Teaching a Learner Driver

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

So, my 'little' girl turns 16 today, and as we speak (well, whilst we type), she is sitting for her learner's permit.

This will be the first time that I have taught a leaner how to drive. I have some ideas of how I will be approaching it, but was wondering if you lot out there are prepared to share your tips/dos/don'ts on how to go about teaching a learner?

My old man always used to take the following approach to teaching a learner (including me):

* start by showing them over the car, pointing out those items that should be checked on a regular basis, and how to check them: oil, water, window washer, battery electrolyte (where applicable)
* take them to the local servo and teach them how to check and adjust tyre pressures
* teach them how to change a tyre
* run them over the cars controls and explain what each item does
* drive to a large, open area. Place a line on the ground and have the learner approach the line at slow speed and stop at the line (the theory here is that, if all else fails whilst you are out learning to drive, if you know how to stop the car, it assists in keeping you and others safe

After over 30 years of driving, that approach seems pretty logical to me, so will be my first step in teaching her how to drive.

I think I'll also start by having my daughter take a few formal lessons so that she is taught the 'right' way from the start and isn't taught any of my bad habits that I have developed over the years.

[Pis-ton broke]

that sounds good, but i would add, and emphasize the importance of moving a car with a flat tire or breaking down, into a safe spot. so as to change the tire safely.

also i would break the learning into two parts, part one is car control, go to a paddock and do some basic paddock bashing, let them get a feel for the car, and go from there. i think thats how id start.

if you can imagine a learner trying to control a car and deal with outside situations. probably a bit daunting.

[LG17]

As she gets more proficient make sure you take her out in all kinds of weather and all kinds of roads. When I taught both my boys to drive, the only condition they didn't experience was driving in the snow as we lived in Cairns. I took them out in all kinds of storms and approaching cyclones, flooded roads, bush tracks as well as the usual roads and highways. I'll never forget the looks on their faces as we were sitting at home during a very big storm and I said let's go for a little drive.

[Tonz]

places to practice safely are hard to find. when my girls were learning shopping centres were not open 7 days a week, sometimes the Sunday car park was quite busy with learners and nervous looking dads.
sports ground car park could be option. Also its a mean one but when they are starting too feel confident or clicks have them driving one day and suddenly scream at the top of your voice in fear, it puts the fear if gods into the learner driver but also makes them aware of 'unseen possible dangers' Did this to my youngest, wouldn't talk to me for 2 weeks but now admits it was one of the biggest lessons she had.

[Citroënbender]

There should be some basic drill in starting up/shutting down, including instrument and visibility checks, persistently revisited for a week or two before the car even moves.

I’m not sold on driving instructors as a whole. With Australians’ tendency to game the system they too often teach people to pass a one-off test.

Difficult parking is not really tested but is a good skill. Reverse parallel parking uphill in a manual car, is worth learning. Reversing generally, is under-applied by people without HR/HC licences.

The challenge for a parent/friend/family member instructing is to remain sounding calm, even while discreetly squeezing the door armrest to a paper thickness.

[Franco Cozzo]

Make sure you start panicking at every given opportunity, start yelling when she makes mistakes and then only let her drive on country highways, worked for me

The first time I saw traffic lights was in my licence test, then the next day I was picking up customer cars in inner Melbourne suburbia

[Blue Dog]

I hope you teach her:
Not to sit in the right hand lane & to move over.
Not to drive at 10 to 15km/hr under the speed limit.
Not to stop halfway off the road when pulling into a petrol station.
Not to go around corners as slow as possible.
Not to stop at a roundabout when there's nothing coming & there's clear visibility for 100's of metres.
Not to indicate & change lanes at the same time.
Not to take up 2 car spaces when parking.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Blue Dog

I hope you teach her:
Not to sit in the right hand lane & to move over.
Not to drive at 10 to 15km/hr under the speed limit.
Not to stop halfway off the road when pulling into a petrol station.
Not to go around corners as slow as possible.
Not to stop at a roundabout when there's nothing coming & there's clear visibility for 100's of metres.
Not to indicate & change lanes at the same time.
Not to take up 2 car spaces when parking.

Good rule of thumb is speed limit + 20km/h, on full licence you can get caught three times, cost less than a thousand bucks all up and still keep the licence - good deal

[.:4:.]

Ive done this before. Main thing to drill in is the brake pedal location. An empty open parking lot, great if you can find one, a housing development thats not developed yet but has roads with drunk gutters, probably better because corners create spacial awareness and drunk gutters dont cause gutter rash, well,... Be calm yet firm, yet not as towards being agressive. I dunno. Explanations, so words over actions. So before you let your daughter drive, take her for a drive and explain what and why you do things. Make sure shes interested in learning. I had a school mate who was thrown into the famly camry after passing his L's, no nothing, his old man panicked reefed the steering wheel and hand brake and yeah, the power pole stopped the camry pretty quick.

[BENT_8]

If your Teen is anything like the Teens i've taught to drive you'll lose them at 'let me show you where the dip stick is'
All they want to do is get behind the wheel, that she's already in sitting her test on her birthday supports this.

First thing id do is teach them about blind spots because head checks are something that takes effort and in my experience if you dont show them what a blind spot is and how it can get you into trouble, they'll just check mirrors and change lanes.

Id start by finding a good open area, get her to sit in the drivers seat with seat and mirrors adjusted, stand 2m in front of the car, tell her you're going to walk a full lap of the car at a 2m distance and get her to tell you when she can and cant see you without turning her head, only using peripheral and mirrors, she will learn that the big gap between when she loses you in her peripheral and picks you up in her mirrors is enough blind spot to lose a truck in.
My driving instructor did this with me before we hit the road and it made me aware of why its important to turn my head and not rely on mirrors.

Once you've done that, dont worry about stopping at the line, kids are smarter than we give them credit for and you'll just bore her to tears.
Take her out into a rural area, find an area with low traffic flow and where you can set out a route that involves left and right turns and give way/stop signs.

I've taught my two eldest, my nephew, a family friend and even my 50yo sister.
I used the same route with all of them, a figure 8 comprised of right turns across oncoming traffic, a right hand bend on gravel, left hand turn at T junction, another right hand turn across traffic, left turn with right of way, left turns without right of way, stop and give way intersections.
What this does is limits exposure to heavy traffic which creates anxiety and the repetitiveness allows them to repeat the same maneuvers again and again to build confidence and you can judge improvement.
Once she reaches a level of competency doing that, make small alterations to the route that add challenges but keep coming back to the original route.

Whatever you do, please, as a heavy vehicle driver, dont take her out into peak traffic or heavy vehicles route's.
Theres nothing worse for a learner than a mirror full of truck grill as the truck driver has a job to do and time constraints and many dont care about the little 'L' plate holding them up.
I see it every day.

Oh, one more thing, get her used to saying out loud what she's doing so on approach to an intersection its mirrors, indicate, mirrors, brake.
This achieves 2 things, a it forces them to prepare for the maneuver well before they arrive at it as it takes time to go through it all and secondly, when she gets beside an instructor he will want to hear her go through this process rather than just watch her eyes.

[roKWiz]

Teach them not to tailgate trucks or sit in truck blind spots on multi lane roads and regularly monitor their mirrors while out driving, which one day could save their life.

[Citroënbender]

First year on just a scooter or LAMS bike would be a harsh but solid education.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

I

Whatever you do, please, as a heavy vehicle driver, dont take her out into peak traffic or heavy vehicles route's.
Theres nothing worse for a learner than a mirror full of truck grill as the truck driver has a job to do and time constraints and many dont care about the little 'L' plate holding them up.
I see it every day.

.

Second thing the professional driving instructor did was direct me straight out onto Pennant Hills Rd Sydney, one of the most busiest truck routes through there back then.
I thought he must have had confidence in me or was very stupid.

See you covered the mirror monitoring.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Some really good suggestions in here. Some I will certainly adopt.

Originally Posted by BENT_8

First thing id do is teach them about blind spots because head checks are something that takes effort and in my experience if you dont show them what a blind spot is and how it can get you into trouble, they'll just check mirrors and change lanes.

Id start by finding a good open area, get her to sit in the drivers seat with seat and mirrors adjusted, stand 2m in front of the car, tell her you're going to walk a full lap of the car at a 2m distance and get her to tell you when she can and cant see you without turning her head, only using peripheral and mirrors, she will learn that the big gap between when she loses you in her peripheral and picks you up in her mirrors is enough blind spot to lose a truck in.
My driving instructor did this with me before we hit the road and it made me aware of why its important to turn my head and not rely on mirrors.

That process reminds me of this video:

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Second thing the professional driving instructor did was direct me straight out onto Pennant Hills Rd Sydney, one of the most busiest truck routes through there back then.
I thought he must have had confidence in me or was very stupid.

See you covered the mirror monitoring.

Old mate would have had his own brake pedal

[HIPO]

My daughter took to it like a duck to water.... have small acreage & had a little Mazda manual, she new from watching, but gave her some pointers & then left her to it. Watching from up inside. Set up some parking spaces after a few days & watched her nail them.
Next was the auto XF... lots of driving all over the place in various conditions, while explaining the easy made mistakes that i'd done.
Eventually had some lessons with an instructor & all went well. Bought her an auto Mitsu Scorpion. Shes mid 30's now & never had an accident.

[whynot]

I took a slightly different route with my two daughters.

• Start off with firm ground rules, one of the biggest for me is sterile cockpit and phones on silent and out of reach.
• Teach them how to adjust the driver's seat correctly. Correct positioning of seat belts. (There are some good articles on the Internet to help check that you have this correct yourself.) Females are statistically shorter, so get them use to adjusting the seat.
• Show them how to adjust mirrors etc. Then while they are seated in the drivers seat, walk around the car to show how objects can disappear into blind spots.
• Talk through the various instruments and warning lights. Show them how to pull the manual out to check instructions if a warning light appears.
• An empty car park is a good place to start. Around urban areas, try train stations on the weekend, or pubs early in the morning. If you have a set of witches hats, they are great to set up for parking practice.
• If possible, start out on quiet streets. Keep session times short (under 30 minutes) as they will fatigue easily at first.
• Get an early few sessions in with a driving instructor you trust. I still think the pick of the crop of driving instructors comes from the various automobile clubs.
• If they don't "get" manuals, don't stress. Autos are fine these days, and they can always convert down the track at their expense if they need to. EV are just around the corners and manuals are quickly going the way of the Dodo.
• Once they have the basics under control, take them to a quiet area and practice emergency braking. Show them how the car reacts when the ABS activates and how to do emergency braking right up to the point of activating the ABS. Repeat on wet roads if possible.
• Never knock back the opportunity to practice in the rain. Point out the warning signs (e.g. light feeling steering wheel) of poor traction and extra braking distance.
• Driving at night in the rain is quite a challenge. Ideally need to get some time in, and ideally towards the end of the training when the basic skills are mastered.
• Towards the end of the learning, get in some solid hours on the highways. We use to do a two hour loop (hour out and hour back) with a rest in the middle.
• While a basic maintenance course is helpful if the kid is interested, I left it more towards the end.

And, you are correct. We all pick up bad habits as drivers. Unfortunately, research shows that learners pick up parent's bad driving habits from when they learn to talk. Remember, they have been watch you from the back seat for the last 16 odd years.

[Giant Cranium]

i have bought a few. from the half way point i would introduce windows down and music that they like. i had one parent say that they didn't approve of it till i informed them that the first time they drive to pick up a friend that's what they will be doing and they better learn to drive with the distractions.

id also make them hit the drive through

[Giant Cranium]

if you are in sydney look at sydney Motorsport parks page and book into one of their learner days. they have emergency vehicles on the track with them and also have a rbt set up so they can learn that side of driving

[kcodezd]

I am going through this at the moment, for my two oldest sons. Excellent advise you given yourself already. I highly recommend making sure they know and understand what all the painted lines represent. Eg broken line at an intersection, compared to a solid line. So if they don’t see a sign, the line will tell them what to do. Even though they go through the whole learning process online, doing it practically is another thing altogether. What you need to do is judge them like you are their driving tester at all times. Don’t forget about the looking over your shoulder too. We all tend to get lazy at that one. Highlight errors by letting them know that would fail, when they make mistakes, trying not to be aggressive. And lastly, good luck with roundabouts. That’s when your knuckles will go white.

[whynot]

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

i have bought a few. from the half way point i would introduce windows down and music that they like. i had one parent say that they didn't approve of it till i informed them that the first time they drive to pick up a friend that's what they will be doing and they better learn to drive with the distractions.

id also make them hit the drive through

Low volume background music didn't bother me in the latter half. But unnecessary conversations involving the driver certainly did. To the point that the few times we had Nana (who can talk under wet cement) in the car, she was firmly reminded no conversations to distract the driver.

To this day and to her credit, the youngest daughter turns off the radio and shuts down conversations in the car when cognitive load is high.

As an aside, there was an article in a car magazine (I think it was Wheels) that reported on a European study on driver cognitive load. The article concluded that a driver in peak hour traffic had 75% of the cognitive workload of a 747 pilot during landing.

[whynot]

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

if you are in sydney look at sydney Motorsport parks page and book into one of their learner days. they have emergency vehicles on the track with them and also have a rbt set up so they can learn that side of driving

That is an excellent suggestion.

[EBSXR6]

If possible a couple of lessons with a Driving School before she goes out with you.

[slowsnake]

Well looks like everything has been covered?
I'm thinking can I add anything or not, most is already done, but for one little trick to do with Main St parking to go shops etc!

As you reverse park and wonder how faraway the car behind you is, just look into the window of the shop next to your car!.....your car reflection in the window is like a mirror, and allows millimetre reverse parking!

Well that's my contribution, and good luck and drive safe!


Cheers Billy

[Tassie f100]

One thing I taught the kids was to watch for brake lights 4-5-6 cars ahead when in traffic.Just watching the car in front does not give very much reaction time,especially inexperienced drivers.

[vandrsxr6]

I would just let them drive for a while before teaching her about car maintenance. When she's comfortable behind the wheel, that's when I'd be teaching her how to maintain a car.

If you try and teach it all at once she may feel flustered with it all

[janddbone]

I have done three full learners from start to finish, including my own wife.... One way to test a relationship!

Personally skip the maintenance until a bit later, get her farmiliar with the controls, and get her rolling. Stay off the actual road for the first eight or ten hours, break the process down and get her operating the vehicle and not worrying about actually driving and traffic. Focus on brake and throttle and moving around lines and objects.

Also the most easily overlooked step. Driving position. Get her up so she can see and have good control. Get those mirrors in useful postions down near the sides and wheels while she learns the basics. Get them up a bit later on when she learns about actual on road driving.

Come back a see us after the first ten hours!

[Trevor 57]

I worked for 13 years as a driver trainer, mostly in trucks but I taught heaps of kids.

Be pro-active in your instruction, do NOT assume your daughter knows, she doesn't.

No point screaming "why did you go through the stop sign" when she didn't know she had to stop for example. A fair way away, you should say "what is that sign ahead", hopefully she answers "stop sign", you then say "what do do you do at a stop sign" and hopefully she will say "stop", so the seed is planted and then encourage her to apply the brakes gently and come to a stop before crossing the sold whit line (as stopping after it is a fail) - be pro-active, not reactive

Start teaching her in an auto so she gets the idea of the flow of traffic and abiding by the law, driving a manual can come later

[Burnout]

I taught my kids to drive on farms from about 12old.
It meant that once they were on 'P' plates they already had most of the skills and confidence in vehicle control.
Then they only had to overcome traffic etc.
I learned the same way 60yrs ago.

[PooDog]

Originally Posted by Pis-ton broke

that sounds good, but i would add, and emphasize the importance of moving a car with a flat tire or breaking down, into a safe spot. so as to change the tire safely.

also i would break the learning into two parts, part one is car control, go to a paddock and do some basic paddock bashing, let them get a feel for the car, and go from there. i think thats how id start.

if you can imagine a learner trying to control a car and deal with outside situations. probably a bit daunting.

totally agree with the paddock stuff , wait for a wet day and teach them what to do when they lose control and how to correct it girls especially dont understand the mechanical side of things like how the roads really greasy 1st bit of rain after a long dry period ......blows me away they dont teach old school common sense stuff like this in defensive driving courses and how to apex corners etc