Poll of the Day > This summer I want to learn to drive but I don't think I have the time

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have just over a month of break, and I feel like learning to drive (plus getting licensed) takes a lot longer. Sigh.
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It doesnt take long at all. I didnt have anyone to teach me so I paid for lessons when I was younger. The company had me drive for a couple hours for two sessions, the second of which doubled as a driving test so I just had to bring my completion document to the DMV to get my license.

Driving is very easy they design cars to be operated by people much dumber than you, so you can do it
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Are private lessons necessary? Or lessons with someone qualified to give lessons? I feel like my mom/sister can probably help me and itd be way cheaper that way.

I know that (in Texas anyway) if youre older than a certain age you dont have to do months of driving school - just a one day course and then your actual driving exam. So I could maybe do that.
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No anyone can teach you
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MrMelodramatic posted...

just over a month of break

Because of your trip to Europe? Can you really learn how to drive in just a month's span?

MrMelodramatic posted...

Are private lessons necessary? Or lessons with someone qualified to give lessons? I feel like my mom/sister can probably help me and itd be way cheaper that way.

Speaking from personal experience, just because someone knows how to drive, doesn't mean that they'll know how to teach it. Like, you need constructive criticism from someone who is qualified to teach driving, and not someone who is qualified to just drive. A family member may be less inclined to call you out on minor, but still relevant mistakes you may make during driving, while you'd become more aware of these mistakes if an instructor tells you explicitly what you're doing wrong. My driving instructor charges fifty of my American dollars for every hour spent practicing driving, but I personally feel that the lesson is worth more of my time than an hour spent driving alongside a family member, who is less critical of your mistakes. I feel like I'd never improve if no one gave me criticism. But if your family member is willing to offer advice and criticize you for every little wrong thing you do, then I'd say that you needn't spend money on some driving instructor. Anyway, this is just me; and I haven't even gotten my license to drive yet, so feel free to take this paragraph with the tiniest grain of salt you can find, or something.
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EclairReturns posted...

MrMelodramatic posted...

just over a month of break

Because of your trip to Europe? Can you really learn how to drive in just a month's span?

MrMelodramatic posted...

Are private lessons necessary? Or lessons with someone qualified to give lessons? I feel like my mom/sister can probably help me and itd be way cheaper that way.

Speaking from personal experience, just because someone knows how to drive, doesn't mean that they'll know how to teach it. Like, you need constructive criticism from someone who is qualified to teach driving, and not someone who is qualified to just drive. A family member may be less inclined to call you out on minor, but still relevant mistakes you may make during driving, while you'd become more aware of these mistakes if an instructor tells you explicitly what you're doing wrong. My driving instructor charges fifty of my American dollars for every hour spent practicing driving, but I personally feel that the lesson is worth more of my time than an hour spent driving alongside a family member, who is less critical of your mistakes. I feel like I'd never improve if no one gave me criticism. But if your family member is willing to offer advice and criticize you for every little wrong thing you do, then I'd say that you needn't spend money on some driving instructor. Anyway, this is just me; and I haven't even gotten my license to drive yet, so feel free to take this paragraph with the tiniest grain of salt you can find, or something.

This. So much this.

I could have learned to drive from my mom. I could have learned to drive from my sister. Instead, I hired the services of a local driving school instructor to give me classes on how to drive, from a non-familiar perspective. It helped a lot and I learned to drive and picked up better cues that I would not have picked up from family.

Get comfortable behind the wheel just driving in general then flick through the highway code and you're good to go.
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Yeah Ill be leaving the country in July so I definitely cant learn to drive then. And obviously I have doubts about whether thats enough time to learn; thats what this topic is about.

I definitely do not have the money to pay for private instruction. If I go through with this Ill have to beg for the money just to take the required courses and exams <.< parents and siblings will have to cut it.
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Might be worth noting that I wouldnt be getting a car or driving regularly (if at all) for the next 1-3 years. I just figure its a good skill to be able to do. And legally, at that.
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MrMelodramatic posted...

Yeah Ill be leaving the country in July so I definitely cant learn to drive then. And obviously I have doubts about whether thats enough time to learn; thats what this topic is about.

I definitely do not have the money to pay for private instruction. If I go through with this Ill have to beg for the money just to take the required courses and exams <.< parents and siblings will have to cut it.

If you can, try to do some part-time job or something for cash. I worked for a year or so before I got my license. Paycheck = funds.

MrMelodramatic posted...

Might be worth noting that I wouldnt be getting a car or driving regularly (if at all) for the next 1-3 years. I just figure its a good skill to be able to do. And legally, at that.

It would also arbitrarily lower your insurance premiums for the time you actually start driving.
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Awareness is the most difficult part of driving and developing your sense of common sense.

You could run through the basics easily in a few hours, like backing up, different parking and turning maneuvers.

Learning the signs and a few of the rules designed to give out tickets can be a little tricky as some of it is a little counter intuitive.

Then you get out into the cluster fuck off real world conditions and there's nothing you can really do to prepare. You have to rely on your instincts to survive.

For instance speed limits are rarely followed but heavily enforced. So it's illegal to go above them... But also to disrupt the flow of traffic following them. There are other rules like the zipper merging that entitled people will use as an excuse to try to kill you. Etc.

Driving is all about experience, and its much more mentally involved than you might think. Youre also using a thing which can be a deadly weapon, both to you and to others, so awareness is paramount, as stated above. The more you do it, the better youll be at it (obviously) so its worth getting some time behind the wheel to get comfortable with different conditions and situations (rain, snow, windy, foggy, early morning rush, night driving).
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Because you are so nervous about it. I don't want you on the road...
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ferko420 posted...

Because you are so nervous about it. I don't want you on the road...

A lot of people are nervous when they first start. Once he gets some time behind the wheel, he'll probably feel better. And that time behind the wheel could be in a huge Wal-Mary parking lot at midnight or whatever...
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How does everyone on PotD make it to their 20s without thinking it might be a good idea to learn how to drive

SteamedHams posted...

How does everyone on PotD make it to their 20s without thinking it might be a good idea to learn how to drive

I started drove as soon as I could. I think I was 15 and 9 months or something...
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SteamedHams posted...

How does everyone on PotD make it to their 20s without thinking it might be a good idea to learn how to drive

Because I suck at driving, get anxiety when people criticize me for mistakes I make, and sometimes just freak out and lose the ability to concentrate thereafter.
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We were booze cousin in our grandma's cars at like 12.... Damn coddled generation.
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EclairReturns posted...

SteamedHams posted...

How does everyone on PotD make it to their 20s without thinking it might be a good idea to learn how to drive

Because I suck at driving, get anxiety when people criticize me for mistakes I make, and sometimes just freak out and lose the ability to concentrate thereafter.

Yeah.... Valium is a thing and please don't drive....
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SteamedHams posted...

How does everyone on PotD make it to their 20s without thinking it might be a good idea to learn how to drive

I've never needed to do it before.
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Not a good reason, so way to prove my point. It's better to just learn it as soon as you can than waiting until you actually need it

Thats... literally exactly what Im trying to do.
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What was preventing you from learning at 16? Most people just learn from their parents, it seems to me like it would have been a lot easier to learn at a time when you actually live with them. Lol that's another common thread with the people here who don't have licenses, do they really think that people getting fancy lessons is really common (or even the only way)?

And didn't their schools have drivers ed? I went to a pretty shitty high school but even we had that

SteamedHams posted...

What was preventing you from learning at 16? Most people just learn from their parents, it seems to me like it would have been a lot easier to learn at a time when you actually live with them. Lol that's another common thread with the people here who don't have licenses, do they really think that people getting fancy lessons is really common (or even the only way)?

And didn't their schools have drivers ed? I went to a pretty shitty high school but even we had that

My school didn't. I think most schools around didn't when I was growing up.
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Thats like asking whats stopping anyone from doing anything they might need to do a decade from now. You can probably reach a 12 year old how to do their taxes but its not useful until theyre young adults, so it makes more sense to learn that around a high school age (or even a bit older in a lot of cases). I knew at 16 that I wouldnt be driving for at least 7 years, so it made more sense to learn how to later.

Anyway, back then my mom couldnt have taught me, no. She didnt know how to drive and no one in my family owned a car. Even today 5 people at home share the same car, and only two of them can drive.

No high schools that I know of had a drivers ed. Most people I knew in high school didnt get their drivers license.
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Damn, Texas' education system must suck

I feel like if you learned to drive, you'd probably just decide one day to cross over into oncoming traffic and end it all, injuring or killing others.
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Metal_Mario99 posted...

I feel like if you learned to drive, you'd probably just decide one day to cross over into oncoming traffic and end it all, injuring or killing others.

Nah. Id never hurt other people.

SteamedHams posted...

Damn, Texas' education system must suck

I dont know how youd even fit drivers ed into a school day. Its already over 7 hours long.
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MrMelodramatic posted...

I dont know how youd even fit drivers ed into a school day. Its already over 7 hours long.

At my school, it was done over the summer. They had at least 3 "terms" of a few weeks, with 2 or three different "classes" per day each term. Each "class" had classroom time, then was divided into subgroups which alternated between course and road driving.

It wasn't part of the school day, it was a night class at the school taught by teachers and coaches who already worked there

HillChange posted...

MrMelodramatic posted...

I dont know how youd even fit drivers ed into a school day. Its already over 7 hours long.

At my school, it was done over the summer. They had at least 3 "terms" of a few weeks, with 2 or three different "classes" per day each term. Each "class" had classroom time, then was divided into subgroups which alternated between course and road driving.

Same here.
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yeah I don't really think the kids at my high school would've been into that <_< We had one of the highest dropout rates in the state and we were constantly getting in trouble with the district because people weren't showing up to classes. On top of that, my graduating class of 500-550 had about 35 pregnant girls at graduation, not to mention the ones that had been moms earlier (some since 8th grade). I don't know the national averages but I'm willing to bet we were at a higher than average rate for pregnancies. Very few people would have committed to taking an extra class when it could easily be avoided.

Also our teachers already taught multiple classes or multiple subjects, lead extracurriculars (that not many were a part of), and were the coaches of all our sports. I doubt they'd want to stay even later to teach people how to drive.
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Well the whole thing about taking a voluntary course over the summer so you can get the legal ability to operate a vehicle is probably why it was attractive to every single one of us.
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It's really not hard?

This peddle makes car go, this one makes car stop, wheel controls which direction car goes, shifter makes car go forward or backwards.

I'm sure you've learned the laws of the road by now in your adult life.

Now get out there and drive!
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Cacciato posted...

Well the whole thing about taking a voluntary course over the summer so you can get the legal ability to operate a vehicle is probably why it was attractive to every single one of us.

Yeah, I have to wonder what kind of dumbass wouldn't want to be able to drive a car. At least the dropouts at my school valued "life skills" like that even if they were jaded about the academic education

Cacciato posted...

Well the whole thing about taking a voluntary course over the summer so you can get the legal ability to operate a vehicle is probably why it was attractive to every single one of us.

I don't know what to tell you, man. Driving school didn't appeal to many people in high school (that I knew, anyway). The only people who drove were the kids whose parents would buy them BMWs and Porches for their 16th, and the people who lived far away and also had to leave school quickly to pick up their siblings or go to work.

Maybe offering a driving class at the school would've upped the number of people who could drive significantly. Maybe not. All I know is that the school didn't offer it, either at night or in the summer, and no one was complaining about it or wanting them to.
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Ffs you guys need to see a doctor for some anxiety meds if you haven't learned to drive by your 20s due to being too nervous.

I could understand if you lived in a huge city and could rely on public transit but come on. Our society requires you to know how to drive.
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anxiety isn't my issue.
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It's mine, though. ><
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SteamedHams posted...

Not a good reason, so way to prove my point. It's better to just learn it as soon as you can than waiting until you actually need it

Tell me how you spent your spare time in elementary school getting ahead on your classwork.
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It's really not that hard once you get used to it. It made me nervous at first but that's probably normal; after all it is a large and potentially dangerous object, and there's nothing really "natural" about doing it.

If you have time to post on GFAQs, you have time to drive.