Each of the 20 driving skills are rated between 1 and 5, where 1 is Introduced and 5 is independent without prompts from the driving instructor. In total I have one of the skills at level 5, three at level 4, twelve at level 3 none at level 2, two at level 1 and there are two that I have not looked at yet (emergency stops and parking). I am pleased with the progress I have made although I expect I will need another 40 hours of lessons before I will be close to being able to take my practical test.

Onto the actual content of the lesson, we spent some more time reversing round corners which along with turning round in the road, I find quite difficult. We also covered some more roundabouts and junctions both of which I am improving on, but still find difficult.

Kev also taught me a technique for moving off faster, essentially it is moving from the step by step approach to moving off to being about to prepare to move off quickly. Here is the process I have been using up until now, taken from the safely stopped position (i.e. handbrake on and in neutral):

1. push the clutch down
2. change into first gear
3. give the engine a bit of gas
4. bring the clutch up to biting point
5. put more gas on to get the revs back up
6. check the internal mirror, right door mirror and right blind spot, only move on to the next step if it is safe.
7. take the hand brake off
8. keep feet in the same place until moving
9. come off the clutch and add more gas until up to speed

The technique Kev taught me today was to combine 3, 4 and 5 with a single movement to bring the clutch up to biting point and the gas down to provide sufficient power from the engine. It was good fun, I don’t think I have got it yet but I am improving.

Unfortunately I haven’t got a lesson until next Wednesday, I know how learners feel now if they have to wait a week between each lesson.

After all, all of those jokes that zip round like wildfire whenever something happens in the news aren’t just the creative juices of the masses expressed in a short message, they are written by the networks to encourage people to send more messages (by passing the jokes on).

All is not lost however, I have been using jTwitter for a long time and it does a great job of keeping me up to date on the move. The Twitter API seems good enough to allow anyone too interface with the service without extensive programming knowledge - I suspect we will see more services that allow access to Twitter from a mobile phone.

So anyway, enough lamenting about driving lessons. Kev introduced reversing round corners to me, which I found similar to turning round in the road, in terms of things to think about. Certainly skills I learnt in turning round in the road helped, particularly controlling the car with the clutch and foot brake.

On the basis I have only done this twice, this may be wrong… very wrong. Essentially this is another way turn the car round so that it is pointing in the opposite direction. After doing the five point check - right blind spot, right door mirror, front windscreen, left door mirror and rear window - I reverse round the corner keeping the kerb an equal distance from the car all the way round,  Once straightened up round the corner reverse the car into a parked position.

Roundabouts unfortunately don’t come so easily to me, at the moment there is too much to think about. For some reason I struggle with slowing down in time, changing gear, seeing what is coming round and getting the indicators properly. Practice I feel will be the order of the next few lessons.

So anyway here are some “pretty pictures” of roundabouts and what I have in my head with regards to what to do with them. As always this is not intended to be instructional, and it may well be inaccurate, I have had to make corrections to several of my previous posts.

Priority on Roundabouts

I made the sudden realization when in the car today that roundabouts are circular one way streets, traffic will only be coming from the right! As an analogy it is not very useful, I thought it was quite amusing.

In this diagram the red car is me, I will try and describe what the other cars are there for as I go along.

On roundabouts you must give way to cars already on the roundabout (in the picture the yellow car). Assuming that the green and purple cars moved off at the same time as me at the same speed (which should be slow, i.e. 10mph), then the three of us would move round the roundabout without affecting each other.

Again this was not something I had thought about before, but roundabouts allow traffic at intersections to split, merge and continue very quickly.

Turning left at a Roundabout

On the approach to the roundabout first thing I need to remember is to slow down to 10mph or below (I will mention this several times). This will allow for the maximum amount of time to assess the situation.

Essentially the roundabout is treated in the same way as a T-Junction on a one way street. On the approach to the junction I need to use the Mirror-Signal-Manoeuvre-Position-Speed-Look procedure.

So on the approach, I need to check the left hand mirror then signal to the left, the manoeuvre comprises of: position, that is being in the correct lane and being in position to make the turn, speed, below 10mph and in the correct gear - second gear if moving or first gear if stopped.

Once the way is clear move round the outside of the roundabout and out of the first exit.

Going straight ahead at a Roundabout

This section used to be titled “Going straight over a Roundabout”, Kev since mentioned that wasn’t the way to describe it, however I must point out that the Police and local council don’t take kindly to driving over roundabouts… it tends to damage the floral displays.

Again going straight over requires the use of the MSM-PSL procedure, however in this instance you do not indicate until you have passed the first exit. This prevents following vehicles from expecting you to turn left onto the first exit.

It is important to note that the outside edge of the roundabout should be followed as if you use the inner lane of the roundabout you are cutting up the drivers turning right.

Going right at a Roundabout

MSM-PSL procedure as expected; So first check the internal and left mirror signal to the right, positioning myself to turn onto the roundabout, if the way is clear I would continue or move off onto the roundabout.

Unlike the previous examples I would use the inner lane of the roundabout continue to indicate right until I pass the exit before the exit I wish to take, at this point I apply the MSM-PSL procedure to move off the roundabout on the exit I wish to take.

Summary

As I mentioned, I find roundabouts very difficult, I never really got them when I was on a bike, as it felt like you were putting yourself in the middle of the traffic on a vehicle that appears to make you invisible.

I am sure that I will spend more time practicing roundabouts, and over the course of the next lessons I am sure I will be able to update everyone on my progress. Still enjoying it all, although today was particuarly tireing.

Tomorrow is “driving a bit faster” which should be fun, not to0 fun mind… I am not one for speeding… intentionally.

The second part of the lesson focused on turning round in the road, as the title suggests this is the process of going down the road in one direction and ending up going in the other direction. The skills involved are the based upon the skills acquired in previous lessons with some extra checks built on top.

The basic steps are to start off on the left and steer the car towards the opposite side of the road, this should place the car at a diagonal on the opposite side of the road. In reverse the car is steered to the left back to the other side of the road, this then places the car on the left hand side of the road facing the right hand kerb. From there the car can be steered onto the correct side of the road for the desired direction. The whole procedure should be using the full range of the steering (that is full lock) and the full space of the road and as slow as possible.

The whole process is broken down into three phases, I have tried to describe these below in conjunction with the diagram above. Again this is not meant to be instructional, it may well be wrong, if you believe it is please do feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Phase 1

Before moving follow the five point checks: rear window, left door mirror, straight ahead, right door mirror, right blind spot (in moving between rear window and left door you should see anything in your left blind spot). Start moving off in first gear and turn the steering wheel full lock to the right as you approach the other side of the road straighten up.

Phase 2

Again check the five points, this time in the opposite direction: right blind spot, right door mirror, straight ahead, left door mirror and rear window. Keep looking out of the rear window and start to move off in reverse gear turning the steering wheel full lock to the left, again as you approach the kerb straighten up read for the next phase.

Phase 3

Check the five points in the original order: ear window, left door mirror, straight ahead, right door mirror, right blind spot. Move off in first gear turning the steering wheel full lock to the right this should eventually place you in the normal road position allowing you to drive off.

I found the whole thing complicated and hard to keep everything in my head, it is going to take quite a bit of practice before I can do it without holding up the traffic, and some considerable practice learning where to try it in a safe, legal and convenient manner.

Still enjoying the whole thing though, not got a lesson tomorrow as Kev has got a full day of driving arround so the next driving update will be on Wednesday.

Essentially all it is three videos of some guy (Matt Harding) who travels round the world recording short clips of him doing a little dance (very badly - his own words), each video has been set to the lyrics sung in a dieing Solomon Islands. in the third, and most recent, video Matt is joined by thousands of people who wanted to dance with him.

It sound really lame when I try and explain it all I can say is watch the videos it is worth it!

“Where the Hell WAS Matt?” - Origional Video

“Where the Hell is Matt?” - Second Video

“Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)” - Third Video

You can read more about him on his website at www.wherethehellismatt.com. There is also a really interesting lecture by Matt in three parts on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

I am not sure if this person has underestimated the capacity of the Internet to spread information really quickly or if it is a marketing thing. I have decided to blur out the identifiable information until I can work out which of the above it is.

Update:

Well it seems that I was wrong, unlike some recent events it seems that putting invitations up on the internet and them working their way onto socal network sites dosn’t always end in disaster.

Today I drove from part of Hove (not quite sure which part) over to Woodingdean, we did some loops in both places to get use to using junctions before heading home via the A259 again. I am still struggling with “panic” when something doesn’t go right, my mind went blank a couple of times when I was coming up to a junction. Kev went through the Mirror-Signal-Manoeuvre-Position-Speed-Look procedure again which is a really good procedure for any hazard including junctions (yes, i do feel that anything that isn’t a straight road is a hazard)

The procedure makes much more sense in a car than on paper, however this is my attempt at getting it down:

Mirror – check internal and the mirror on the side you are turning to
Signal – let the people around you know what you are doing with your indicators
Manoeuvre – make the move, this is split down in the three more steps
Position – Move the vehicle into a position to complete the manoeuvre in plenty of time
Speed – check your speed you should be moving at below 10mph and thus be in first gear
Look – look to make sure it safe

Again this is my own inexperienced understanding of what I have been taught, it is not meant to be instructional if you disagree please do post a comment (giving reasons rather than random abuse would be appreciated).

I am still enjoying it, I was particuarly pleased that Kev was happy to let me drive from Hove to Peacehaven. We are moving on to making turns in the road. I shall post back next week when I have had my next lesson.

I have been drawing out some of the diagrams from Kev’s folder of pictures, to save anyone else the trouble I have included the source files here for anyone to play with all licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.

I suggest that you use Inkscape to edit the following Scalable Vector Graphic file, first and foremost it is Open Source and thus freely available and two the images were created in Inkscape in the first place.

Cars and Road - Scalable Vector Graphic

If you come up with some derivations of this image please feel free to comment on this post with your version and I will be happy to provide a link back to your work.

Anyway, back to the lesson we spent about an hour and twenty minutes in Woodingdean I came across a couple of funny situations and stalled right in front of a Brighton & Hove Bus Company bus which was threw me somewhat, so much so that I couldn’t start the car again. I did it eventually thanks to some gentle coaching from Kev. Got followed for a few hundred meters by the police who seemed to find the snail on the top of the car and the fact I was going at sub 20mph quite amusing.

I also spectacularly managed to plough into the kerb which sounds awful (the noise it makes that is), it seems however that even practised drives have problems when parking though - Felicia Day of Dr. Horrible and The Guild fame managed to kill a tire backing into a parking space, not entirely sure why but that made me feel much better.

To end the lesson Kev had a little treat for me, he guided me through out of Woodingdean, Rottingdean, onto the A259, Past Saltdean and into Peacehaven. I think I was gripping the steering wheel quite hard, although I think I was so concerned about getting something wrong and ending up bouncing off the kerb or oncoming traffic that I got through it without any major trauma.

Of course after going at 30mph for a bit, I totally lost the ability to drive round Peacehaven at 20mph, I suppose adapting to different speeds comes with time. I hope so!

So in summary, all going well - I really enjoyed today and got a tremendous sense of satisfaction driving home. Thanks Kev