in Birmingham, but if you're going to ESCAPE from the bloody place every so often, it can be rather useful - unless you want to travel from one city to another. Trying, to get to somewhere less populated without one of these evil machines is rather a challenge.
Travelling back to Lincoln, spending hours shivvering on Nottingham station platform because the fuckers have cancelled the train halfway to its destination and you don't want to sit in the waiting room because it smells of piss and curry, and its full of drunks but not as full of drunks as the train, because they're sitting there swigging lager as it goes along and singing rugby songs and generally being obnoxious and you're just thankful that they haven't got rid of them altogether that day and put on a bloody replacement bus instead -

I think I lost my point in that rant.... I was trying to suggest why so many people drive cars. It isn't just laziness.

I'm not so much thinking about when you have kids, although there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing that reqs a car. I just think that in most peoples lives there are lots of things you need/want to do that require a car to do them effeciently or do them at all. I'm just not prepared to be dependant on other people in these situations, because I don't want to be let down and/or it's not fair on them. Also I want to be able to be help out friends/rellys/neighbours with lifts if I can.

If I didn't drive it would take me 90 minutes to get to work vs 30 in the car, I wouldn't be able to play in a band etc etc. They're all choices, but why restrict yourself?

I don't think people should feel bad about driving, but I don't like people to claim that it's NOT a choice.

i guess i've lived in london for too long! i forget about lincolnshire (and buckinghamshire etc and all of them shires)

thinking about it more.. i guess vic has a point that it's a very useful skill to have, so why not learn it? it's like learning how to swim - you don't have to go swimming all the time but it's nice to know that you can when you need to? (the argument goes the same way i guess if you lived in some land-locked country).

I like driving a lot. Maybe if long distance travelling by public transport isn't so expensive/slow I would like taking trains more. I don't have a car anymore (and don't really need one in london) but sometimes i do miss having it. I support my local cornershop business a lot more than before, so I guess that's good. Except their frankfurters are manky.

It's a useful skill to have, so if you can afford it go for it!

learning to drive, as aopposed to actualyl driving, is i think useful. might as well give yourself the chance in case you really need to for some reason in later life. the older you gte the harder it is cliche drone swiz etc

ON 05/05/05!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a description of my first test that I sent someone:

I failed my first driving test. After the routine of putting on turn-singles, beeping horn, etc. the examiner told me to pull up to the white line. I turned the key in the ignition. The examiner looked at me in amazement: “The car is already on.” The test did not go significantly better after that. The examiner told me to pull up to a cone. He says, “Don’t you see that cone?” I’m thinking to myself: “I see two cones. Could you maybe be more precise about which one you want me to pull up to than ‘that cone.’” In the rush to pull up to the cone, I wasn’t thinking about how close my car was to the cones that mark off the parking spot. Once I was up to the cone he wanted me to pull up to, I realized that I was much further than two feet away from the cones that mark off the front of the parking space. I tried nudging the car over, pulling up, and then backing up again, but I still wasn’t close enough. Then I tried to remember the approach J0hn, my teacher, had taught me if I were too far from the cones (not that we’d gone over that very much), but it was all a bit muddled, and eventually it became clear that I wasn’t going to get the car properly parked. I kind of think that if the examiner hadn’t rushed me to pull up to that other cone, I would have lined myself up okay. As J0hn had said, it’s not a timed test, but that doesn’t mean the examiners won’t crack the whip.

New Yorkers: GET OFF THE STREETS....

I need to move back where there's public transport, I really really hate driving.

Gimme my car back!

Does anyone know if "American Driving Academy" is reputable?

I don't know if you know anybody that well in Tucson, or is willing to come visit you in Tucson soon enough for you to learn. But that would be nice.

True, tt does help that you're not an "OMG I'm like about to totally drive!" teen, as you'll probably be far more cautious than less cautious.. something driving instructors appreciate. But you'll probably be nervous, which is something all people learning to drive need to get over and will get over... just scope out different schools, and make sure you have a kind, patient instructor just in case. A cranky, impatient instructor is what you do NOT need, and -- unfortunately -- they do exist.. usually at the lowest prices. It might be worth spending a little more for a decent instructor (though you don't need an extravagant school, if that makes sense.)

This is the difficult first 15% of learning to drive. The other 85% is pretty much on your own.. go at your own pace.. take side streets and leave freeways for last. Once you learn how to be brave enough to merge onto lanes on a freeway, you pretty much got it. You'll quickly get over your over-caution in about a month or so, at the most.

I would agree with Blount if this were in a more secluded area, but the Southwest has notoriously aggressive drivers, so I think having an instructor for at least a couple of lessons is pretty key here.

(My very first driving lesson was driving Sunset Blvd. from PCH to downtown and back, in L.A. Talk about diving in the deep end first.)

hello

so pretty much my driving instructor is Eddie Marsan from Happy Go Lucky. His success rate seems to be based on the fact he gives you a 20 minute lecture each and every time you make even a small error, ensuring you never ever make that mistake again.

I'm always baffled when people manage to get to their mid-20s or early-30s without learning to drive, and then I remember that places outside the South West have public transport infrastructures.

haha, yeah, i've never really needed to learn before, but i figured it was high time. learning to drive and then owning and maintaining a car is such a large financial outlay i've just avoided it in the past. but as i'm thinking of moving to the south west, i don't want to cut myself off from my pals in the east so driving is essential. i did get quite a few lessons way back in 2007 but die to redundancy ended up giving up and only just started again. pleased with how much i've managed to retain. hope to have passed by the end of the year.

Xp I often ride the subway when in LA and it is sad