Getting over driving nerves

[Callie]

Cloo - are you getting any practice outside of lessons?

 

[Saffy]

I was terrified of roundabouts when I was driving.

My boyfriend at the time made me drive us to work everyday around the magic roundabout in Hemel, it soon sorted me out.

I'm afraid it really is just loads of practice.

 

[Cloo]

Cloo - are you getting any practice outside of lessons?

Yeah, see earlier comments on p1. I get out with gsv about twice a month on average, though we really could manage more if it didn't make us both so on edge.

I'm OK with roundabouts, funnily enough - I thought some bigger ones might be scary, but they're not much of a problem.

 

[skyscraper101]

I've officially had my drivers license for one year as of today and I still haven't driven on my own. And I am a bit worried about it too.

Oh, I took Kalms before my test - which helped.

 

[moomoo]

It really helped me when I realised that all the other cars on the road weren't actually out to crash into me.

I'm a confident driver now and am happy to go on motorways and stuff but still have a bit of a thing about the M6 for some reason.

It really is practice, practice, practice.

 

[moose]

Try to remember that it's not that big a deal if you get a scrape. Honest, it's not. It's only a metal box. It will carry on being drivable just because it has a scrape on it. And if you damage somebody else -- well, that's what insurance is for.

Once you free yourself from caring about scrapes, it all comes a lot easier.

I tend to think if people were more concerned about their paintwork, alloys, etc, they might drive a bit more carefully. Having a nice car makes you extra observant.

 

[Looby]

I tend to think if people were more concerned about their paintwork, alloys, etc, they might drive a bit more carefully. Having a nice car makes you extra observant.

It really does although I was pretty careful before I got the new car anyway.

I had 20 lessons when I was 18, failed my test and didn't drive again for 10 years. I think I had another 25-30 lessons and in between drove at least twice a week with my mate (who was brilliant and patient) and my mum who is frankly a bit mental at the best of times.

I had about 6 months of driving weekly (just to the supermarket or round the coast roads), a break of 3 months when I had no car then about 4 months between first proper lesson and test. I was lucky because Magic Sam let me have the money from inheritance from his nan for my lessons/test.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Learned how to a few years ago - can actually make one go forward now, but being on one terrifies me beyond all endurance, especially being anywhere near automated vehicles, so I've basically given it up as a dead loss.

I'm not actually scared of dying/injury when in a car, as mostly I know I'm not going fast enough for anything dreadful to happen (though I am on a bike!) - just really worried about banging/scraping. It doesn't help that I've frequently had dreams, since childhood, of driving a car and being unable to control it. Funnily enough, I don't, as I feared, have a worry about not being in control of the car, I know that I am, but I still suppose it's not a very helpful background to driving.

Hope you don't think I'm being rude to ask, but I'm curious (and astonished), just wondering, how on earth did you get to being grown up before learning how to ride a bike?

 

[Cloo]

I tend to think if people were more concerned about their paintwork, alloys, etc, they might drive a bit more carefully. Having a nice car makes you extra observant.

I guess it makes me even more nervous, as we do have a nice car now (albeit second hand) and not a banger!

As for adulthood without riding a bike - easy if your parents don't ride. I'm in London, remember, so no reason to learn for independence's sake, as there's good public transport.

 

[gentlegreen]

Hope you don't think I'm being rude to ask, but I'm curious (and astonished), just wondering, how on earth did you get to being grown up before learning how to ride a bike?

Actually it isn't that unusual.

I briefly had a go when I was a kid, but my parents were happier to pay my bus-fares to school than buy me a bike (eventually I started walking there and back to subsidise my meagre pocket money) .. so I more or less went straight to a 125cc Honda at 17 ... I didn't discover the joys of bicycle riding for another 10 years.

To be perfectly honest I'm quite a nervous rider if it gets icey or gravelly.
I cycled along the river Avon cycle path on Monday and was dead nervous I would fall over the edge ..

 

[donkey]

[QUOTE =marty21;9006030]I'd have loved to only take 60 lessons to be fair, it was probably over 150 for me , spread over 13 years (with a 10 year gap between failure 3 and 4)[/QUOTE]

No drugs for breakfast usually helps !

 

[softybabe]

took me ages and ages to get the 'biting point' I nearly give in to driving automatic....I passed first time and about 8 years down the line although I drive everyday (for work); I still hate driving and sometimes get nervous on unfamiliar roads...hang on in there

 

[chainsaw cat]

double G&T before every lesson, that should help

*scarpers*

My aunt was given a large Scotch by her examiner in the pub before the test, because her instructor had passed on the info that she was a bit nervy.

She passed.

This was about 1952 by the way.

 

[kabbes]

I tend to think if people were more concerned about their paintwork, alloys, etc, they might drive a bit more carefully. Having a nice car makes you extra observant.

Yeah, that's gonna help her. Well done you.

 

[Herbsman.]

htfu

 

[Cid]

Yeah, see earlier comments on p1. I get out with gsv about twice a month on average, though we really could manage more if it didn't make us both so on edge.

I'm OK with roundabouts, funnily enough - I thought some bigger ones might be scary, but they're not much of a problem.

Twice a month is really nothing... The technical aspects of driving are not hard to master; I was executing perfect 3 point turns and parallel parking after a few lessons, and I think a lot of people do. What is hard is the confidence, you need to be able to judge your position in the road instinctively, all your reactions and checks need to be instinctive which takes practice. I'd been cycling all my life so my general road sense was pretty good, but my sense of position in relation to other cars was pretty poor.

I failed 3/4 times, but the reason I did so was that I didn't keep practicing between tests... This was in Devon and the wait period was ages so I just got complacent. When I eventually did pass I drove a couple of times a week (plus lessons) and got friends/family to visit me so I could get in some long sessions (eg by driving them out to Dartmoor).

I already had good road sense, my nerves were more down to the people and having experienced the wrong end of cars before and not wanting to do the same to anyone else. With no road sense I'd say you want a couple of practice sessions a week as well as lessons, at least in the month before the test. There really is no other way of getting over it. Of course this is hard for you with the ankle-biter, so maybe sister is a good idea as then GSV can do the looking after.

Oh, one thing that does help though is to have systems; I actually wrote these down before my last test which is something I usually poor scorn upon, but it helped. Stuff like 'take piss, remember to keep hydrated, relax'.

 

[panpete]

this thread has spurred me on to do a poll

*goes off and makes thread*

 

[Chester Copperpot]

The worst thing I did on a test was to pull up behind a load of parked cars thinking they were waiting at a traffic light. I sat there for good few minutes too.

On the nerve thing it gets better with practice I guess. Have you got anyone you can go out with other than the instructor. Maybe a friend or relative?

 

[Cloo]

took me ages and ages to get the 'biting point' I nearly give in to driving automatic....I passed first time and about 8 years down the line although I drive everyday (for work); I still hate driving and sometimes get nervous on unfamiliar roads...hang on in there

Luckily I'm learning automatic - when I tried to learn 10 years ago, I discovered I just could not deal with the fucking clutch - I then swapped to automatic and made twice as much progress in half as many lessons.

Took a while to convince gsv I really needed to go automatic (part of the problem was solved when some white van idiot wrote off gsv's car, which was manual, so we bought an automatic) and I remain convinced it's utterly not worthwhile for me to try learning manual. My brother couldn't handle gears, either.

 

[marty21]

Luckily I'm learning automatic - when I tried to learn 10 years ago, I discovered I just could not deal with the fucking clutch - I then swapped to automatic and made twice as much progress in half as many lessons.

Took a while to convince gsv I really needed to go automatic (part of the problem was solved when some white van idiot wrote off gsv's car, which was manual, so we bought an automatic) and I remain convinced it's utterly not worthwhile for me to try learning manual. My brother couldn't handle gears, either.

i love gears, once i'd mastered all that clutch business , everything fell into place. I've never driven an automatic

 

[Cid]

Luckily I'm learning automatic - when I tried to learn 10 years ago, I discovered I just could not deal with the fucking clutch - I then swapped to automatic and made twice as much progress in half as many lessons.

Took a while to convince gsv I really needed to go automatic (part of the problem was solved when some white van idiot wrote off gsv's car, which was manual, so we bought an automatic) and I remain convinced it's utterly not worthwhile for me to try learning manual. My brother couldn't handle gears, either.

It is if you ever want a cheap car. Or if you want to save on fuel costs. Or if you want a decent selection of rental cars (or to rent a car at all in some places).

 

[Cloo]

It is if you ever want a cheap car. Or if you want to save on fuel costs. Or if you want a decent selection of rental cars (or to rent a car at all in some places).

Yes, yes, I'm totally aware of all this, but my mum's survived being an auto driver and unless you're me (or my first teacher) you cannot appreciate how unable I was to cope with manual!