Save us from lo-speed RMV
Mar. 29th, 2011 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidnI now hold the logically questionable achievement of having passed my driving test for the first time twice. After a night of dreams involving junctions and difficult overtakes, I got up early, buzzed around ineffectually for as long as I could, and then started my walk across the town to the driving school. I didn't even get as far as the office before I met my driving instructor on the way back from somebody else, and he had me drive over on slightly busier roads than I had previously experienced, to get to the RMV where the test was to take place.
The test honestly can't have been longer than about five minutes. I was taken up on to a main road, past a junction, down on to a minor street where he went through the three manoeuvres, and then back to the same car park, with no one-way pitfalls or potential for errors of judgement. Throughout the manoeuvres he fulfilled his examinerial obligation to be a bit of a bell-end, chastising me for twitching a little on the accelerator, looking at my reference points too much instead of over my shoulder, and prompted me suspiciously through the parking procedure ("You're on an upward hill, where are your wheels?" "Right - no, left!" "What else?" "With the handbrake on." "And what about the gearstick?" "In 'Park'"). As we went back I thought that if there was anything I would fail on it would be those, but he grunted a "This is good" when I stopped at a traffic light further down.
So I sneaked a look at what he was writing when we stopped in the same place we had started, whereupon he instantly became a lot more friendly, asking about where I was from and where in America I'd visited. I was delighted when he circled "Pass" on my examination sheet, and he told me to go in and fill out the form to get my temporary licence.
I have to say that I was rather hoping to get a lift back to the driving school at which I'd started, rather than sitting in the benches for an eternity waiting for numbers to be called and then being left to my own devices, but for my trouble I now have an almost identical pathetic bit of paper as the last time I visited, with "Temporary Driver's Licence" on it instead of "Learner's Permit".
Projects during the weekend are going to be delayed even further from now on, as any plans are to be replaced by going out to look at cars.
The test honestly can't have been longer than about five minutes. I was taken up on to a main road, past a junction, down on to a minor street where he went through the three manoeuvres, and then back to the same car park, with no one-way pitfalls or potential for errors of judgement. Throughout the manoeuvres he fulfilled his examinerial obligation to be a bit of a bell-end, chastising me for twitching a little on the accelerator, looking at my reference points too much instead of over my shoulder, and prompted me suspiciously through the parking procedure ("You're on an upward hill, where are your wheels?" "Right - no, left!" "What else?" "With the handbrake on." "And what about the gearstick?" "In 'Park'"). As we went back I thought that if there was anything I would fail on it would be those, but he grunted a "This is good" when I stopped at a traffic light further down.
So I sneaked a look at what he was writing when we stopped in the same place we had started, whereupon he instantly became a lot more friendly, asking about where I was from and where in America I'd visited. I was delighted when he circled "Pass" on my examination sheet, and he told me to go in and fill out the form to get my temporary licence.
I have to say that I was rather hoping to get a lift back to the driving school at which I'd started, rather than sitting in the benches for an eternity waiting for numbers to be called and then being left to my own devices, but for my trouble I now have an almost identical pathetic bit of paper as the last time I visited, with "Temporary Driver's Licence" on it instead of "Learner's Permit".
Projects during the weekend are going to be delayed even further from now on, as any plans are to be replaced by going out to look at cars.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 05:13 am (UTC)My favourite part of the driving test is where they check the functionality of your turn signals. I apply my turn signals naturally all the time, but it somehow becomes an impossible task to perform on demand when I'm not actually driving.
Turn signal left? Okay. Let's see. . .no, that's for right. . .that's the windshield wiper. . .that one turned on my lights. . .nope, that's the windshield wiper again. . .ah, there we go: left!
It astounds me that I have not been failed before taking the car out of park.
During my drivers test, I had an argument with my instructor over how many hands I should have on the wheel at all times. I intended to use two, but subconsciously was using one at some points, because, really, who drives with two hands at all times?! He passed me because I eventually agreed with him on the issue.
I consider myself to be a good driver.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 04:13 pm (UTC)I had to get out of bad habits that I'd learned over ten years of driving for this - my instructor didn't notice, but my left hand also tends to drift off the wheel if I'm not thinking about it (when driving in Britain it would normally be going back and forward to the gearstick anyway). But here, there's no excuse for not keeping both hands on the wheel at all times - either I forced myself to glue them there during the test, or he didn't notice!