learning to drive in my 30s

joosie

joosie

lifelong sufferer of restless brain syndrome
Oct 28, 2004
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New Zealand
So as some people will have read, I'm finally starting to learn to drive now, at the age of 32. Not ancient I know, but not that young either! I had my first lesson two days ago. Good things... firstly, I wasn't nervous, which I did NOT expect. One of the reasons I've put it off for so long is because of nerves, and having built it up in my head to be such a big deal, the fact that I spent 90 minutes behind the wheel and didn't feel nervous the entire time was a surprise and has really boosted my confidence. My instructor was nice, Polish guy not much older than me with an accent and a soft voice that had a real calming effect, dressed casually in shorts and T-shirt and he said my name a LOT (multiple times per sentence) which amused me for some reason and really put me at ease. He is quite handsome too :cool: Also, I was super proud of myself because I found the clutch much easier to get a feel of than I thought I would, and I didn't stall once! - I know it'll come soon enough, but I thought no stalls in the first lesson was a good start (if you'll excuse the pun :p) What was harder... well the steering was a lot more responsive than I expected so that was a bit of a surprise... junctions were nerve-wracking for some reason even though we were in a quiet residential area and I only had to deal with 3 moving cars the whole time... the main difficulty really was when he asked me to do something I'd literally just done and my mind went completely blank (I suspect this is some form of nerves kicking in) and I had to ask him to talk me through it again. But in general I think I did okay - the instructor said it was very good for a first lesson (though he probably says that to everybody who manages to avoid damaging his car :D). I'm going to be on weekly lessons for now as I work 6 days a week and I don't have access to a car to practice in between. So I'm really looking forward to the next one... now I've got started I really want to crack on!
 
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Well done, Joosie!

I've been behind the wheel for some 36 years now and it's pretty instinctive. In fact, it is the act of driving the spurs me on to ride better....if I can move my hands and feet independently and without thinking as I drive, I'm damned-well going to learn to do it in the saddle!!!! :p
 
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I agree with domane. I’m a competent driver and riding - in my opinion - takes a lot more nuanced bodily coordination. I reckon you’ll find driving easy. Certainly sounds like a good first lesson.
 
Because Iived and worked in central London I did not drive until my late 20s, when a company car was my incentive. I did an intensive course and failed the first test for speeding on a lovely dual carriage way with a 30 limit. I passed a week later with a total of 25 hours driving experience.

A friend who is a driving instructor and taught my daughter says that riders are much easier to teach as they are better coordinated
 
Lesson 2 yesterday.
He picked me up from the station again and drove me to the residential area where I'd had my first lesson. It was the middle of the day this time so groups of kids walking and cycling home from school and not looking when they crossed the road :rolleyes: and met a few more cars than before. We spent the first part of the lesson going over everything from last week and then incorporated right turns at junctions (only did left turns last week) until I'd been on some different, slightly busier roads and became confident that I was in control. About 20mins before the end I mis-heard him and went past the turning I was supposed to take, and he said "so from here you have 2 options, either I get you to do a turn in the road or we carry on and go out onto the main road" :eek: Swallowing the massive lump in my throat I said "well I'll have to do it some time soon so it might as well be today". So off we went, and as well as being on the main road (and getting up to 3rd, oo er!) I also had to deal with roadworks, several sets of lights, two roundabouts (taking nice simple first exits thank goodness!), sitting in traffic (got this clutch control thing nailed I reckon :p) and drove us all the way back into the city centre to the station :cool: To help my confidence he talked me through everything as we went along, even the things I'd already got the hang of, so I could just focus on dealing with the traffic etc without having to remember too much stuff. It was actually quite fun, not as scary as I imagined traffic would be and the instructor was very complimentary. I've also studied the Highway Code and road signs a fair bit this past week so I was able to apply some of that new knowledge as we went along too. I finished the lesson feeling rather pleased with myself :cool:
Oh and afterwards I met up with the guy I met after my lesson last week, he took me for an early dinner at a Thai restaurant and then we went out for drinks for a few hours. Not a bad day really :D
 
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I've been ok with the gears and clutch, I do seem to have better coordination than I thought I did!
 
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Lesson 3 this week and the instructor had time to give me my first 2-hour lesson, bring my total driving hours to 5.
The lesson went well for the most part, but wow it was exhausting! - the other lessons involved a lot of explanation / discussion so there were quite a few breaks where I could relax a little, but this one was a lot more intensive and it turns out 2 hours is a very long time to concentrate so hard! He picked me up at the station again but this time he didn't take us somewhere quiet first and I was straight in at the deep end through mid-afternoon Guildford traffic. I did mostly main-road driving, lots of traffic lights (including my first hill start at one set), some trickier / busier junctions, and some proper roundabouts with a fair amount of traffic (scary!). We also went to the test centre to practice bay parking because theirs are slightly wider than standard bays so a good starting point, and towards the end of the lesson I had my first introduction to parallel parking (managed not to smash into the other cars... good stuff :p). The instructor was happy with my general driving and said I had good observation and seemed to be quite natural at reading the other traffic. He also noticed that I picked up very quickly on my mistakes and knew what I needed to do better, and said it was a good sign that I knew what I'd done wrong as soon as I'd done it rather than just driving along in a state of oblivion :p There were a few things that we agreed I need to focus on in my next lesson -

1 - Preparation for junctions / lights etc (I kept leaving it too late to change gear, and then getting all flustered when pulling up because I was trying to do everything at the same time)
2 - Being a bit braver about pulling away at busier junctions (I kept seeing gaps I wanted to take, but didn't act quickly enough to take them, because I was hesitating instead of just trusting myself to be able to do it)
3 - Worrying less about holding up the drivers behind me (e.g. I stalled a few times when I felt the pressure of making people wait and tried to pull away in a rush).
4 - Changing from 3rd gear to 2nd (hand too casual on the gear stick, I kept whizzing straight past neutral into 4th and then getting flustered because it wouldn't go left :rolleyes:)
 
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Jane&Ziggy said:
Soon you'll be as good at driving as you are at riding. That was a gorgeous neddy I saw you on yesterday, a proper Black Beauty!
Click to expand...

Nice isn't he! He's an Intermediate eventer who came back into work this year after a year off for injury. He's only been hacked a handful of times and is full of grass, about 2mins after you passed us we were standing up and waving at another car :rolleyes:
 
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