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Pixelated Dragon posted:My husband wants to get a few of those "student driver" magnets for his car to slap on there when I'm practicing. Is this a good idea? Student driver magnets are an ok idea but not a magic bullet. 'L' plates are mandatory over here and most people won't do much except maybe use their indicators better. Some people will overtake you with a flash and a roar because they don't want to be stuck behind you but they are the people who would otherwise be tailgating you anyway. ^^ The best thing is when you start driving on your own , you can just pull over and take 5 if something stressful like that happens.
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Feb 20, 2015 00:51
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| # ? May 7, 2024 12:43 |
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Pixelated Dragon posted:Yeah, this won't be the last time something like that happens. I just need to get confident enough to not let it freak me out so much, and that's going to take time. This is why it's so important to learn situational awareness. Nine times out of ten it won't be your fuckup that leads to a crash it will be someone who is driving around you loving up. It is imperative to spot it happening before they hurtle into you, and be able to get the hell outta the way. It eventually becomes pretty automatic to keep your head on a swivel but until then consciously make sure you've covered all your visual angles once every 10 seconds or so. It doesn't take much to glance in the rearview mirrors to keep tabs on the people behind you and to your sides.
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Feb 20, 2015 00:57
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Absolutely not. People will drive more like idiots to try to get around you because they'll assume you're going to drive like a grandma. Jaguars! posted:Student driver magnets are an ok idea but not a magic bullet. 'L' plates are mandatory over here and most people won't do much except maybe use their indicators better. Some people will overtake you with a flash and a roar because they don't want to be stuck behind you but they are the people who would otherwise be tailgating you anyway. I do drive like a grandma at the moment so that's a fair assumption. But it's only day one so that should stop with more practice! My husband already ordered this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O7YCQ9S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The amazon.com reviews of these beginner driver magnets seem to indicate that other motorists give the student drivers more space, in general. I suspect it's like a big caution sign. I would much rather someone just go around me than ride my rear end. It'll also be minorly funny because they'll be on a car with veteran plates. Of course, I won't want to use them if they'll just prompt everyone on the road around me to be jerks just because they think it'll be entertaining. Pixelated Dragon fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 01:15
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I don't drive any differently around student drivers other than I don't sit in the lane to their left or right, especially not in their blind spots, because they're bad at changing lanes. You always have to be more careful in residential areas than major roads because the people that live there or who drive through there a lot make assumptions and drive on those assumptions instead of paying attention. In any given drive you can expect there to be a close call or a surprise. So long as you didn't touch another car you did fine. raton fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 01:42
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I learned to drive pretty late. My grandparents hired a driving teacher to take me from 0 to license in four days of two hours driving per day, and then he drove me to take my exam on the fifth day. The first day, we drove around their gated community so he could teach me how to park in a driveway and pull out of a driveway. The second day, he had me drive on a couple of highways in Miami. I didn't even know how to stay in my lane and he's like "just stay in the middle of the middle. No, no, I mean the middle of the middle. Yes! Like this! No, not like that, get back in the middle of the middle..." and "always go 10 miles over the speed limit! If you get pulled over then I'll pay the ticket, don't worry, just go faster!" So, yeah, my second time driving a car, for hours 3 and 4 of my lifetime driving time, I was going 10mph over the speed limit on I-75 and I-595, where the speed limits were 70mph and 65mph, iirc. And I wasn't even very good at staying in my lane. Especially not when the road curved a little. But I survived, so I think you'll be fine if you're more careful.
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Feb 20, 2015 02:40
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I'm in my 30s and I got my license a couple months ago. I tried getting it at home in Sweden, but never really followed through on it despite hours of instruction. I finally got it in suburban North Carolina by driving illegally with my dad a few hours a day for like a week and passed the laughably easy test even though I screwed up during reversing. Promptly after getting it I spent the next 3 months in Sweden where I wasn't allowed to drive on it. I've literally never driven since I got the license. Now i've moved to San Francisco and I'm scared as hell at the prospect of a) city driving in SF b) Highway driving in the bay area. Which is like, the only driving there is around here. The company relocating me has granted me the use of a rental car, which seems fine, except I've never parallel parked in the last 10 years. Like, even the prospect of getting the car from the rental place back to my apartment (which has garage parking) seems daunting.
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Feb 20, 2015 07:37
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Pixelated Dragon posted:My husband wants to get a few of those "student driver" magnets for his car to slap on there when I'm practicing. Is this a good idea They're mandatory over here (you guys seem to have a really lackadaisical approach to learning people how to safely maneuver giant metal killer machines around soft squishy humans!), and they're great - it lets everyone around you know that they've got to watch you a bit more carefully, and it makes people much less annoyed if you're not driving perfectly, they just pass you instead of tailgating and honking.
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Feb 20, 2015 08:41
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luminalflux posted:Promptly after getting it I spent the next 3 months in Sweden where I wasn't allowed to drive on it. I've literally never driven since I got the license. Now i've moved to San Francisco and I'm scared as hell at the prospect of a) city driving in SF b) Highway driving in the bay area. Which is like, the only driving there is around here. The company relocating me has granted me the use of a rental car, which seems fine, except I've never parallel parked in the last 10 years. Like, even the prospect of getting the car from the rental place back to my apartment (which has garage parking) seems daunting. To be fair, suburban driving can be pretty different than city driving, lots more 1-way streets, non-protected lefts, and more difficult to find parking. Since you're moving to California you'll probably need to get used to driving on freeways if you need to get any particular difference. First couple times I had to drive in a downtown area it was a little unnerving but you get used to it pretty fast, just keep an eye out for other cars and signage to point out 1-way streets. That said, I don't live there and have only visited a handful of times, but San Francisco is one of the better cities for reliable public transit and I remember cabs (Uber) were dirt cheap, to the point that for 3 people it was cheaper to get a cab than ferry all of us on the BART to get from downtown to the airport. I'd imagine if you want you could avoid driving there more than most places.
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Feb 20, 2015 09:41
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Pixelated Dragon posted:I do drive like a grandma at the moment so that's a fair assumption. But it's only day one so that should stop with more practice! I'm glad that you're not letting a couple of little scares deter you from continuing to drive. Like others have said, you can pretty much expect at least one "event" every time you drive. I consider myself lucky if I make it through a short trip without someone doing something careless or dangerous. It's stressful at first, but the better you become at paying attention to your surroundings the better prepared you are to identify situations early. Learner and Novice magnets or stickers are required where I live as well. It always funny to see some 16 year old kid in a brand new Mustang with a big green Novice magnet on it. I had to slap a big "N" onto the back of our car for a year and while I don't know if it made people around me more cautious, I never had anyone try to mess with me for fun either. Give them a try, but people are going to tailgate, cut you off, run through intersections or change lanes without signalling no matter what you do. If you find that they just turn everyone around you into an rear end in a top hat, at least they were only $13.
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Feb 20, 2015 18:27
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Those "Student Driver" stickers do make me give a car more room then I ordinarily would, but at the same time I will be more more aggressive in passing if it looks like I would be stuck behind one. The real terrors of the road are rental box trucks towing cars. That is usually a sign of someone who has never driven a truck nor towed anything before. Be very wary of them.
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Feb 20, 2015 20:05
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| # ? May 7, 2024 12:43 |
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My advice, give yourself a mental check every day/week/month of driving. The tendency after a little while is to say "I know what I'm doing now....." Throw in the gangster lean, put on some tunes, start cruising. Doesn't matter if you're 19 or 60, everyone will do it. You suddenly have become 3 times more dangerous than anyone else, because over confidence without the skill to back it up is deadly. Different skill but the same thing applies for people learning to shoot guns, after a little bit of time behind the gun they start to get confident and do things they have no business doing, and that will quickly lead to deadly mistakes Blue On Blue fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Feb 21, 2015 |
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Feb 21, 2015 16:08
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