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Laura gets advanced on the roads
Reporter Laura Hammond ia taking to the roads for advanced driving sessions with the Matlock Institute of Advanced Motoring.
She is taking part in the course not only to improve her own driving, but also to highlight the benefit young people could garner from taking part in some extra driver training.
WEEK FOUR: Sat in the office before I went to my advanced driving session last week I was very tempted to call and cancel. Trying to navigate the challenging courses I knew Charlie would ask to me drive did not really appeal when heavy rain would be battering my poor little car.
I was a good girl though and I went out, and I was glad I did.
We had another trip up to Chesterfield and around some estates and residential areas. I went around some roundabouts, on dual carriageways and back along country roads, including one near to where my grandparents used to live in Chesterfield, which was nice.
The main focus of this week's session was applying the IPSGA system and ensure that I was gathering as much information as possible during my journey. Also controlling my speed.
I'm not a particularly speedy driver. I tend to stick to the vast majority of limits I see very well. If I go one or two miles an hour over the limit I generally don't see it as the end of the world. Apparently though, that's something I need to get out of my system.
One of the places I have most difficulty with this is in Belper- heading up Chesterfield Road and on to Far Laund. I'm fully aware that the speed limit is 30 until the traffic lights and 40 afterwards, but my foot somehow doesn't quite believe it and I always end up speeding before realising my error and correcting it. I've now found that I annoy myself when I do that, which must mean the sessions are having some effect.
There was a theory session organised by the Matlock IAM this weekend, but unfortunately I couldn't go, so instead I read some of the theory book which all drivers are given when they sign up. It's more interesting that swotting up on theory for your driving test, but still hard going as a revision exercise. It seems to say so much which is common sense, but so easy not to do you can see why people don't.
I'm finding doing this course quite a steep learning curve, but it is enjoyable at the same time. I'm heading out on the motorway in my next session. Fingers crossed I'll be ok at that as I spend a lot of time on the motorway, ideally I'd like to be doing it safely!
WEEK THREE: Fewer words can fill me with such dread as the one I'm about to utter. Roundabouts.
Generally I have no problem with the evil circular one way systems we all know and love, but for some reason, when I know someone is watching me I go to pot. The words 'straight on' become foreign to me, and the mere idea of turning right- something I happily do most times I go out in my car- is transformed into the stuff of nightmares.
So, as you can imagine, when Charlie got in the car and said I would be doing lots of them that week, I was less than pleased.
We drove up to Chesterfield and it all started so well. I was looking all around me for things going on, not crossing my hands, thinking ahead, and I even managed to do some commentary driving, which involves talking through everything you see and do on the roads (Yes, I did feel very silly doing this.)
Then we entered roundabout hell. There were hundreds of them, or at least it seemed that way. There were so many lanes and people- it was a horrible time. Thankfully I navigated them in an acceptable, if not good, way, but it's something I need to work on, evidently.
Advanced driving works on a system which is commonly known as IPSGA. The acronym stands for Information, Position, Speed, Gears and Acceloration. All of these have to be just right before you navigate a hazard such as a roundabout. Apparently, mine weren't. I went too fast, which was my main problem, and a couple of times I didn't get into the right lane in time.
It's all a learning curve, and from what Charlie has said I am improving. I just need to focus on things a little more and not get distracted by things. Something a lot of people are guilty of I would imagine.
WEEK TWO: It's funny, before I started doing this course I genuinely thought I was doing ok on the roads.
I wasn't one of these people who believes they are God's gift to other motorists, but I was ok.
Now I've developed a little voice in my head which says "you know you shouldn't be doing that," every time I cross my hands, or go a little bit too fast around a corner, or- heaven forbid- brake on a bend.
In a way it's getting a bit annoying. It's like my motoring conscience has turned against me. But at the same time, I suppose it must be a good thing as it's making me more aware of what I should be doing.
The other day I ended up cursing myself after crossing my hands while I was parking at Morrisons. I was actually angry with myself for my entire shopping trip. Crazy.
It does seem to be doing some good though, as in my observed session last week Charlie told me I was doing a lot better.
During the session we went around various completely unknown areas of Derbyshire and on some huge hills, tight bends, and narrow roads.
Charlie was teaching me about someting called The Limit Point, which is the point at which it is safe to go around a bend.
He told me that as you drive towards a bend you will see the sides of the road meet, as you get closer the meeting point will move further away before it finally starts to open up. When that happens you are at the right speed to go around the bend.
It seemed like a strange way to do it at first. I thought you just judged on instinct when to go around the bend, but apparently not.
I noticed a few of the points, but I think it's something I need to hone.
Charlie has assured me that once you start seeing them all the time you can't stop.
My next session is tomorrow, and I'm intrigued to see what I will be doing.
Already I can see the effects of the course and I think it has definitely improved my driving.
It's shown me that the driving test that people take to get onto the roads doesn't go far enough to showing people how to deal with driving on more than a preliminary level.
WEEK ONE:I will openly admit that before I wrote an article on advanced driving I had never even considered it as an option.
As far as I was concerned I was a fairly good driver. I've never had any accidents, I can only think of a couple of 'incidents' that I've had out in my car, and my friends and family always say they feel safe and happy when they're in the car with me.
Granted, I am a fairly new driver- I only passed my test last July- but I'm confident about my ability and spend a lot of time driving around the area and further afield visiting people.
So I thought it was all going ok. Then I began my advanced driving course.
As I tootled up to Swanwick last week to meet observer Charlie Parks for my first session I felt quite confident. I had taken several attempts to pass my driving test, so was pretty used to having a stranger observe me in the car, and Charlie was very friendly and chatty.
We set off on a long and winding drive through the roads of the peak district for several hours. Not being a native of Derbyshire I had never seen many of the areas we went to, and it was very beautiful.
Charlie directed me and my little Vauxhall Corsa along dozens of narrow country lanes, around hairpin bends and up very steep hills, which my tiny-engined car was not particularly pleased about.
It seemed to be going well, until Charlie asked me to stop the car and told me off for crossing my hands, changing gear in the wrong way and going too fast around bends. It appeared I'd picked up several bad habits in the months since I had passed my test.
We had stopped on the Beeley Triangle, which had some of the harshest bends I had ever driven on.
Charlie made me drive around it several more times a lot slower, without crossing my hands and changing gear differently. It was horrible.
It felt so unatural to be driving completely differently than I had been doing. But I had to admit that my car did feel a lot more stable and under control.
Even when we came across a horrible bendy bit called 13 bends, which was previously unheard of on my part and not much relished, my car did handle better, if not perfectly. I blame the lack of power in the engine, but I think it actually might have been me.
As we travelled on through the peaks and back through Chatsworth (where I had to make sure I kept an eye out for deer) I made a concious effort to uncross my hands and brake more at the right times, but it was difficult. My car is quite nippy once it actually gets going, and going down a hill full of bends and restricting my braking was totally counter-intuitive to me, but once I got my head around it I could at least see why Charlie was asking me to do it.
When I learned to drive my instructor told me she didn't think it would ever come completely naturally to me as I don't have a particularly practical mind. Since I started driving I've come to disagree with her, but after my drive with Charlie my confidence had slightly dropped.
But as I dropped Charlie back at his house he said he thought I would be ok- I just need to focus a bit more and be calmer when I drive.
Fingers crossed he's right and it won't take me quite so long to pass this driving test as the last.
Already, I can see the benefit of young people taking an advanced driving course to improve their road skills.
When you think about it it's pretty scary that youngsters are let out on their own in a car right after their test, having had no experience of many aspects of driving.
Looking back now I realise that I certainly didn't have all the skills needed to face every possible encounter on the road when I was sent out onto the streets alone, but I suppose the argument could be that experience will only come with time.
That may be the case, but I now realise that it's not a bad thing to give experience a helping hand!
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Weather for Belper
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
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