Learning to Drive: Best place to practice?

MiniMetro

I did 6 driving lessons last year but since then I've done nothing more. I was getting them once a week and as a result I never really got comfortable driving. I really need somewhere where I can just drive around for a few hours and get comfortable being in control of the car. Any suggestions of somewhere quiet where I could get the practice in?

thanks

is_that_so

I used to go to a local industrial estate, although some of them can be busy with learners. The advantage is that you can get to practise basics as there is always a quiet part to them.

cormie

Try find an empty car park with a hill in it, practice your hill starts on the hill and practice parking, nose and tail, into the spaces, reversing up hill and pretty much everything else. Try some parallel parking, bring some cones or something and put them the size of your car plus 2 metres apart close to a curb and try and get as close to the curb as possible without hitting the cones.

Just get in and drive and you'll get comfortable. Do all your indicating etc too just to get used to having to do it:)

Elessar

I don't know where you are, but if you can get to the airport in Dublin, there is a road just behind it parallel to the main runway where the Boot Inn pub is. Always empty. A great place to practice, but you will find, especially on weekends, a lot of driving schools use it to teach new drivers.

Max_Damage

I initialty learned to drive in a field, but if that isn't an option for you, quiet car parks are the best.

Seinas

fields!!! that was me up until a few weeks ago.....

snickerpuss

I learned in industrial estates, specifically the one near airside by the airport which was really quiet.

iconnect

i would have thought the obvious answer would be in a driving school car until you feel more confident

OfflerCrocGod

iconnect wrote:

i would have thought the obvious answer would be in a driving school car until you feel more confident

I had a lesson with an instructor and I told him that I can't drive and had never driven before. We went straight onto the main road and drove around for an hour until we picked up his next pupil; I learned nothing at all. The entire hour he controlled everything with the instructors pedals and I never got even the slightest bit of control of the car. I learned more from driving around a car park with a relative then I did with a driving instructor. I make a lot of mistakes but they are my mistakes which I then fix and learn from. Use instructors before the test to iron out any mistakes you are making but try to learn the basics in a safe place without an instructor.

Hotblack Desiato

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I had a lesson with an instructor and I told him that I can't drive and had never driven before. We went straight onto the main road and drove around for an hour until we picked up his next pupil; I learned nothing at all.

Only in Ireland would any unqualified gobsh**e be allowed to call themselves a driving instructor and be allowed take good money off people for providing such a joke of a service. Another one is when they put someone in the back of the car "so they can learn by watching" :rolleyes:

There is nothing worse, for the pupil and for other road users, than some muppet of an instructor taking a novice out onto a main road. Scares the **** out of them, holds up everyone else, and with dual controls they don't learn. Building up control skills away from traffic and then building up roadcraft in gradually increasing traffic is the only way to go.

Stark

iconnect wrote:

i would have thought the obvious answer would be in a driving school car until you feel more confident

I don't use this emoticon very often but :rolleyes:, a high horse post if there ever was one. The OP has already said that he/she had driving school lessons, he/she just needs somewhere where he/she can get a feel for the car without the pressure of traffic around him/her.

ninja900 wrote:

Another one is when they put someone in the back of the car "so they can learn by watching"

Jesus. I've never had lessons that bad now, but God.

There's a lot to be said for fooling around in a deserted spot for a bit, just you and the car. It's nice to be able to over-rev the engine, under-rev it the next time and eventually get it just right without someone screaming at you every time My first driving lessons were a bit like learning to use a computer for the first time with someone screaming "Fingers on the home keys!" at you every second

PS: OP, you never told us where you're living.

MiniMetro

Thanks for the advice, I'm living in Ranelagh. Was thinking maybe the Sandyford Industrial estate or UCD. I agree wholeheartedly about the dual-control issue. I had 3 different instructors for my lessons, 1 of them was quality but the other 2 basically just drove the car themselves. We would be coming up to the lights and they'd be telling me to brake but as I went to press the brake they would already have pressed it so it never felt as if I was in full control of the car. I'm thinking of getting a few weeks of practicing in and then hiring out the good instructor privately, which he advised me to do, and ironing out any problems.

Cheers again for all the advice

OfflerCrocGod

ninja900 wrote:

Another one is when they put someone in the back of the car "so they can learn by watching" :rolleyes:

All along I was calling them Taxis

ninja900 wrote:

There is nothing worse, for the pupil and for other road users, than some muppet of an instructor taking a novice out onto a main road. Scares the **** out of them, holds up everyone else,

No worries with me as within 300 meters I was speeding

ninja900 wrote:

and with dual controls they don't learn. Building up control skills away from traffic and then building up roadcraft in gradually increasing traffic is the only way to go.

Yep and try to get some practice everyday - even in your own estate for like 15 to 20 mins driving around at low speed - it's all good.

Max_Damage

The Spawell car park in Templeogue has a big empty car park. Many the time I went there for lessons.