Getting Licensed
----Experiences in learning how to drive
►Knowledge test (passed on Dec 29, 2005): Since I had passed a knowledge test (Class 7L) years ago, I don't need to wait a year for a Class 7N road test. Looking forward to taking the wheel.
►1st training session (Jan 14, 2006): Noon session. Vancouver finally saw a sunny break on last weekend after having rainy weather for about a month. Therefore, I had an easy start for my driving lessons on last Saturday. After a twenty-minute introduction on the car controls, the coach drove us to a parking lot and asked me to follow his moves when he was driving. Once we were in the parking lot, I started to take the wheel. I was satisfied with my first training session that was basically about left and right turns without interaction with traffic. 2-way, 3-way and 4 way stop signs confused me a lot, but I was quite comfortable with giving left and right turn signals :D. (Coming up----A little story before I met my coach)
►2nd training session (Jan 15, 2006): Afternoon session. Nervous, not concentrated, and frustrated. I didn't expect to join a medium traffic at this stage. Cars, traffic light controlled intersections and the coach's comments drove me crazy. I then drove like crazy. I cut the corner or swung wide when I was turning, I braked and forgot shoulder check when I was changing lanes, I forgot to signal for changing lanes, I drove on white lines, I was close to end up with a different lane at an intersection...
►3rd training session (Jan 17, 2006): Morning session. It was very rainy. Therefore, I got a chance to use wipers when I was driving. I expected it would be a tough session but it turned out to be not too bad. Since I kept driving slowly, slippery roads didn't have much impact on my learning procedure. My eyes, hands and feet were more collaborating than previous sessions. I started to know what to do when I saw a 2-way, 3-way or 4 way stop sign. Changing lanes wasn't so scary as last session.
►4th training session (Jan 19, 2006): Morning session. Start to do stall parking and backing up. Just so-so. Still not very accomplished in dealing with turns or stop signs. Expected too much, resulting in disappointment.
►5th training session (Jan 21, 2006): Morning session. I felt great in today's session. Today's training was focused on stall parking. I had a little bit trouble when I practised in an empty parking lot, since my perception made me think I was always entering a wrong spot. However, when I was practicing in a parking lot with some cars, I didn't have any trouble. Parked cars served a lot better as references than the parking lot lines. I also noticed that the seat adjustment is very important for a driver to have a smooth control over the wheel, the brake and the gas. And it is not very easy to get a perfect seat position for a new driver.
►6th training session (Jan 22, 2006): Noon session. U-turn, 2-point turn and 3-point turn were quite easy. Didn't need much practice. Traffic lights controlled intersections are still the biggest problem to me. Sometimes forgot to keep right when driving on roads without yellow lines. Overall, this session wasn't too bad. I should pay more attention on left turns at a multilane intersection.
►7th
training session (Jan 24, 2006): Morning
session. Parallel parking wasn't so hard as what other people told me.
I tried to park in a regular-sized space right after my coach's demonstration.
My move was slow but everything was under control when I practised parallel
parking. My coach's tips on parallel parking were far better and easier to
follow than what is written in ICBC "Tuning
Up for Drivers". This morning I also managed to join the "rush-hour"
traffic and practised changing lanes in the heavy traffic. Felt nervous
and both overconfident and under confident. Lack of reliable and quick
estimation on other cars' speed and potential dangers.
►8th training session (Jan 27, 2006): Morning session. This was a review session. My driving today was terrible, partially due to my poor vision in the rainy early morning. I wasn't about to see road signs or traffic lights clearly. The mirrors covered with rain drops made things even worse. I couldn't make any good parallel parking or stall parking. I lost my patience at certain point. Of course, it didn't help. After I cooled down, I admitted that I need a pair of glasses.
►9th training session (Jan 28, 2006): Morning session. It was a bright and clear morning. When I was driving with my eyeglasses on, I felt so much better. I could look out a lot further and thus evaluate driving conditions faster. Seems I have to wear my eyeglasses whenever I drive. One more thing to count in my pocket each time when I go out. :D I drove in medium traffic for about half an hour, ending up with a few little mistakes. It felt so nice to drive reasonably fast and to be able to control the car smoothly. Started to enjoy driving.
►10th training session (Jan 31, 2006): Morning session. The coach and I went through a road test routine. My moves were just so-so but I felt more and more confident in today's session. It was mostly because of my improved vision by wear glasses. Definitely, I will have to wear my eyeglasses whenever I drive.
►11th training session (Feb 4, 2006): Morning session. It was a rainy and windy morning. Many plastic bags, broken tree branches and leaves were lying on the road and sometimes even floating around in air. Vision blocks and slippery roads were the major causes of potential dangers. The traffic was low. So I didn't have much trouble driving in the traffic during today's road test routine. I had a few dangerous moves and otherwise it turned out to be ok. Still need to be more relaxed when driving. Overall, I can tell that my driving skill has been improved.
►12th training session (Feb 6, 2006): Morning session. Today my training was mainly focused on changing lanes in traffic. I was not confident enough to change lanes when there were cars on all lanes and especially when my car was in the middle of a whole bunch of cars. My perception on space margin was not accurate. Very often, I was seeing the mirrors without looking, since I was still a little nervous when driving in traffic. I thus didn't have enough information about the instantaneous driving environment. Furthermore, glares from the sun blinded me from time to time, in such a sunny morning. Therefore, I will have to take my sunglasses with me to drive in a sunny day. One more thing to count in my pocket again :D.
►13th training session (Feb 8, 2006): Morning session. My learning curve has reached a platform with certain fluctuations. I made several mistakes in a row around a school zone. Speeding was the worst one. Ridiculously, my coach urged me to speed up during most of my driving, since I have been driving way below the speed limit and slowed down the traffic. Speed control wasn't easy for me this morning. When I was focused on speed control, I often overlooked some important road signs or potential hazards. When I was focused on road signs and potential hazards, I then drove too slow or, for a few times, too fast. My coach told me that there are many examiners who hate speeding. Therefore, I will be very likely to fail if I speed during the road test. Of course, there are examiners who don't like a new driver to drive always slower than the traffic either. I didn't feel frustrated though. Safe driving is very important to myself and others. Driving mistakes mean risks. I need to be perfect on driving. After all, I have done pretty well in parallel parking, stall parking, going through traffic light controlled intersections and general driving on city roads.
►14th training session (Feb 10, 2006): Evening session. Man, what a crazy driving session! I am still wondering how I dared to choose such a time, 4:30pm-6:00pm on a Friday, to drive at all. I've never noticed there were so many cars during rush hours in Vancouver. I once tried to drive into the incoming traffic when my coach asked me to change lane. It was the first session when I couldn't tell the left and the right since I have started my training. Did I scare my coach to death? He looked quite calm during the whole session.
►15th
training session (Feb 11, 2006): Morning
session. My coach was so nice to agree that Rui came with me for today's
driving session. Thus, Rui videotaped the whole session for me as a
meaningful record. My coach gave me a mini-test today to evaluate my
driving skills. I fail the test, since I had four dangerous actions or
violations and any one of them could fail me in a formal road test.
However, I didn't feel bad at all. Most of my driving was fine and I know
clearly where I was doing wrong. Being nervous was still the biggest
problem. If I was more relaxed, these dangerous actions or violations
could have been avoided. I should not have concentrated only on the speed
control by staring at the speedometer. Instead, I should have tried to
sense the speed and been more focused on hazard perception.
►16th training session (Feb 13, 2006): Morning session. Practice on pulling over, changing lane, and speed control. Practicing hard. And observing hard.
►17th training session (Feb 15, 2006): Morning session. It was an awesome session! I again noticed my progress. This was probably the first session during which I didn't get too much blame from my coach. I finally started to do some moves automatically so that I felt less nervous in following my coach's instructions. Bravo!
►18th training session (Feb 18, 2006): Morning session. My coach and I had a simulation road test and I passed the test. That was probably due to both my progress in driving and the low traffic on a Saturday morning. I felt more relaxed when driving. However, I made two serious mistakes when we were close to finishing the session. I should be extremely careful on this because I felt that I became less concentrated whenever we were about to finish a driving session. I shall never lose my focus on driving as long as I am behind the wheel. It is very common that driving people make mistakes when they are close to their homes.
►19th
training session (Feb 20, 2006): Morning to
noon
session. A general driving session with a little emphasis on my weakness
such as pulling over and changing lanes. Overall, it was a great session.
I drove smoothly and controlled the speed well within limits. Ready to go
for tomorrow's road test.
►20th
training session and the road test (Feb 21, 2006): Morning
session and road test. When the coach and I were having a warming-up
session for the road test, I was so nervous that I could not do some basic moves
smoothly. My legs and arms were stiff just like when I started my first
driving session. During the warming-up session, I even thought I might
have to plan to retake the road test. However, once I started the road
test, I felt so clear in my brains and a lot less nervous. I was even able
to creatively do some moves that I wouldn't image during training (Of course,
these are legal moves). The examiner was not talkative but made every word
clear for me. After a pre-trip check for the car, we both get seated.
"During the test, I may ask you to turn left, turn right, pull over and so on.
If I say nothing, you just go straight and follow road signs. Drive safely
and don't violate the traffic laws. Any questions?" he spoke routinely and
asked me to sign a test paper. "Not currently..." I tried to relax but
started grapping the wheel tightly. "Turn right and then turn left at the
next street." We then started the trip.
My first noticeable trouble
during the test was a pullover. There were many broken tree branches near
the curb so that I wasn't able to sense my car position. Worrying about
bumping against the curb, I parked the car without too much adjustment. I think
my parking position was more than 30cm away from the curb and my car wasn't
straightened. I managed not letting it influence my driving. The
second trouble I had was a downhill parallel parking. I wasn't able to make it by
one smooth move so I adjusted the car position several times. Fortunately,
my brains were clear enough for me to recall the correct handling. "Ok,
good enough. You can go if safe." he seemed to be losing patience.
However, I still continued to finish parking the car and turning the wheels to
correct direction before pulling out. The third one was a left turn at a
three-way intersection. I have been to that intersection several times and
done routinely right turns during training. Therefore, I automatically
turned on the right turn signal and prepared to turn right. "I said 'turn
left at the first street'" he pointed his pen to the left and said. I
changed my turn signal and turned to the left. I noticed he didn't write
anything for that left turn. After that, I drove better and better.
He wrote something on the test paper from time to time, but that didn't scare
me. I felt that driving for about 20 minutes in the test wasn't a sign of
fail. Finally, we were close to the road test center. I thought the
test was almost over. However, when we were passing by the driveway to the
test center parking lot, the examiner didn't say anything. I hesitated for
a second then decided to go pass the driveway. "No...! Ok, sorry, I forgot
to say 'turn right'." he suddenly stepped on the brake equipped on his side but
released right away, "Ok, proceed and turn right at next street." We had
to go around two more blocks to drive back to the center. I started to
worry about the test, since I didn't know if the examiner would dump on me for
the extra test time. However, I calmed down myself quickly because I
believed I was correct in following his instructions. I decided to just
focus on my driving. I drove back to the ICBC road test center after about
35-minute driving. In the parking lot, I backed up into a parking spot
sandwiched by another two cars. I spent quite a time to park my car
straight. "Stop the engine. You passed the test." said the examiner,
even before I pulled up the hand brake. "Really!?" I pulled out the
key to the car and hoped I didn't misunderstand what he said. "You are a
good driver. Excellent job!" the examiner replied indirectly and handed
the test results to me. "I was nervous..." I couldn't hide my
delightfulness and at the same time I tried to be humble. "I can see that,
your braking and gas control were not very smooth during deceleration and
acceleration. The overall was good though." he said, pointing at the marks
he made on the test paper.
"Thank you, thank you very much!" I noticed that he made quite a few pen prints
on vehicle handling such as "pull over" and "parallel parking" but he only took two half-scores off on
"Acceleration/Deceleration" for the overall test. Hooray! I did it! I
passed the road test!
I guess my coach was actually more
nervous than me during the road test, because he forgot I gave the car key to
him when we were leaving the road test center :).
Totally, I have learned driving for 29.5 hours. And I used the another 0.5 hours for the road test. That totaled 30 hours for my training on driving. The cost in getting a Class 7N license for me was close to CAN$1,000.