Driving Question

[Dice Man]

The thing is most of these manoeuvres I managed to do at some point, but at the start of every lesson I forget how to do them. Next time I'm going to write notes on how to do each one, because in my experience if you ever write notes in order to revise them, you end up remembering them anyway. I'm doing these manoeuvres as slowly as I can already. My instructor says that if you do them a bit badly, that's basically a minor, but if you fail to come to a stop when a person or car gets close you insta-fail, so best to do them as slow as possible and keep looking round.

[Steve A]

Let go your conscious self Dice. Use the force.

[Wuddle]

just drive to pass mate, then drive properly.

I'd very much doubt anyone heres driving resembles that of when they were doing their test.

[Wuddle]

parralel park or bay park are the 2 easiest ones, as if you get good at them you can do them without any hassle. emergency stop is still easy, but just remembering to secure the car then start again is essential.

the 2 i don't like are the turn in the road and reverse round a corner, as they have lots of external factors... just make sure you know your test routes and practive the reverse round a corner on every different one it can be, and as long as the road is relatively wide the turn in the road isn't hard... remember a turn in the road can be a 3,5,7 etc point turn as long as it's done safely.

[Wuddle]

you know exactly where to put the car, exactly when to turn your wheel, and exactly when to turn your wheel the other way. no external factors at all, which are usually the reasons why you fail. i just assumed you can do them all when i commented... like you said depends what you like, i hated reverse round a corner.

[CitrusSR]

I have my first test booked for 14th April and my last lesson went pretty badly, with about 5 majors I think. Every one of the manoeuvres went badly, usually ending up either on the curb or too far away from it. And I still occasionally mess up on roundabouts. Anybody have any advice when it comes to these?

Try angling the wing mirror slightly downwards so you can see how close you are to the kerb when you are reversing on the manoeuvres - but really all you can do is practice. If you can get it right most of the time there's a good chance you will get through the test then you never have to do it again!

[PokerWoody]

WTF Parallel park is easily the hardest one. The turn in the road is the easiest piece of piss that can be thrown at you. I found with reverse round a corner you either got good at it or you didn't :S.

I'm with Wuddle. I have always been able to parallel park and was always my favourite manoeuvre in lessons, the 3 point turn thing was never much of a problem either, the one that was really hit or miss when I was learning was reversing round a corner. Reversing around a corner is also probably the most useless manoeuvre for post test driving.

Tip for reverse parking:

• Do the manoeuvre very slowly
• If you go in at the wrong angle, comeback out and start again rather than try to correct it mid-manoeuvre
• Don't go lock to lock, or even turn to turn.

Always think of the manoeuvre as three separate turns.

1. Turn the wheel around one revolution, keep going backwards until you are 40-45 degrees to the curb.
2. Turn the wheel back to the 'straight' position. Keep going until your rear is "close" to the curb (half a foot'ish, or wherever you feel comfortable)
3. Turn the wheel one orbit in the other direction and keep going backwards until the car is parallel to the curb.

You can then go forward again a it to straighten the wheels if you want before stopping.

Also if you have a car to practice in before your test, learn to do them reversing up a hill. It just requires a bit more accuracy and makes doing them on the flat seem a total doddle.

[Dice Man]

Had a lesson today which went pretty well. I had another guy in the back watching though which probably made me drive better. One problem with reversing is that I have to think about which direction we'll actually be going if I pull the steering wheel in any direction. I seem to think that if I turn right we'll go left which means that if we get close to the curb or something else I sometimes end up correcting it the wrong way.

Parallel parking went alright today, although there was about 3m between me and the car in front, so I don't know how people manage to actually fit into the small gaps you often see between cars on the high street.

[PokerWoody]

How do you get to step 1 on this list?.. e.g. you drive up alongside a car (how far do you keep away, and how far do you reverse back before you start turning in?).

Yeah, start off level with the car you are going to park behind, aim to be about a foot - a foot and away from it (down your road you don't want to be too far away else you'll have to start worrying about the front of your car hitting a car on the other side of the road!! About a foot should be fine tho).

Turn turn the wheel when your back wheels are level with the end of the car you are abreast of.

[Wakou]

One problem with reversing is that I have to think about which direction we'll actually be going if I pull the steering wheel in any direction. I seem to think that if I turn right we'll go left which means that if we get close to the curb or something else I sometimes end up correcting it the wrong way.

Take the test in an artic ftw.