[Auswechseln]

I taught my 18 year old brother to drive some six months or so ago. Let me add my views and what I have learnt on how to teach someone driving.

I had learnt driving by observing my dad and many others driving (like many Bhpians I'm sure). So I had the advantage of not going to a driving school, to unlearn and re-learn everything. And I wanted the same for my brother.

The Car: A 1997 Maruti Omni (I had learnt in the same car).

I had already explained the basics (ABC rule, technical details of clutch, automobile and why we use it etc), so we just had to try it out.

So we went to a wide and empty road, parked at the side. Told my brother to start and try to move it using only the clutch (no accelerator), so that he would get the finer points of clutch control. This particular exercise took a lot of time. Only when he had perfected it, I let him use the accelerator.

Some of the other points were:

1) Give the learner confidence. Never shout suddenly if something is going wrong so that they wouldn't be nervous.

2) Imbibe them with the thought (kind of brainwashing them) to remove their foot from the throttle if they are unsure of anything/ in an emergency.
This is of utmost importance. .

I have witnessed a lot of people doing this mistake of stamping on the throttle instead of the brake and having suffered for it.

3) Tell them to respect others on the road. Learning this at a young age would go a long way.

4) Teach them to listen to the sounds of the engine and act accordingly.

These along with many points mentioned in this thread would make them a confident and responsible driver. (My brother is now a pretty decent driver).

[rohan_iitr]

I want to teach car driving to my wife.

She can ride only gearless scooter as of now and is new to the concept of clutch and gears.

I don't want to start her off on public roads directly. Can someone suggest a ground in South Bangalore where newbies can practice driving ?

Rohan

[ksmrsm]

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

Well, the title of the thread might be very strange, but the question i have is bugging me for a long time now. Read on:

My younger brother will turn 18 in 2 months and he has been pestering me to teach him to drive. Initially, i asked mom/dad to enroll him in a driving school so that i am relieved of my headache. But then, a thought came to my mind, why not teach him personally?

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

I want to teach car driving to my wife.

Personally, I feel that they should spend some time initially with a reputed driving school (like Maruti) and get their licence before you fine tune their driving skills in your own vehicle. As mentioned in an earlier post, the advantages are that your vehicle would not be affected by their learning curve and it would be a lot safer.

[vickzkool]

Originally Posted by noopster

Some tips that may be useful:

• You may want to do what I did: send your brother to a driving school and get him started on basics with a "beater" car rather than expose your precious EcoSport to the vagaries of a new driver!
• Find a stretch of empty road where you can focus on things like parallel parking, perfect clutch disengagement, starting on a slope etc. From my experience what works best is semi-private areas like parking lots or driveways in an apartment complex, half-finished roads in IT parks etc.
• Make sure you choose an hour where children are not likely to be playing: early morning is best, or mid-afternoons.
• Also avoid rush hours when regular office-goers are most likely to be zipping in and out; a lot of these guys are late and trust me, they wait for nobody!
• Focus on driving slow not fast. I have observed that the best control comes from driving slowly (think slow cycling). Having said that, please impress the importance of appropriate speed to a learner. Quite often they end up hogging the fast lane doing 30 which is very annoying to all concerned and increases the risk of an accident.
• Teach defensive driving. That right-of-way must be yielded and not demanded. That a 10 kmph reduction in speed reduces the risk of accidents by 25% (or whatever the actually number is; google it!) This is not something that driving schools focus on. Stop for pedestrians, be considerate to cyclists, that sort of thing.
• For God's sake, use the horn only in an emergency. Driving schools have this philosophy that the horn is there to be used, so have seen newbie drivers grab it like it's going out of fashion.
• From a new driver's point of view, judging the length of the bonnet and the safe distance on the opposite (left) side are the most difficult to acquire. Focus on this since it may avoid a lot of heartbreak later (swiping the left side against the wall when getting in or out of tight spots etc.)
• Be firm and unrelenting when it comes to sticking to laws of the road and correct driving practices. Newbie drivers tend to use shortcuts, like cutting across to the wrong side to avoid taking a U-turn or riding the clutch, and if not nipped in the bud, these become lifelong bad habits.
• Note that the last mentioned can and will strain your relationship with the newbie driver (I say this from experience ) but in the long run it's totally worth it!

All the best to you and your brother!

Some brilliant tips by Noopster , the safe driving and adhering to every rule element needs to be drilled into every new driver , the only way we can have safer roads as the younger generations get behind the wheel in the near future , as they say good education plays a vital role in one's development , I taught my 18 yr old cousin during my recent visit to India and I extensively used printouts from www.learners-guide.co.uk/lessons , a brilliant website which was recommended to me by my driving instructor , although some of the content is UK driving test centric most of the lessons are relevant to safe driving and gives some easy tips on some difficult manoeuvres , which I felt helped my cousin learn quickly , as Noopster did mention it was not easy in the beginning as it was difficult to explain the right way to a know all teen , however I'm glad that he got the importance of the message in the end and have a new driver who knows the right way to handle his machine and has learnt to respect other road users.

PS - I do not have any links to the above mentioned website , I have mentioned it as a learning resource as it helped me learn and also teach quite a number of friends and family.