What I learned by passing my driving test.

Last week I passed my driving test so I decided it was time, now that the emotion has settled down, it was time to write a wee post about it.

I’d like to give some tips to whoever is about to embark on this adventure as well as giving an insight into my experience because there is a lot to unpack and is not only the materiality to get a car which for many can be the most important aspect of it all. 

Learning to drive has been something that helped me through different aspects of my life and even though the main one is the increase in attention while driving there are other points of view related.

The most important is of course the freedom to know you can go everywhere you want in any moment you want and even though for many years I had been so naive I thought I didn’t need it, I feel way better now mostly because I live in a small town that require lots of determination to be dealt by foot and a car is a life changer in the matter.

But wasn’t only the driving skills, it was the fact that for the first time I had the point of view of the person in the car and since I am a cyclist I always treated the road very poorly but since I was studying to take the license, I have interacted not only with cyclist but even with pedestrians who made me understand how a driver really need to have thousands of eyes in thousands of different places.

By understanding this, it is easier to act accordingly and change the way I walk on the road and even to be a better cyclist on many occasions.

In a couple of occasions I had to ask myself what the hell the guy walking on the pavement was doing walking up and down the road without any chance of going on a straight line, delaying my lessons by some.

But at the end of the story it is as well an accomplishment that you have to be proud of. One year ago, when I passed my theory (which has a very nice anecdote) I thought this day would come in decades and now I am with my little pink card, the best there is.

Theory test anecdote:

It was during the hazard and perception videos and the last one had a motorcyclist who gave me the thumb up since I left him pass.

Since I am speaking like I was the person who was actually driving you can figure out I was very involved in the moment and the environment was so realistic at the moment that I actually… Gave the thumb up back.

Now I want to make a few suggestions to keep in mind during your test and bear in mind that they are not stuff like “keep the left” or “relax”. They are just based on my personal experience.

1) I passed the test on the second shot and the first time I actually didn’t even leave the driving center. So during the test my instructor asked me to do very basic stuff, not even asking me to do the maneuver which she asked me to do back at the center.

The second time I had the same instructor and things went very differently. First of all I was able to leave the training center so the test went extremely differently.

Beyond the fact she asked me to do parallel parking and through the test she asked me to do very peculiar things such as (around the end of the test) asking me to park behind a car very closely.

This means that up until the moment you fail she may or may not ask you to prove your skills in peculiar ways.

2) This may be a shot in the dark but I thought I drove very poorly and yet at the end I have passed with only two minors this means that up until the moment the instructor doesn’t dual control the car, doesn’t help you to drive or verbally tell you how to interact with the road, it doesn’t mean you surely passed, but your chances of passing passed from 0 to more than 0.

If the instructor doesn’t interact with you just keep driving because it could end in a surprise for you.

3) This is the most important of them all but you must approach the test not with the intention to pass it but with the intention of driving.

This is the entirety of my experience in my endeavor for a challenge I thought it was impossible to accomplish for me so… Just do it. And (since I don’t want to open another point just for a wee sentence), Take your time! Is not a run so take your time.

-ldmarchesi