New driver!

[Melalvai]

My daughter turned 15 a month ago and got her learner's permit on her birthday. And then didn't drive for a few weeks because she was scared! She got home from camp last weekend, and the next evening we went to a parking lot for some practice (we've been practicing in parking lots for a while, even without the permit). I directed her to turn onto the street and reluctantly she did...and had a great time driving through quiet streets at 15 mph!

Tonight she drove home from a nearby town, 10 miles, on what passes for a highway around here. She got all the way up to 4th gear! (Lots of people passed us...I was glad for the "PERMIT DRIVER" signs in our windows.) Our car is a clutch, and a temperamental clutch at that, and will probably be the most difficult car she ever drives. A good car to learn on, though I think we'll be replacing our clutch again.

I've heard that kids who learned vehicular cycling are better drivers. I don't have anything to compare her to so I don't know, but I hope so! At least she understands "Share the Road".

Any helpful advice, suggestions, things to watch out for? I want her to be a safe, experience driver yet not become dependent on the car.

[crazycanuck]

Long post as i have recent experience...

Is your daughter taking professional driving lessons? The only way to go & saves relationships. I learnt how to drive a few years ago(ok, i'm a bit late to the game & got me licence when i was 32 ).


Anywho..suggestions:
Continually scan the road & think about the area you're driving in. Be ready for anything to run accross the road to catch a ball, a cyclist not paying attention, etc.
Think about what you're doing while you're at the wheel.
Don't get bullied by other drivers.
Remember the 2 second rule
Driving a manual is indeed the best thing as it's similar to cycling-get into the wrong gear at a roundabout or hill & you'll look like a complete dork when you stall.. Think ahead.


Let her know that failing her driving test is ok. Driving test instructors are $*$*$*. I failed mine three times because of teeny things like not having my wheels parked the exact way uphill or parking a smidgen (and I mean a smidgen) bit too close to the side of the road...I ended up using my driving instructor's car during tests because it was easier to drive than our old clunky vehicle.

Funny story to tell you...When I got my learners, my dear said i'd be doing a lot of the driving to get used to it. Our friends lived on the North Shore (Auckland) and we lived on the other side & he suggested I drive. The Auckland Harbour Bridge is in the way & not the best place for a learer to gain confidence. As I was driving, a police car pulled up behind us & put his hazard lights on. (Yes, he saw the L plates..) When it was safe to do so & oddly enough right by the freeway police station, we pulled over. The officer stated they had received a call about a drunk driver on the bridge and then suggested perhaps it's not the best idea to take a new learner over the Harbour Bridge.

I'll never let my dear forget as I was freaked out driving in busy traffic!!!

I'm now known as the really short chick in the ute

[Melalvai]

Thanks! I do want her to take driver's ed, but I haven't yet found a place. I'm hoping when school starts someone at the high school will know where to take driver's ed. There wasn't anything in the phone book. It's a small town...but nothing larger for 90 miles.

She drove home from a town 10 miles away, and used 4th gear for the first time! I was really glad we had those "Permit Driver" signs in the windows. It's a 55 mph highway, she went 35 mph at the fastest.

[tulip]

Good for you for teaching your daughter to drive standard transmission. It's so important to be able to drive stick shift cars; you never know when you might have to drive one even if you choose to drive an automatic.

I'm convinced that people who know how to drive stick shift cars are better drivers because they are aware of what the car is doing mechanically. Awareness is #1 when driving, and so many people float about completely on autopilot. That's where many problems arise. So Big Kudos to you!

Here's what my father did for me: I took drivers ed. It was offered at school. Is it not offered at school where you live? I had a learners permit, and I drove with my parents alot. Even after I got my license, my father made me log 2000 miles with him or my stepmother before I could drive on my own.

I also had to change each tire twice--eight tire changes before I could drive alone.

The 2000 miles and the tire changes and the manual transmission should all be required in my book.

[Biciclista]

we had a car (Eagle Summit/Mitsubishi Mirage) with a tough kind of clutch. I took both of my sons out innumerable times to a large parking lot to practice shifting gears. They never got it. Neither one of them, and they were both motivated and are both mechanically inclined and coordinated. One day we borrowed my mother's car (the Honda Civic that I ended up buying and driving for 11 years) and I let my older son drive it. he picked up instantly and drove it like a pro, even double shifting once.
Both of them drive std transmission cars now - with pride.

Good luck with your daughter and your car.... (we replaced the clutch in the Eagle Summit too because of them.. )

[Crankin]

You have to take driver's ed here. Most towns have it through their community education classes or people go to private driving schools. We did the private route because it was easier to arrange the driving part. Plus, parents have to log 30 hours with their kids, too.
Son #1 was the worst, most timid driver around. He crashed DH's car when he had his permit, because he didn't turn the wheel, pulling away from the curb when he was picking up pies for a band fundraiser, in front of the high school. He crashed it into his friend's mom's van she uses for her daycare business! It wasn't damaged, but DH's car was. DH put duct tape on the broken headlight and fender and made Josh get back in the car and go pick up his brother at religious school... DS #2 refused to get in the car when he saw the damage. Well, after DH spent 100+ hours with him, as well as the lessons, he did pass his test on the first try. The first year he had his license, he basically drove to school and back, and to friend's houses. Then, he started venturing out. He now lives in the city and drives in places I won't go in my car.
DS #2 had been cycling for almost 3 years when he got his permit (you have to be 16 here). He drove home from the registry, the day he took the permit test, on the freeway, and never had any issues, in my rather large 4 Runner I had at the time. I really think cycling made the difference.

[GLC1968]

You have to take driver's ed here.

Really? Wow, we didn't when I was getting my licence (decades ago!). My parents made my brother take driver's ed because of the insurance break, but since insurance was cheaper for girls (not sure if this is still the case), I didn't have to...so I didn't. Yeah, life is fair.

I agree that learning to drive a stick was important. I took my driving test in an automatic so that I had less to worry about during the test, but I did know how to drive a stick. Now, that's the only way I'd buy a car. I hate automatic transmissions - it's like driving an amusement ride or something....it doesn't feel like a real car to me!

Ditto Tulip's suggestion about learning to change a tire. That's also an invaluable skill to have.

[Mr. Bloom]

and will probably be the most difficult car she ever drives.

...wow! Memories of my dad's '69 Nova! Power NOTHING and drove like a truck. Wasn't a problem unless you had to turn left or right!

Needless to say, I got a car with power steering!

[badgercat]

Good for you for teaching your daughter to drive standard transmission. It's so important to be able to drive stick shift cars; you never know when you might have to drive one even if you choose to drive an automatic.

I never even RODE in a manual-transmission car until I was in college, and I've still never driven one! I think this has something to do with stick being a bit annoying in big city stop-and-go traffic, and there was certainly more than enough of that around Chicago. Almost no one I knew drove cars with a stick (though several of my friends did learn on relatives' cars--I had no such access). I would LOVE to learn, if I could find a friend who would trust their poor clutch in my newbie hands (foot?).

Good luck to your daughter (and you!) Melavai, and yes, I think in the end she'll thank you for teaching her to drive in a "difficult" car! I feel that way about weather: I got my learner's permit when I was 15 and took driver's ed starting in January, which does not make for good street conditions in Chicago. So though I missed out on the benefits of learning to drive stick, I do have the advantage of having learned to handle a car while the roads were icy and slushy.

I remember my first time behind the wheel was in the forest preserves, and I actually asked my mom which way I needed to flip the turn signal lever if I wanted to signal one direction or another (you'd think "in the same direction you turn the wheel" would have been intuitive enough....)

[crazycanuck]

Do they have the graduated licencing system in the US?

I know that here in Australia, young drivers need to keep a detailed driving log etc but I don't know much more about the system. In NZ, we didn't *phew* . I do know that when i left NZ I was on a provisional licence & it's reciprocal here(for NZ citizens residing in Aust..boy do we have it good..) meaning I still had to have P plates on our vehicle.

I was soooo happy to remove them!

Also, we were looked upon favourably by the driving instructors if we did driving lessons in a manual.

[NbyNW]

I think my mom and I would have killed each other if she hadn't hired a professional driving instructor for me. She wasn't ready to trust me and she was too tense and nervous in the passenger seat to be supervising me during practice drives.

During one of my lessons, my driving instructor pointed out to me a car making an unsafe left turn at a weird intersection as an example of what NOT to do ... I recognized the driver -- it was my dad!

Driver's ed was offered at our local community college and it was totally optional. The incentive was that if you took it, it would bring your insurance premium down. So pretty much every parent who was adding a teenage driver to their policy thought it was a good idea.

Didn't learn to drive stick until I was 27. DH and I bought a car together, and he insisted on a manual. Up until that time I managed to live without a car. First lesson was a disaster. Too many lectures on how an internal combustion engine works!. After that I had a friend teach me. Probably saved my marriage!

Good luck with your daughter, I know this is a big milestone for you. I think being a cyclist who also drives is a great way to be a safe driver.

[Melalvai]

She can make the tires squeal shifting into SECOND. I giggle, I can't help it. She glares and me and says "Don't laugh!" and then starts laughing.

crazycanuck, she has a Learner's Permit which means she can drive with a parent in the car. She is supposed to log 40 hours including 10 hours of night driving. Then she can get her license which initially has some restrictions on it as well; I don't remember the details. Her mom's rule is "No teenagers in the car with you" and "No using the cell phone".

I like tulip's idea about changing the tire!

badgercat, I'm hoping for a snowy icy winter so that she'll get some inclement weather driving practice. My friend said her dad took her to an icy parking lot and had her slide the car around on that!

Thanks for all the feedback!

[jessmarimba]

I've had my license for 12 years and have probably driven more than my mom has her entire life - and she STILL slams her foot into the floor of the car to "brake" and freaks out when I'm driving. Please please please don't do that to your daughter!

(I've never even gotten a ticket, so she has no reason to do that!)

Congrats on teaching her on a manual though. My mom left for a few weeks when I was very new to driving and took the only car I knew how to drive (on purpose). I got hers stuck on a hill in a nearby neighborhood and it took 2 hours to get out of that subdivision. I haven't tried to drive a stick since.

[Crankin]

We have graduated licensing here, too. But, half the people don't follow the rules. You can get your full license at 16.5, but can't have any passengers under 18 until the driver is 18, unless they are siblings. Can't be on the road between 12:30 AM and 5 AM. We caught our older son driving his friend home from school when he was 17, when DH just happened to be behind him one day. DS sped up and ditched his friend in a K Mart parking lot!
I moved to Florida when I was 15.6 and got my permit and license there. Then I moved to AZ. I didn't have to drive in the snow until I was 37 and it was seriously one of the most traumatic things I've ever had to do. We lived on a huge hill, on scary curve, too. One time I was driving DH's Saab home from the gym and I could not get up my street. I let a strange guy get in my car and drive me up the hill! After 2 years, I insisted on getting AWD, which helped me get up the hill and made me confident. Now, I don't like doing it, still, but I do. Thankfully, as a teacher, I didn't have work when it was really bad, but in the mid nineties, there were a few years of horrible blizzards that started during school time and I lived 40 miles away.
I learned to drive a stick when DH severely sprained his left ankle and couldn't drive his car and we needed to trade cars. I haven't driven a stick since like, 1998, but I am sure I could. Tire changing, no way. That's what AAA is for.

[badgercat]

Tire changing, no way. That's what AAA is for.

Haha, see, I wouldn't have the slightest clue what to do with a clutch, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't jump-start a car without electrocuting myself, but I've changed my own tires--in a dress, no less. It's always so interesting to me hear everyone's different comfort levels with different things when it comes to cars and bikes.