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Since my last blog post from a little less than a year ago, I've taken approximately 14 driving lessons. What have they been like? Have I managed to avoid hitting a curb? Is maintaining an appropriate speed hard? What about the relatively complex skills such as reverse and parallel parking?
As a late bloomer for driving due to many things holding me back, I've had plenty of ups and downs with learning to drive, but I've been making good progress, overall. I've been doing better than I expected actually, particularly during the past few months.
What I Struggled or Still Struggle With
"Hand Over Hand" on the Steering Wheel
During my first several lessons, this lack of hand-over-hand steering meant that my turns looked rather lopsided. With constant remembering and use, this eventually became muscle memory.
Scooting up on Intersections
Early on, whenever intersections had trees and bushes blocking my view of cars on the other. street, it was hard for me to understand what to do. I eventually learned that if I move a tiny bit after the initial stop away from the crossing line to get a better view of my surroundings, I can more safely approach intersections.
Stopping a Good Distance From Crosswalks
There have been many occasions where I would stop and I wasn't able to judge that I was blocking the crosswalk until reminded. However, once I learned to stop the second the white line disappears, I've gotten much better at this. Admittedly, I get annoyed when I'm walking on crosswalks and see cars block the crosswalk, so this especially made me think, "If a Cory clone was crossing the street while I was stopping, would he be happy with me?"
Length Behind Cars
When behind cars, I would sometimes be too close or too far behind them, but as soon as I learned that there should be a little area of space in my car window behind the car ahead of me and that I should be at least a car's length or two behind the car, I got better at this.
Maintaining an Appropriate Speed
I would often brake when I needed to slow down on the road, which would make my speed drop too much. I had to remember that all I need to do is put my foot off the gas pedal if my current speed was too fast.
Lane Changing
I would sometimes change lanes fast as soon as I signalled instead of waiting a couple of seconds. I also had a hard time judging whether a car was too close in the mirror. I kept reminding myself that as long as the there is at least some space in front of the car in the mirror, it is safe to change lanes. I would too often delay or not change lanes at all because I wasn't sure if it was safe to do so and I didn't want to risk a crash. I now remember that it is okay to change lanes as long as the other car isn't taking up the entire mirror space.
Reverse Parking
It took so many tries to master my reverse parking skills, and even so, it still makes me anxious. Some steps I remember are to make sure my shoulder is centred at the middle of third parking spot away from the spot I want to park at, look at both mirrors as I back up, and then straighten the wheel once the car is completely in the spot. With narrower parking spots, it's more of a 2.5 line method.
Note: Parking in general makes me more nervous than the actual driving, mostly because I actually hit the curb once when I practiced forward parking with my dad over a year ago. Thankfully, there was no damage.
Parallel Parking
I haven't practiced parallel parking as often as reverse parking and three-point turns, but my main struggle here is checking my blindspot infrequently. I tend to focus so much on making sure the car goes straight behind the parked car when reversing that I need to remind myself about other surroundings. This is something I will try to get better at.
Parking at Road Curbs
At first, when I tried to park on the road, the car would be too far from the curb. However, I eventually picked up that I should subtly turn the wheel to right, so that the car is not too far or too close to the curb.
Four-Way Stop Signs
For here, I need more practice with judging who arrived at the intersection first. On quite a few occasions, I was confused about who should go first. When intersections aren't busy, this isn't too hard. However, sometimes, four cars can come at once. Therefore, I should improve my ability to use and interpret the hand gestures.
What I Picked Up on Easily
Uphill and Downhill Parking
This was straightforward to me because "left uphill" and "right downhill" easily plugged into my head. I could still remind myself to turn the wheel to right when parked uphill with no curb, but otherwise, this has been easy for me.
Three-Point Turns
Turn wheel to left, press gas, reverse mode, turn wheel to right, press gas, drive mode, straight, then voila! Three-point turns do come naturally to me just as long as I'm not too anxious about being too close to the curb. I have been nervous about this a few times, but it hasn't happened too often.
400 Series Highway Driving
I've only been on the QEW once with my instructor, and I was nervous, but it came surprisingly natural to me. I always remembered to pick up on the speed as soon as I was on the highway. There were a couple of minor things I needed to remember such as not needing to use hand-over-hand when using the lanes to enter the highway because of different turning and knowing which lane to take when exiting the highway, but I was surprisingly not tense at all and didn't really make any major mistakes.
Conclusion
Not everything has come natural to me, and certainly my anxiety and my ability to pick up on things quickly hindered progress in some aspects, but I've learned so much and I'm proud of how far I have come with my driving, given how nervous and reluctant I've been about driving for so many years.
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