I’ve been thinking about getting my drivers license this summer;despite being in a European country that has high parking costs, car tax, maintenance costs, petrol costs as well as a functioning transportation system, I think It would be good to have a license…(Aunt is paying for a Golf GTI anyway :D)
Although I do have some excitement, I don’t want to be a statistic among young teen drivers. Also, Insurance is a thing to worry about.
Any stories of those from/outside Europe and their overall experiences beginning to drive?
Your first and only job is driving. Not the radio, food, phone or passengers.
Pay attention to traffic, back, front and sides. A good driver seldom, if ever, gets taken by surprise.
Always signal your moves.
Everything you do has consequences. Late for work? Too bad, you don’t have the right to endanger others.
Leave yourself an out, no tailgating or pulling too close at a stop.
Your first and only job is driving. Admit and learn from your mistakes. If you have a close call, was there something you could have done to prevent it?
We had a thread several years ago full of advice for a new motorcycle rider. I will copy here some of the tips that I provided in that thread which are relevant to a new car driver:
Be predictive. Watch other drivers (in your mirrors too!), and do your damndest to predict what they’re going to do next. Where’s that driver looking? Is this one going to pull out, or change lanes in front of me? Does he see that approaching hazard, and is he going to react well, or is he oblivious and likely to do something stupid at the last second? If you find yourself being surprised a lot, you are doing something wrong, and you should do an honest assessment of what happened to figure out how to avoid being surprised in the future.
Be predictable. If other drivers aren’t expecting you to do X, or if they’re expecting you to do X and instead you do Y, they’re more likely to react in ways that aren’t beneficial to your situation. Passing other cars with a very high speed differential can surprise them, and rocketship-acceleration when merging from an on-ramp can, too: if a car driver glances and sees you doing 25 MPH, and two seconds later (when they aren’t looking) you’re doing 70, that can cause a problem.
DON’T TAILGATE. I see so many riders (and drivers) following other vehicles far more closely than they should. Tailgating makes it more difficult for you to see ahead (to predict), more difficult for you to be seen (to be predictable), and reduces your available reaction time if the guy in front of you does anything sudden, whether he’s dodging a giant pothole or slamming on the brakes.
Don’t linger in blind spots. If you find yourself driving next to another car’s rear wheel, avoid spending a lot of time there; accelerate through that spot, or slow down, whatever works best. Many drivers don’t look over their shoulder (or signal!) when they change lanes, and this location is where they can’t see you, AND where they’ll hit you if they decide to change lanes.
Excellent suggestions so far. I have two sons who are 16 and 20, so I’ve been through this same thought process in recent times.
When a red light changes to green, never be the first one into the intersection. Cars coming from the cross direction could be running their light that’s changing to red, and a collision here could be deadly.
Don’t get mad when another driver does something stupid; you will do something stupid too, so behave like you want other drivers to behave towards you. If another driver is being an asshole, don’t feel like you need to punish him - he will get his rewards at some point.
Be aware that you will go through phases - first you’ll be learning how to operate your own vehicle, then you’ll have to learn to know what the other drivers are supposed to be doing, then you’ll eventually learn how to predict when those other drivers may to something that they’re NOT supposed to be doing. You are not a fully competent driver until you’ve reached this last step.
Doing something risky does not become OK just because you can get away with it nine times out of ten, or 999 out of 1000. The acceptable risk factor is way higher than that - you want to drive for a lifetime without serious incident.
Exactly how old are you? I recall hearing that there’s a part of the brain dealing with risk analysis that doesn’t develop fully until the mid-20s.
You might want a rather more sedate car as your first. If you’re really young, you’ll get caned on the insurance. You might even have an insurance premium that approaches the cost of a new car.
As for driving itself, I have one bit of advice: you are not in a hurry to get yourself killed.
This is the most important advice for a new driver. I don’t know where you are but most places now have a stair step type of license where you are not allowed passengers for awhile.
Screw the passengers, don’t take any until you are very comfortable with your driving skills, maybe a year. And after that you must keep the attitude that YOU are the supreme commander of the vehicle.
Don’t put up with passengers advice on how to drive, being too noisy or rowdy, urging you to push the limits. Peer pressure is real, but not while you are driving. While you are driving you are the adult. Tell them to behave or get out. Do not put up with distracting behavior.
Once when I was young I was speeding and got pulled over by a cop, police. The guy in the back seat started mouthing off to the cop, flipping shit. I turned around and told the guy, “Shut up! This is My ticket.”
Cop smiled and handed my license back to me and told me to slow down.
Be the commander, keep control of the car and passengers. And turn off the social media unless you want to be seen on Reddit r/watching people die.
I’d give advice, but I’ve rolled cars and things like that. “Make a lot of mistakes until you get good” isn’t really a safe method of learning to drive. I survived, but not everyone does.
But if I had the ability to do it over, I’d learn how to drive in Finland.
Take a drive around town as a passenger and look for danger. If you aren’t spotting at least one possible danger every second - and I am not kidding or exaggerating - you’re not paying sufficient attention.
For example, see that parked car? What could go wrong? Could someone open the door into your path? Could it suddenly drive off, into your path? Could there be a child on the far side who might run out? Etc. And just because nothing happened with that parked car doesn’t mean that any of the aforementioned scenarios won’t happen with the car parked right next to it.
Assume that every driver on the road (including you) is an idiot, and remember that every one of them can easily kill you with the weapon they’re driving.
Never flip off anyone. It makes some people violently crazy, even if it’s obvious that they made a driving error. One of my scariest experiences was when I gave an idiot the finger after he abruptly pulled in front of me on the freeway. He was obviously enraged and started doing crazy things to get me in front of him, where he would be able to follow me. I finally acted like I was pulling off the road. He did the same in front of me, and I zoomed across four lanes of freeway into the carpool lane, where I drove 100 mph for about 30 miles. I was very much hoping to get stopped by a cop.
A coworker got the crap beat out of him with a tire iron by some redneck asshole to whom he gave the finger.
I was going to say essentially this, glad I read the thread first.
Soon after I first got my driver’s license, I offered to let my mother, the woman who taught me how to drive, take over driving the car, because she wouldn’t stop “teaching” me once I had my actual license. She stopped being a nag and distraction at once. Never be afraid to kick people out of the car if need be. I remember being young and rowdy or having rowdies in the car. It’s a wonder I lived past 20.
That said, if you have blind spots your mirrors are not set correctly. Set your mirrors so that you can see other cars, not your own. And be aware of where your tires are. Can’t tell you how many people I see running over curbs in parking lots because they don’t realize that their rear tires track differently than their front tires.
Actually turn your head and LOOK at least twice before changing lanes. Blind spots are a real thing even if you think your mirrors are properly adjusted. This habit has saved me several times from doing something stupid or even deadly. My stepfather never learned to do it for some unknown reason and has sideswiped several vehicles because he just glances at his mirrors and makes a move right away. Don’t be like him. Make damned sure there is nothing in the space you are moving into before you do anything.
If you aren’t paranoid, make yourself become paranoid by constantly thinking of the worst thing that could happen in the situation you are in and what you need to do if it does. For example, don’t drive beside large trucks for any length of time. If they swerve into you or even lose a tire, it is game over for you. If you see someone driving erratically, stay as far away from them as possible. For that matter, don’t trust other drivers in general. They may be fine people but someone could have an epileptic seizure that causes them to completely lose control and hit you out of nowhere. My aunt almost died because of that exact scenario a few years ago. A young coworker was killed a few months ago when a tractor trailer accidentally forced him off the road and straight into a tree. All it takes is a split second one time to disable you for life or kill you. Treat the risks seriously because they are and minimize them by driving defensively.
Don’t drive tired. It’s just as bad as driving drunk. And highway/country road driving is hypnotizing. Making a short trip in the city when you are slightly sleep deprived, but will have lots of stops and starts and turns to keep you alert is one things, but even being just a little tired is a very bad combination with long-distance driving.
I once caused an accident by driving sleep-deprived on the highway. It was morning, and I’d had lots of coffee, so being “fresh,” and having coffee don’t help.
Also, being really, really exhausted can keep you from driving safely even in a city.
Just don’t do it. If you ever get drowsy driving, PULL OVER. If you have a long trip left, take a nap. If you have just a couple of miles, get out of the car, stretch, and walk around briskly before you continue.
Don’t worry about getting some place on time. Worry about getting there in one piece.
Take a defensive driving course. You don’t have to wait until you screw up and are made to go to one. We had to take one in order to be allowed to drive university-owned vehicles, and half of the value in taking it came not from the facts (that’s the other half) but figuring out what other drivers did to make their attendance less voluntary. There are definitely a lot of idiots out there!
Do you live somewhere that gets snow? If you do, my advice to a new driver is don’t go out if you don’t have to. And you should have a very firm definition of “have to” too. Getting home from work when the storm hit hours early is a have to (and going to work might be, depending on your financial position). If someone got hurt going to the hospital is often a have to. Getting milk because you ran out is not a have to. Picking up dinner or going to a movie is not a have to. You can survive a day or three without a lot of things, but you might not survive a drive in bad weather. This doesn’t go just for new drivers, but if you lack any experience with snow driving, it does go double.
