[Keralite]

Dear Friends,

This is a thread to discuss about your experiances as to 'how fast each one of you learned driving?'

Here, in TBHP, we have friends who neither own a car nor know how to drive and surfing here with utmost curiosity and excitement.

Our experiances will given them encouragement and inspirition to learn the art with full confidence and at the same time fastly.

• Actually, how much time it takes to know all the essentional nitty-gritties of driving?
• After getting the licence and owning a car, what's the proper way to practise it and we earn the real confidence in how much time?
• Even after learning, how fast we can start driving in the city traffic and how safe it is?
• What are the tips for driving in the cities as well as highways?
• We are seeing vehicles which receives dents, most of the times, on the back and what is the factor which contributes to this danger sitution, is it the inexperiance driving or the rash driving of the fellows who dash on our vehicles' back?

Hope this will help many who are beginners here!

[dadu]

Just drive drive drive, drive slow and steady, keep to your lane.

There is no fixed formula to determine when you will get confident, but as you drive on you will know.

[bottle]

its been 7-8 years since i started driving and i would give my driving an optimistic score of 40%

i would say practice is the best way to improve your driving. the more you drive and the more you experience different situations the better you get

[Fountainheader]

Hi Keralite,

I am currently in my mid-20s and am one of those who has learnt driving this late, atleast among the current crop of youngsters. Since I was away from home for most of the last 9 years, I never got a chance to drive cars as such. Though I love my bike, but now post-MBA I guess car(s) is/are gonna be my driving force

Post B-School, I enrolled myself for driving classes, though I would say that the instructor as such dint help me much. I would say he was there just for the confidence. I very well knew that since he also had a set of controls, any mistake I tend to make will be negated by him. So while driving, I made sure that I wont allow him to use his controls while I am driving.

And now since I am at home, I take out my Dad's Santro early morning, everyday and go for drives in the city. But I dont tend to drive on long straight roads, because handling is something that I already have learnt. But its the U-Turns, approaching signals, sudden braking situations and the most imp - reverse and parking, that I tend to concentrate.

My 1st drive lasted for a mere 10 mins. I panicked, and came back home. From the next time onwards, I started driving for 10 kms, and have subsequently increased to 35 kms now. And its been only 4-5 days and I already am confident of handling city traffic .

1: Learning the nitty-gritties of driving takes hardly anytime. All you need to know is how to apply the gears, when to change, how to handle various situations and voila you are there!
2: I think you can practice the way I am doing it. Driving round and round in an empty ground doesnt make any sense.
3: Depends on a hell lot of factors, but I guess in the end it all boils down to luck.
4: I guess the best tip would be to stay cool and concentrate on the road.
5: The way Indians drive, and the conditions of roads/traffic are such that no matter how good a driver you are, someone else's fault can cause severe damage. Though as a good driver you can very well learn to handle these situations, but to avoid them is not completely under your control.

Hope this helped.

Happy driving

[bblost]

If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.
Quote by Jascha Heifetz

[manziee_crusier]

I think 2-3 months basics will be okay.Clutch,Gear should be fine by 2-3 months.You have some problem with traffic and first gear.Don't be panic idf some one honks at you.

6 months you should be good.Try to stick to rules and dont add yourself to be another arrogant driver !.

But it takes a life time to understand the machine and drive

[Torqy]

"Perfect Driving" is a vague term.

If you're talking about Steering / Throttle / Clutch / Gear / Brake co-ordination 1 - 2 months should be enough. More important than that is learning to drive safe. Watching your rear view mirrors, judging distances, looking out for traffic before entering a main road, resisting the urge to honk at everybody and everything, acknowledging others' right of way, keeping safe distance while following.........huh....the list is endless. All these will take time. It's an on-going process. You learn / practice these everyday till they become second nature.

Happy learning.

-- Torqy

[mtnrajdeep]

In the varying traffic situations that we have, however much we drive, we can always be improving on it. However much we drive, there is no way to predict that we have become perfect as a surprise may be lurking around the next corner!

[zaks]

You will learn some stuff in driving schools which will help you understand the function of the clutch, throttle, brake and steering and when to use them and a little bit of how to use them. This is to enable you to use your car nothing more.
There is no such thing as perfect driving and it's each to his own. You will get to know the day when you feel you are a good driver and that takes some good knowledge of the vehicle, your response and good knowledge of the traffic behaviour, all of which you will accumulate over a period of time iff you are observant enough. I have seen many drivers who have been driving for say like 10-15 years and are clumsy on road and many who drive like butter but have only been driving for a few years.

cheers!

[tanmay_ambre]

I would say how confident you feel about driving cant be judged by time, but by how much KM you clock on the Odo and where you have clocked them. I think 5000K with 50-50 highway-city driving will give you the confidence.

Of course the numbers will change if you are not passionate about driving.

When I was young I use to imitate my dad while he use to drive and practice it for a long time. So when I was eligible to take my driving lessons, I was feeling pretty confident. I learnt to drive in 3 days in all conditions. and with my new car I clocked 5K in 2 months.

[gendarmee]

If one is a first timer, one would need the hand of changing the gear w/o looking at it and a hang of the steering control, assuming that one know to change gears (probably driving a bike)
Just parking & removing the car from the parking can teach one to use the clutch, after an introduction to the clutch.
After learning to handle the car and change gears, one needs to practice to gain command over it. Its best done driving at slow in traffic.
But then mind you, driving and driving in traffic are different things, one needs to be aware of the surrounding from inside a cage, so make it a habit to use all 3 rear view mirrors.
Reversing is something to reckon with again, practice that as much as driving forward, one cant do it in the first attempt.
Go to a driving school to get a hang of it (most D schools would let you do little more than that) and practice.
But all depends on how quick a learner one is & one can get fluent with driving, there isnt a specific time limit that one can do it all in. Also depends on what one does with experience.
__________________________________________________ _______________________
I started when i was 13, a curious teenager on a FIAT 1100. All i used to do is drive it forward 15 feet in 1st gear and back up in the reverse, after noticing G'dad engaging the gears....Over time as I gained confidence i hit the main road and got comfortable driving in traffic...

[MADMAX111]

I don't really remember how much time I took to learn driving. I just learnt it during my growing up years. But I can tell you how much time it took me teach my wife.

I gave her a limit of one week/one tank full of our old M800. Whichever finishes first I would stop teaching her!!

Well she learnt on fourth day!! Not perfect but she could take the car around. Since then she has driven in varied traffic conditions and terrain including hills AND never banged the car even once.

That credit goes only to me supposedly the expert driver amongst the two. LOL

[reignofchaos]

Well I'd say I'm a pretty poor driver. I'd probably rate myself 3/10 really. Unfortunately in Bangalore, if one tries to be a good driver, one would end up waiting forever as most of the vehicles don't seem to care about others on the road.

Driving abroad has taught me a thing or two about what good driving is... maintaining lanes, checking the blind spot before changing lanes, the 2 second rule, waiting/stopping at intersections, giving pedestrians the right of way etc. However I still don't consider myself to be a good driver as I have a hard time keeping my cool when driving in Bangalore.

[DocG]

Driving in India makes one a bad driver...I started out following all the rules, never speeding (save highways), never cutting lanes, always respecting the traffic lights etc...However once time passes you end up going with the flow. Traffic and bad roads aren't the problem in Indian cities. It's the uncourtious ruthless drivers who outnumber the good drivers, hence converting all of us!

Now, I cut lanes when I can (safely!), I try to creep into tiny spaces if possible, etc all to save time...however that being said, I'm still courtious (it's hardwired into me)...As for traffic lights half of them don't work!!! at 8 AM the trafic lights at some of the bussiest areas (getting onto the Eastern Express highway) (Palm beach road) are just not working!!! not even a blinking yellow!!! and on Palm beach the damn red light is on for like 10 mins, that is when all 3 lights are not on at the same time

Last time I was in Singapore I got a ticket for changing lanes !!! Now when I'm in another country I stop breathe deeply remind myself that I'm not in India and then set off

[snaronikar]

Drive in traffic every day for about 1 hour and after one month try and do the things what DocG has informed above. If you pass the above test, then you will be the perfect driver at least on indian roads.