Automotive
Posted: Tue 2 May, 2006 Filed under: Domestic, Thoughts, Travel 4 Comments »Over the weekend I was thinking a bit about the driving I’ve done since passing the test 8 months ago.
It’s actually been pretty interesting, because over that time I’ve done a fair number of miles (particularly considering I don’t actually drive most of the time, and don’t drive to work etc.) and also managed to do some things that other friends of mine (who have been driving a lot longer than I have) have still not done.
One of the last hurdles for me is/was driving in Central London. OK, I still don’t fancy doing it during a working week, or even at – say – lunchtime on a Saturday, but regardless of that, I’ve now done that one too.
Coming back from the gig on Saturday, I took a wrong turn, having forgotten that we’d turned to get on to that road, so I went straight on, which took us towards central London. Yes, it was my mistake – and it wasn’t helped by the fact that Herself couldn’t find the road we were on in the A-Z.
Fortunately I know that area fairly well, and so was able to navigate us back through to where we were supposed to be without too much hassle at all. But the main thing was that, despite it being still pretty busy (it was about half ten in the evening) I managed it all without a problem. It didn’t even stress me out – it was more about just getting on with it.
In fact, that seems to be pretty much my attitude with driving in general. I was a bit more phased by the recent journey I did up to Middlesbrough, but that was primarily because it was a shitload more driving than I’d done in one dollop, and also the longest solo drive I’d done, by a large margin. But again, it was more about just getting on with it, getting it done, and again, everything went fine with it.
So there’s very little that worries me now when it comes to driving. I still want to spend some time on a skid-pan, so I can know what I’m supposed to do when/if that happens, and over time I’ll get a lot more miles under my belt. But it has to be said, it’s all turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would, particularly after so many years of not driving, and only being a passenger.
Heh, back up a bit I am so not letting you get away with that one. I would like to tell you all that I informed Mr ‘my second job should be a london taxi driver’ that we needed to turn right at a particular junction only to be told that i was rubbish (or something along those lines) when I pointed out that we had in fact turned left on to this road when i drove (not getting at all lost i hasten to add) up he refuted that as well. i should aloso like to state in my defense m’lord that it was 11pm and i had had a fair amount of the amber necter and mr ‘i don’t go that way over the river my dear’ kept zipping past the road signs to fast telling me he knew where he was at all times.
Ahhh yes, it’s always good to get the other side of the story!
The skidpan idea is a good one, but basically just steer “into” the skid and pump the brakes, don’t slam.
Soon you’ll be doing 600mile overnight drives I tells ya.
And who, my dear, navigated the inward journey -in your words – “not getting at all lost” ?
Although we *did* make a wrong turn, and who navigated us back round with no problems?
Gordon said: Pump the brakes, don’t slam.
If you have a modern car then you can slam the brakes on, ABS works well in this situation and it will modulate your braking better than you can – it’s what it’s there for. Many cars have some sort of stability system too and I was surprised how well that worked when I tried out the VW ESP system on a deserted snowy car-park (i.e. more fun with it switched off).
I have done time on skid pans and defensive driving courses (You have to at our place if you have a company car) and they are worth doing, but the whole “what to do in a skid” thing is much easier *when you know it’s about to happen*. When the unexpected happens on a motorway luck plays a very big part (been there…etc)