Young menace drivers

[rich99]

Originally Posted by mejinks

I make allowances, really I tried, but she flinches when being overtaken or when a lorry is close by and refuses to drive faster than 50mph even on motorways.

If you haven't already done so then tell her if lorries have overtaken her to flash them when it's safe for them to pull back in. I don't know why but this really helped my ex who used to drive a Mk1 Fiesta painfully slow on the motorway and had a similar reaction to lorries - something about the lorry drivers thanking her by signalling with their indicators seemed to neutralise the fear.


As for her being such a terrible driver is this the general opinion from others who have been with her in the car or is this only from your own experience? I ask as my brother's girlfriend suffers terribly from nerves when she's driving with him in the car but by all accounts is quite a capable driver when he's not there
I think in his case he's got my dad's "terrible passenger when being driven by wife/girlfriend" genes though

[Blackstar]

I meant that i do long +4 hour journeys to England quite a lot whereas most of my friends and i assume other young drivers just potter around.

As you say Kitten, a lot of young people rely on being able to drive at times.

[Del Lardo]

I do like the original idea as while the current system (6 points and you have to redo your test) is a step forward most 17-21 year olds will have done their original test so recently that they should be able to pass another one with relative ease. I would like to make Pass Plus more formal and make it manditory to pass it within 1 year of passing your test, failure to take or pass the course would see your driving license revoked. This would hopefully start making people more aware of what to do on the motorway and personally spending a few hours with a driving instructor after 3 months of driving like a fool certainly made me buck my ideas up. This would hopefully also allow people to learn to drive rather than pass the test, I remember that when I was learning I had a very old skool instuctor who was about to retire (only took me on as he'd taught my sister) and he actually taught me how to drive and I'd only done each test route once before my actual test. My friends on the other hand were taught how to pass the test and they did the test routes pretty much every lesson. I know who was the better driver!

I'm also not very comfortable with the idea of singling out young drivers as I see piss poor driving by people of every age, sex and colour pretty much every time I get behind the wheel. Retests every 5 years are the only way I can see to improve the general driving standards though I'm sure that any administration that tried to introduce this would be shot down by the general populus as we now have the perception that a Drivers License is a right and not a priviledge.

[mejinks]

Originally Posted by rich99

If you haven't already done so then tell her if lorries have overtaken her to flash them when it's safe for them to pull back in. I don't know why but this really helped my ex who used to drive a Mk1 Fiesta painfully slow on the motorway and had a similar reaction to lorries - something about the lorry drivers thanking her by signalling with their indicators seemed to neutralise the fear.


As for her being such a terrible driver is this the general opinion from others who have been with her in the car or is this only from your own experience? I ask as my brother's girlfriend suffers terribly from nerves when she's driving with him in the car but by all accounts is quite a capable driver when he's not there
I think in his case he's got my dad's "terrible passenger when being driven by wife/girlfriend" genes though

Yes, I do tell her, but "she wasn't taught it so why should she" I think there is something in the fact that she isn't confident in driving, which makes her worse the more she thinks about it. I don't immediately jump in and say "im driving" I get asked to drive as she still doesn't want to.

Im not the only one thats formed the opinion she is not a capable driver, her dad flatly refuses to get in the car with her, her mum at least makes excuses and her brother will only get in the car with her when shes going short distances that avoid fast roads (faster than 30mph).

As for me, I say nothing when im in the car with her and don't ever shout or criticise, just give helpful advice when asked. (I did think about doing the ADI course a while back, so Im quite calm)

What I will say is that you don't learn to drive until you are out on the road on your own. My brother was the same after passing his test. he is now a pretty good driver having got the "I drive like a cock" phase out of his system.

[rich99]

Originally Posted by mejinks

Yes, I do tell her, but "she wasn't taught it so why should she" I think there is something in the fact that she isn't confident in driving, which makes her worse the more she thinks about it. I don't immediately jump in and say "im driving" I get asked to drive as she still doesn't want to.

Im not the only one thats formed the opinion she is not a capable driver, her dad flatly refuses to get in the car with her, her mum at least makes excuses and her brother will only get in the car with her when shes going short distances that avoid fast roads (faster than 30mph).

As for me, I say nothing when im in the car with her and don't ever shout or criticise, just give helpful advice when asked. (I did think about doing the ADI course a while back, so Im quite calm)

What I will say is that you don't learn to drive until you are out on the road on your own. My brother was the same after passing his test. he is now a pretty good driver having got the "I drive like a cock" phase out of his system.

oh dear

The speed thing does surprise me, I would have thought during her test and certainly during her lessons she would have done enough dual-carriageway driving to be confident at speed.

From what you've said I'm starting to wonder if the examiner had all his marbles