Learning to Drive

Learning to drive and operate a vehicle is one of the most important things you can learn in life. I decided to teach my friend Kevin everything he would need to know on how to drive a car. This ranges from taking off in the vehicle to changing gears, observations, and knowing when to apply signal. Kevin recently just passed his driving theory test and was very eager to learn how to drive. He has no previous experience driving a car which means he had to be taught the basics of driving.

A list of instructions, the car itself, small cones, gps,

As a qualified driver myself I tend to know a lot about cars and the different components that they have. My friend Kevin as seen in the picture up above has never driven a car before and was eager to learn. Kevin was going to learn in my car which is a 2004 volkswagen bora. Kevin is a learner driver meaning he passed his theory test so he is allowed to drive a car as long as someone with 2 years experience is with him. Being a fairly old car everything is a lot simpler to learn appose to learning in a new car where there are many different buttons and screens. I firstly started by showing Kevin all the main different parts of the car e. g the steering wheel, the handbrake, the gearstick, the clutch, accelerator and the brake. Kevin knew most of these but i still thought it was appropriate to show him. I then told him where his indicators and wipers were so he would know for when he gets his own car in the future. To make this easier for him to remember I drew a small diagram of the inside of a car pointing to the different parts

One of the hardest and most difficult things when first learning to drive is taking off. The clutch is a very tricky part of the car and trying to get the biting point takes a lot of practice and a bit of skill. This part of the driving for Kevin took a lot of explaing and I needed his full concentration if it was ever going to work. I explained to Kevin where the clutch and brake was situated in the car along with the accelerator and i told him to always keep the handbrake up before taking off. After stalling the car a few times Kevin was finally able to get the just of taking off. We practiced all this in a empty parking lot next to my house so he would build up his confidence.

As we all know changing gears is one of the main parts of operating a manual vehicle. Without a gear box the car would be useless and wouldn't drive. Changing gears for Kevin wasn't a major problem as once he got into second gear he seemed to be fine. We practiced this over and over again until it came natural to him. Practicing in the car park really helped him out as there was no pressure that there would be other vehicles around

One of the most important aspects of driving is observations and being aware of your surroundings. I made sure to tell Kevin how important thsi was so he would know for himself in the future. Your left and right wingmirrors are hugely important along with your centre mirror. Before taking off in a car i made sure to tell Kevin to look in both side mirrors along with the middle for any vehicles that may be approaching or coming from behind. This step is crucial along with checking over your right shoulder for your blind spot check. When driving i told him to look in his left and right mirror every 30seconds for vehicles approaching from behind.

Learning to stop at any exact moment when driving can be very crucial and can save lives. Although i was only teaching Kevin how to drive in an empty parking lot i still thought it would be hugely important that he was able to stop the car at any given moment. As Kevin was still getting use to driving i didn't expect his reaction time would be very quick when pushing the accelerator and the brake to bring the car to a holt. After a few attempts at me telling Kevin to stop at any given moment i was very surprised at how quick he was stopping the car. I was very happy about this as anything can happen when driving on a road and Kevin was now able to.

As a qualified driver for over 2 years and Kevin being a learner driver i thought it would finally be time to bring kevin down a few roads very close to where i live. Kevin was very nervous to finally drive on the road with just a few hours practice in an empty car park. but seeing how far he came in those few hours i was very confident that he would do fine as long as i was beside him. I constantly reminded him to watch out for road signs and pedestrians that could be on the road. He seemed to do a good job of this but was very nervous at the same time. At first kevin was driving very slow and way under the speed limit but after time his confidence built up and he began to drive confidently

After an hour or two of Kevin driving on minor roads beside my house i thought it would be a good idea to bring him out to a more built up area where there would be turns and roundabouts for Kevin to apply his signal at. At the first roundabout Kevin applied the signal to early as he was taking the second exit and not the first. Previous to this i had explained exactly what signal to use and when. For the second roundabout Kevin seemed to do it a lot better by staying in his lane and applying the signal at the right time. I was very happy with this as Kevin only had two hours of experience on the road but still kept to his lane

For the final step of Kevins driving i thought it would be a great idea that he would attempt to park the car in a parking spot. Kevin for an understandable reason did not want to do this but i thought it was crucial that he learned how to park a car. He was most nervous about reversing and hitting another vehicle but i assured him i would find an easy spot for him to attempt it. After arriving to the parking spot Kevin done his all around observations and began to reverse. At his first attempt the car was slightly crooked and was facing on the road but after attempting again he done very well with only slightly crossing the white line. The driving lesson was then over and I got back into the drivers seat. Overall I would rate Kevins driving very good for a first time learner driver and I think he was also very happy with his progress.