What was it like for you to learn how to drive?

I ask because I am finally learning. I am almost 28 and have been putting it off for years. When I tried learning a few years ago the teacher was an ass and insisted on sticking me on the road after twenty minutes in the carpark. I almost caused a crash and afterward not only was I not motivated to learn - I was fucking terrified!

Now I have a really nice patient teacher and have been having 1-2 lessons a week since June. I can drive myself to and from home and I am almost perfect at intersections! Still got roundabouts, lane changing, parking and god knows what else to go, but I am getting there. The fear gets better with every lesson, too.

When did you learn to drive and what was it like?

 

Hello,

well, it was easy. After running over the fifth pedestrian one get used to it. Na, just kidding .

Regards
Gyro

 

I learned when I was 16 and got my license at 16 (1966). My Dad taught me. The first day out we were in an empty parking lot, then my Dad had me out on some of the streets around the factory. It was winter and as we were approaching an intersection my Dad said "Turn right here...left." I was already turning right when he said the "left" so we ended up in a pile of snow in a ditch on the left. After we got out of that he apologized for giving me poor instructions.

I took my drivers test a few months later. People always told me that most people don't pass the first test because of the parallel parking. So I practiced that non stop for a couple weeks. The person doing my test had me parallel park on a curve and I got it in perfectly. Passed the test and got my license.

I am glad you are facing your fears. I have never had any problems driving. It is the other drivers I worry about though.

 

Living On A Farm Learning To Drive Was Easy As,

Somewere About 8 I Taught Myself To Drive In A 1926 Rugby Ute, Then

Came Tractors, And My Parents Car When They Were Away With Friends.

Went For My License In My Final Year At Boarding School In Sydney, I

Took Two Driving Lessons With A Classmates Father Who Ran A Driving

School, Then On A Friday Afternoon At 4.00pm In Peak Hour City

Traffic I Went For The Test, Totally Aced It, Not Too Bad For A Kid

From The Bush With 2 Hours Of City Driving Experience...



Cheers Glen.

 

I got my licence when I was 19 and didn't like my teacher either. Driving became fun when that guy wasn't in the car with me anymore

 

A few weeks after I turned 15, my dad FINALLY took me out to a part of the lake that had all but been abandoned, a big parking lot, and he let me get the feel of the car. I was so surprised at how easy it was to make it go. My dad tried teaching me how to drive, but he was too high-strung and yelled too much so I refused to let him teach me anymore, so my mom took over. Procrastination on all our parts kept me from getting my actual driver's license until I was 18 and I barely passed (my mom is one of the worst drivers I know). Like I'm talking I got a 70 and that's exactly what you need to pass. Well, I still wasn't really allowed to drive much, license or not.

Then I met my husband. He was floored that I had such little experience driving for an 18 year old, so he let me start driving the car he was driving (his dad's). He'd ride passenger and everytime I started using both feet (that's how my mom taught me to drive, every car I drove was automatic, so no need for both feet) he'd throw on the emergency brake and wouldn't let it loose until I quit, lol. His dad gave me the car because we needed one and he had tons. Then husband wrecked it. Then the head gasket blew a couple months later and it was capoot. So we spent every waking minute we weren't working putting together one of my husband's cars (lol, he and his dad are mechanics, there have been a lot of cars) and got it running for several months. I drove like once a week, lol. And then it busted and we were without a car for 3 years. Then we got the money to fix the car again. And I started actually driving regularly for the first time ever at the age of like 23. It took having to make a 30 minute trip to town and back to the bank for work a few times a week before I started becoming confident in my driving out of town skills. That car has since bit it again (transmission), so father-in-law came to the rescue again and "sold" me his prettiest and newest car. And I've been driving all the time pretty much since. Because I fucking love that car.

 

What Make And Model Of Car Can Be Described As Pretty....???



Cheers Glen.

 

I always used to take the bus and walk and then I finally learned to drive when I was 21 years old because I had a job in Los angeles at the time and public transportation was proving very time consuming. I was living about 40 miles from LA.

Fortunately, I had a Very patient boyfriend at the time that taught me how to drive. If I would have depended on my parents or someone else to teach me, I think I would have gotten discouraged.

Learning to drive was kind of fun.

Sometimes I really want to sell my car though and just do public transportation again. I think I'm a safe driver but I don't trust other people on the road at all. Drivers licenses are handed out way too liberally...

A lot of people are reckless drivers, and there are those that pay more attention to their cell phone or their ipod than to cars or pedestrians around them, scary stuff.

 

I don't drive.I know cars are very seductive and useful - but I see them as a necessary evil.I find their constant presence in inner-city life oppressive.I much prefer bicycles, horses and walking.I'm a hopeless idealist trying to be a realist though.So drive,enjoy and be careful I guess.I can effect no change,so please God just let it all wash over my head.

 

I agree with cars and driving being a necessary evil. I think people should walk and bike as much as possible. I just wish viable public transportation was available everywhere..

 

I live in London UK.We have a comprehensive public transport system.It's a bit chaotic,and everyone complains about it,but it works most of the time,so I consider myself lucky in that respect.

 

I wouldn't learn to drive when I was 15 - 16. My mother had a huge Lincoln Mark IV. It was so damn wide and I had really curvy roads to drive. She'd pick me up from school and let me try to drive home...the kids behind me would blow the horn and raise hell because I was going so slow.

I told my parents to stick it!

Then the Christmas before I turned 17 in May, my dad gave me a tiny little used car...an Opel Cadet. I loved it and learned easily in it.


After I got my license and was zipping around it that for a few months, Daddy surprised me with a 1965 Mustang!!!!

 

$8,000.00 in damages.. :leaving:

 

i learned to drive in this truck but blue..

1987 mazda b2200


it was a manual... and i got used to shifting in a big field when i was 13. when i turned 16 i rolled it on a dirt road.. the only time ive ever totaled a vehicle..

if you want to learn a stick... ask a friend and go to a big parking lot. its very easy..

 

Not all that hard to learn if you were being observant as a kid and wanted nothing more than to get behind the wheel yourself. I don't understand any kid today that doesn't get their drivers license on thier birthday or at least the same year as..

Took me about 5 minutes to learn to drive my grandmas 73 t-bird after I stole it while her and my mom were out shopping for the day...I drove it 30 miles to Boulder, scored a bag of pot, topped off the tank, drove back, parked it in the exact spot where it had been and no one was the wiser.

 

My driving instructor was really weird and creepy. He came from India, had brought his family here and then his wife divorced him and took the kids and everything.

So he would have me drive past her house and complain about her... And ask me what I look for in a man, and creepy stuff like that. I was 19.

 

Yuck.

 

I started driving probably around 8, couldn't reach the pedals so I sat on my old mans lap and just steered. Back roads at first then main roads. He had muscle cars and the seats wouldn't go up far enough, but I could drive my moms station wagon probably around 10. And motorcyles just as young. I had to climb up on a flower planter to get on them. And make sure I didn't come to a complete stop unless I could lean against something :2thumbsup:

Needless to say I've wrecked a few things, haha..

 

my father taught me

first drives were on bush roads ...he would walk ahead and when i heard gunshot that was my signal to catch up with the truck and pick up whatever bird he got so he didnt have to carry it ...i was probably early teens and it was a 1971 chevy cheyenne

after that on highways when i was 16 it was him teaching me also....in a standard shift diesel landcruiser bj42 model...took my road test in it too ..passed first time ...no formal driving instructions needed just fathers words

he always trusted my driving...and still does...ive always liked that feeling of going somewhere and he lets me drive..im sure he feels safer than if my brother was driving

ive always been comfortable behind the wheel...even when backing up big trailers