[condor]

* Inclination is very important - unless the lady in question wants to learn, it is not going to help.
* Automotive aptitude. Not that all guys have it.
* IMO - In a driving school scenario, the girls learn faster. Say this from personal experience when I tried to teach my sis, both with cars and bikes. Knowing that there is a time limit with the DS, makes a difference. Else it is a lot like 'ghar ka murgi dal barabar'.
* If she hasnt taken the initiative or shown enthusiasm for learning, - When you have a car at home, she's better off in the DS.

[ownerofazkaban]

well, my wifey first learnt at rural driving school. It was 90% no use for B'lore traffic. But thanks to her enthu to drive, she managed to go around the city finally after many early morning rounds and acclimitazation for b'lore traffic. Differences still remain...

* It's totally different to drive in city & highway. Highway requires that absolute handle over car operation plus quick decisions plus quick action...and many more. I realised it when she gave it a try on mysore trip. And driving in city doesn't always gurantee good control over highway (this applies to US too ...expressways .. many of my friends still aviod the freeway/expressway)

* She never changes gears!!! phew! imagine going around b'lore in 1st gear/ 2nd gear only!!! she is just too comfortable with it and am yet to figure out a way to make her shift up.

* Nothing can beat hands-on exp in driving regularly in true conditions. Driving is such a dynamic entity you just cannot draw analogy.

[ollie]

Dude.. i understand ur problem, i know wat it is to teach driving to a girl...
Just like wen i had to tach my sis driving.. wen one usually has to change lanes while driving, you usually have to look tru ur rear view mirror to see if anyone trying to overtake you is next to you.. But here.. my sis actually turns her head and looks behind forgeting that the driver is equiped with rear view mirror !!
So you nned to have patience while teaching ! and take it step by step !
All the best !

[burjiis]

This topic seems to have been discussed in detail in the following thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...step-step.html
Good info there

Regards,
Burjis

[kutlee]

I had a chat with maruti driving school. They have a simulator (unlimited usage) to start with, theory classes and then three levels of training on the road. total 21 days. Levels include moderately dense traffic to very dense traffic. cost around 4k. They have guaranteed to return my money if she doesn't learn. also guaranteed that they will use the instructor's set of pedals to control only under emergency. But that is relative.
anyway going to start classes next week itself.

[condor]

the unlimited use of the simulator itself would be worth the extra money you are paying - not to mention the theory part..

do you think you can check out the simulator and tell us abt it?

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by MADMAX111

P.S. Always remember who is the Boss while teaching! LOL

Teaching or otherwise, the wife is always The Boss.

[kutlee]

All,
Maruti driving school is way better than other schools i tried. Best part is there are multiple cars and they don't cramp the 'students' into one car and give rounds. Instructors are good. Although some of them try to teach aggressive driving. They don't assist in getting license. There are many theory sessions. Ladies will find it boring. But rather informative. here is the pic of the simulator. Overall good experience. When my wife joined, there were only few students. now they have many and things might get out of control soon. Its around 4000 bucks and they won't help you in getting a license. So there are many who don't join when they get to know of the high price and not getting a license after all that money spent. But thats very good. They will get people who are quite interested in learning driving rather than earning a license which they will get anyway if ready to spend some more money!!

[evo8]

Hi All,

Even i find the same issue.. I thought i was the only one and it was easy for all the folks around..

I tried teaching my wife during late evenings for a week and we used fight after the training. I also get branded as a bad driver(I go wild when someone says that, its just my nature)... But the good part is, she can move the car from stationary but the problem is either while slowing down/stooping. I really cant explain her when to use the clutch, and the mistake i did was to explain her to use the clutch for slowing down and stopping....

I think the fault is really ours , we the literate crowd manage to get a license and god knows how man are out there who have a license and does not know drive.... I rellay feel bad about this fact...

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

@kutlee, what is the update?

[jat]

Recently one of my lady friends asked me to help her learn driving. She has already hired a registered guy to train her but she felt that her progress wasn't good enough. I took her out for training and asked her a few questions and was horrified to learn that she had already completed half of her training and was still not comfortable with controls. Asked
few more questions and found that the type of training she received was completely wrong.

Then I enquired about few more ladies and found that all of them had similar problems when they received training from similar guys. The standard method used by these guys are to let you practice driving for 100 kms with dual controls fitted on cars (mostly M800). What actually happens is that, these guys are controlling the car most of the time and people feel that they are actually driving. After that, when these trained drivers come on road, they somehow try to learn by panicing in
traffic and pick up wrong driving practices.

On further research on why these guys do like this, interesting facts came out.
- They offer to train people on owners car (thus get extra money)
- Hold on, this one is interesting:
--- Most of the learners are ladies and they come to them because they find their husbands / bfs / brothers or any other male trainer to be useless, bad behaved etc (hehehe) - actually the ladies have less patience and want to learn fast or come on road straight. When they come to these trainers, they try to pressurise them to take them to road fast. With dual control these trainees are straight on road without familiarising with controls and having sufficient practice with them.
No wonder we complain or joke about bad driving by ladies. But the guys who have rec'd training like this and have trained others make the same mistakes. They in panic driving, not only caused near misses and minor accidents on regular basis, but also damages the gear shift lever, clutch etc

When I spent just one hour each on two days with my friend, her learning improved drastically. Even the trainer was impressed.

After spending some time with her, I have developed a simple technique. Some may disagree, therefore I would like to those weaknesses to be pointed out:

FIRST SELECT SOME OPEN SPACE WITHOUT ANY TRAFFIC OR PEOPLE.

1. First Step: The key in the pocket, the trainee should familiarise with basic controls with eyes in the front (on the road) or eyes closed. (Acc, brake, clutch, gears and hands comfortably on steering)

2. Once comfortable with these controls, trainee should start the engine and learn to drive away the car by releasing the clutch but not touching the accelerator. (All modern cars have sufficient power to move the car without using the accelerator). They have to have patience to release the clutch slowly. (if required, they should mentally simulate the rate by counting). The car should move smoothly without jerks or stalling.

3. The should let the car move in a straight line - steering control (keeping the eyes on the road and mark some point about 20~50 mts away). At the same time, they should practice the accelerator (press very slowly) such that speed never crosses 20~25 kms per hour (a bit
difficult for beginners). Also practice stopping sequence - press clutch such that engine does not stall (hehehe)

4. After this, trainee should practice a little on reversing. Just moving the car back and trying to keep it straight.

5. Practice turning circles. Larger circles, followed by tight circles.

6. Practice reversing, more accurate now straight line as well circle

7. Practice figure of 8 - forward and reverse

8. Practice parking - all types.

9. Now the trainee is completely trained to handle the car controls comfortably. He or she should practice changing gears upto 2nd in that area. With more precise speed control. Also can practice the release of clutch and pressing of accelerator simultaneously

10. After this, now the trainee is fit to come on smaller and less crowded roads to familiarise with turns (while driving, people miss out the turns - hehehe)

11. Once comfortable with this, trainee should come on bigger roads and learn to drive with traffic.

(They should also familiarise with Rules of the Road at the same time)

I would also like to bring to the notice of people that they should warn others about such kind of training. Anybody offering dual controls and brings the trainee straight on road without complete familiarisation with controls is risking many lives and equipment.

[kutlee]

those are valid points. well tried the maruti school. the teachers are impressed by her driving skills. more than enough according to their standards. but she's not confident enough and scary traffic. not sure of the 'sides' of the car. Santro i had is sold off. so only t-ohc. may be the useful torque will keep the engine from switching off. will have to get a plan ready.

[deepclutch]

In countries like Newzealand ,driving is a necessary skill to be learned before turning 16yrs of age.
So ,let the women understand the need.
I tried to teach my mother(who is 60) in a open ground and she immediately picked up the steering balance.now left is the gear ,brake things .
But One serious problem with many ladies(and MEN too!) is that they dont really exactly understand LEFT and RIGHT side!
During my driving school days ,one lady ,she was learning in Jeep ,when asked by the instructer "Idatheyku Odikku"(turn the steering left" always looks at both of Her Hands to identify.I am liking lmao.

[sajo]

For someone who may not be very enthusiastic about learning, driving schools might be the best option.
I havent yet taught anyone from 'scratch' , but I dont think I can. A few months ago, I used to accompany a friend of mine in her newly brought Santro on her nightly 'practice runs' , and even though she had completed a driving course AND had a licence, I still spent half my time getting really scared in there. But I had promised I wont yell or ask her to hand the wheel over to me, however tricky the situation was, and I guess I (just) managed to stick to that.

Anyone has any experience here of teaching someone to ride a bike ? I have a Pulsar, which I might have to teach someone.

[deepclutch]

Anyone has any experience here of teaching someone to ride a bike ? I have a Pulsar, which I might have to teach someone.

I havent met anyone who felt learning riding is a tough thing!few kms on your own with your aasaan as pillion.there you go!

My 2 wheeler learning started with me pulling off the Lambretta from its stand and rode it .as easy as that!(I donno about ladies though!).